Port Klang Authority withdraws suit against PKFZ contractor

By admin-s On Dec 8, 2014

(TMI) – A five-year legal battle between the Port Klang Authority (PKA), which had filed a RM720 million suit against turnkey contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB), has ended with an out-of-court settlement.

Lawyer Cindy Khaw, who represented PKA, today informed judicial commissioner Datuk Azimah Omar that her client was withdrawing the suit after both parties settled the matter out of court.

“I also request this court that there will be no order as to costs,” she said.

Lawyer Chetan Jethwani, who represented KDSB, did not object to the request.

Azimah then recorded a consent judgment and struck out the suit.

Lawyer D. Nimalan, who appeared with Cindy, told The Malaysian Insider that PKA would issue a press statement this afternoon.

On November 24, PKA counsel Lim Chee Wee, from legal firm Skrine & Co, said parties were in the process of settling the suit but the court would have to be informed first.

In a statement to the Edge Financial Daily, Lim said the evidence produced and findings of facts made by a High Court judge in the criminal trial against Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik had a material impact on this suit.

Ling, a former transport minister, had been acquitted of three charges of cheating the government regarding the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) land deal.

The Edge Financial Daily on November 24 had reported that PKA decided to withdraw its RM720 million suit against KDSB over the PKFZ fiasco.

The PKA board reportedly came to a unanimous decision to discontinue the suit in a special meeting in Putrajaya on November 21.

PKA’s decision to withdraw the suit came two months after Tan Sri Kong Cho Ha was appointed its chairman. PKA is under the purview of the Transport Ministry and Kong was a former transport minister.

Sources said the PKA board’s decision came after its lawyers had advised that it had a weak case.