KUALA LUMPUR (April 14): The Court of Appeal (COA) has slashed the damages the Malaysian Bar must pay to senior lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah from RM340,000 to RM120,000 over the professional legal body's breach of its statutory duty.
The case stems from the Malaysian Bar's plan to table a motion of condemnation of Shafee at its 2015 annual general meeting over his conduct after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of sodomy that year.
In a unanimous decision on Monday, a three-member COA panel lead by Datuk Choo Kah Sing, who sat with Datin Paduka Evrol Mariette Peters and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid, allowed the Bar's appeal in part and dismissed the senior lawyer's cross appeal.
The panel, among others, ruled that damages and quantum sought must be proven by facts and not mere inference. The panel also noted that while there were illegalities in the Bar's action, it does not mean it was done in malice.
Among the grounds of the Bar's appeal was that the damages awarded by the High Court to Shafee were excessive and the claims were not supported by evidence. Shafee filed a cross appeal that the sums were inadequate and also challenged the High Court's refusal to grant exemplary damages.
In April last year, the High Court awarded Shafee RM200,000 for reputational loss, RM100,000 for loss of professional opportunities, RM20,000 for mental stress and health-related consequences, and RM20,000 in aggravated damages.
The protracted legal battle began in 2015, when the Bar planned to table a motion of condemnation of Shafee at its annual general meeting in March that year. The motion was over Shafee's involvement in a roadshow to explain Anwar's second conviction for sodomy. Shafee was the ad hoc prosecutor in the case.
However, Shafee managed to get a court order to stop the tabling of the motion, and then proceeded to sue the Bar for defamation.
The suit was dismissed by the High Court in 2016, and the Court of Appeal upheld this ruling in 2018.
Shafee then escalated the case to the Federal Court, which ruled in his favour in October 2021. The apex court held that the Bar should have first made a complaint against the senior lawyer to the disciplinary board for misconduct, as stipulated under Section 99 (1) of the Legal Profession Act 1976. The court said this should have done before proposing and publishing the motion against Shafee for all 15,000 members to view and discuss.
The apex court also directed the High Court to assess damages for Shafee.
The Bar subsequently filed an application to review the Federal Court's decision, but this was dismissed in September 2022.
Hearings to assess damages began in August 2023. Shafee had initially asked for at least RM2 million, arguing that a "grave wrongdoing was inflicted on him" resulting in "great mental, physical and financial distress".
Shafee appeared for himself on Monday, while senior lawyer Lambert Rasa-Ratnam appeared for the Bar.