KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6) : The High Court has on Tuesday maintained the April 13 to April 17 trial dates for Lebanese jeweller Global Royalty Trading SAL Ltd’s US$14.57 million (RM68.30 million) lawsuit against Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. The court will also hear Rosmah’s claim to include the police and government as third parties to the suit, and why they should also be held liable if the jeweller’s claim against her is successful.
The hearing will be conducted before High Court judge Datuk Quay Chew Soon, who replaces Judicial Commissioner Dr Seow Hock Peng. Quay is the third judge to preside over the suit, after the original trial judge, Datuk Ong Chee Kwan, was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
These April dates are the original trial dates that had been fixed by Seow earlier.
During case management before Quay via video conferencing, the court directed that parties are to complete the filing of documents by Friday (Jan 9) and that the police and government, who had been brought in as third-party defendants by Rosmah, are to file their bundle of documents also by Friday.
Quay also directed for witness statements to be filed by Feb 5, and he fixed Feb 10 as the next case management, while maintaining the hearing dates on April 13 to April 17.
Global Royalty’s lawyer Venothani Raja Gopal of Messrs David Gurupatham & Koay, and Rosmah’s counsel Rajivan Nambiar of Messrs Reza Rahim & Rajivan, when separately contacted by The Edge confirmed Tuesday’s outcome.
The Lebanese firm had previously filed the suit against Rosmah in June 2018, but had withdrawn it in October 2019 following the government’s forfeiture of the valuable items and cash it seized from both the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur condominium and Rosmah’s residence at Jalan Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur.
The jewellery, worth between US$124,000 and US$925,000, include diamond necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, and a tiara. Some of the items come in sets like diamond necklace and earrings, family necklace, and cushion pendants.
Claiming to have A-list clients like Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie, Global Royalty is seeking the return of the 43 pieces of jewellery, which they claimed were sent to her in February 2018, or their equivalent in monetary value.
In her defence, Rosmah argued that if any of the pieces of jewellery was lost, the police or the Malaysian government should be held responsible.
She also claimed that the jewellery were in the authorities’ possession at all relevant times, and is seeking compensation and/or contribution from the police and government for the reliefs sought by the jeweller.
Following that, Rosmah sought to bring in the police and government as third parties in the suit.
While she had initially failed to bring in the police and government, her appeal was allowed by the Court of Appeal on March 27 last year, by a three-member bench led by Datuk P Ravinthran.