KUALA LUMPUR (June 6): The Court of Appeal (COA) in Putrajaya has overturned a decision by the High Court which had ordered KPerak Implementation and Coordination Corp to pay Simfoni Maya Sdn Bhd RM14.5 million for work that Simfoni Maya had purportedly done as part of a digital media agreement between the two.

A three-judge COA panel, made up of Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan, allowed the appeal by KPerak and ordered Simfoni Maya to pay the costs amounting to RM60,000 on Wednesday (June 5).

The agreement signed between KPerak — a non-profit agency run by the Perak state government, which was set up to develop information and communications technology (ICT) initiatives in the state, and Simfoni Maya, required Simfoni Maya to supply, deliver, install, test, commission, maintain and operate KPerak’s media network and to provide other value-added services.

According to the agreement, KPerak was to pay Simfoni Maya a maximum sum of RM3 million per annum for national airtime exposure at Simfoni Maya’s advertising network on a quarterly basis.

Simfoni Maya claimed that it performed its obligations under the agreement, and further claimed that they had made national airtime available to KPerak, and as such, KPerak owed them an outstanding national airtime cost amounting to RM14.5 million. However, KPerak claimed that the cost of RM14.5 million was subject to utilisation of the national airtime by KPerak, which had not occurred.

KPerak said that there had been no media content approved or aired by either parties for national airtime.

The COA bench agreed with KPerak that Judicial Commissioner Su Tiang Joo had erred in holding the decision that the annual RM3 million be paid to Simfoni Maya.

The COA bench disagreed with the contention of the judicial commissioner, who ruled that KPerak had to pay Simfoni Maya the RM3 million annual fee for 60 months, as per the agreement signed.

The COA bench also agreed with KPerak’s argument that full effect must be given to the plain words used in the agreement, in particular the word “maximum” and “utilise” under the agreement.

Datuk Firoz Hussein, Wafiy Azman, Choo Shi Jin, Marina Tiwol and Woo J Enn represented KPerak, while Joseph Yeo and Arifah Abd Aziz represented Simfoni Maya.