KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): Ikhwan Hafiz Jamaludin and Nur Anis Jamaludin, the two children of the late minister Tan Sri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, have managed to strike out an RM21 million suit brought by their grandmother Aminah Abdullah for the interim distribution of their late father's assets kept in bank accounts.
High Court Justice Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz on Thursday (July 28) allowed their striking out application on the grounds of res judicata, namely that the matter had been adjudicated before another competent court.
The matter involved the same faces that were raised in another suit filed by Aminah, where Justice Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril had already made a decision.
Justice Hayatul Akmal ruled that the filing of this fresh suit is oppressive to the grandchildren and an abuse of process.
The court also ordered Aminah to pay RM15,000 costs each to Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis.
Ikhwan Hafiz was represented by Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and K. Shanmuga, who confirmed the matter with theedgemarkets.com. U. Sashiraj and Louis Ambrose appeared on behalf of Nur Anis, while Aminah was represented by Wan Zafran Pawancheek and Pawancheek Marican.
Aminah, 88, filed the suit last August, alleging that the grandchildren had control of RM21 million that had been kept in Jamaludin's accounts in foreign and local banks, and hence named Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis, who had been given the letters of administration of the estate, as defendants.
She claimed that as Jamaludin's mother, she was entitled to have a one-sixth claim of the amounts kept in the accounts based on the faraid system, which in Islamic law determines the distribution of assets.
The grandmother also filed another suit against the two grandchildren, Jamaludin's former lawyer, a law firm and a commissioner for oaths on May 21 last year, where she claimed that the defendants allegedly collaborated to engage in fraud, fabrication, fraudulent concealment, misconduct and/or breaches of law to deprive her right, as a beneficiary of Jamaludin's estate, to a fair and proper administration of the inheritance.
However, on May 25, the High Court struck out the suit against the five defendants, where Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Emran Arifin also ruled res judicata, and that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action, and was scandalous, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court process.
In August last year, in Aminah's first suit seeking ownership or stakes in three companies purportedly owned by Jamaludin, Justice Firuz ruled that only one of them, namely Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd, is part of her late son's estate, while the other two — namely Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd — are not.
Following the High Court decision, there is an appeal by Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis, and a cross-appeal by Aminah, and the matter is pending in the Court of Appeal.
Jamaludin, a former science, technology and innovation minister and former deputy finance minister, was killed in a helicopter crash that also killed five others in April 2015.