KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 16): Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) failed to obtain a stay on the High Court’s April decision ordering it and the wound-up developer, Fame Modulation Sdn Bhd, to pay RM1.3 million in damages to two former civil servants.
Former senior police officer Datuk Adnan Azizon and his wife, Datin Aziah Ahmad’s home in Alam Damai, Cheras, suffered structural damage due to the construction of the 29-storey Montena Sovo Suites.
Their house was at risk of collapse, forcing them and their children to move out and rent elsewhere for more than 10 years, while also bearing the repair costs.
Fame Modulation was the developer, while DBKL was the local authority that approved the project.
Judge Gan Techiong ruled that DBKL had failed to demonstrate special circumstances justifying a stay of the judgment pending its appeal.
“The application by DBKL for a stay of the decision is dismissed,” the judge said, ordering DBKL to pay RM5,000 in costs.
Gan had earlier said that DBKL should file an affidavit in reply to the couple’s claim that its 2023 audit report had allocated more than RM2 million under a contingency plan following a lawsuit filed by an individual in Alam Damai.
Although the report did not name Adnan, his lawyer, Cheow Wee, confirmed in court that the allocation referred to his client.
Tight budget should not be reason
Cheow, who opposed DBKL’s application for a stay, argued that DBKL could not use its tight budget and ongoing contractor payments as reasons to delay the judgment. He pointed out that DBKL’s 2023 report showed that more than RM2 million had been set aside for the case.
Cheow said DBKL had failed to demonstrate sufficient grounds for a stay. Meanwhile, Wilson Lim, the lawyer representing the wound-up developer, Fame Modulation, informed the court that the company was not applying for a stay.
DBKL’s lawyer, Mohd Ruzaini Zulkifli, argued that although funds had been allocated in the 2023 budget, no allocation was made for the case in the 2025 budget.
Gan asked whether funds are normally kept aside until a lawsuit is settled, to which Ruzaini replied that this was apparently not the case here.
At the previous hearing, Gan had adjourned the proceedings to allow both parties to submit affidavits regarding DBKL’s budget. Although Cheow submitted an affidavit on behalf of Adnan, DBKL failed to do so before Friday’s hearing. This led to the judge’s decision to dismiss DBKL’s application for a stay.
On Aug 13, Gan ruled that DBKL and the developer, Fame Modulation, were liable for the damage to Adnan and Aziah’s home in Alam Damai, Cheras. The court ordered them to pay RM1.3 million in damages.
The amount included RM300,000 for the couple’s hardship and displacement, RM160,000 for rental expenses, RM819,000 for repair and relocation costs, RM17,080 for civil engineering fees, and RM20,000 for quantity surveyor fees.
The couple and their four young children had been forced to leave their home out of fear that it might collapse. The developer, which is now in liquidation, and DBKL were ordered to bear the costs jointly or separately.