Semantan Estate’s discovery application dismissed, hearing for compensation also deferred

KUALA LUMPUR (April 1): The High Court on Wednesday has dismissed two separate discovery applications made by Semantan Estate (1952) Sdn Bhd on the federal government with regards to compensation for the 263.27 acres of prime ‘Duta enclave’ land that was acquired pre-Merdeka in 1956.

Judge Roslan Mat Nor in his ruling said that although the court recognised the importance of the discovery application, it also noted that the government had also done searches with the Land and Mines Department, KL City Hall, the National Archives, and also the Department of Survey and Mapping which yielded limited results.

Roslan said while Semantan Estate’s counsel Janet Chai Pei Ying had argued that the documents are in the government’s possession and they are needed for their expert’s valuation of the said land according to the 1956 rates, and they could be kept under the Selangor Land and Mines Department, the court noticed that the company addressed it generally to the FT Land and Mines Department.

“It is not denied that such documents would help the court in arriving at a decision towards assessing the compensation and the government had said they (the documents) are not in their possession. Furthermore, the applicants had not stated where the documents which they needed could have been placed.

“Since the documents demanded are not in the federal government’s possession, this discovery application is dismissed,” the judge said, adding no order was made as to costs.

The court was scheduled to hear the assessment of damages on Friday (April 3) and April 10. However, both the plaintiffs and government representatives comprising senior federal counsels Nurhafizza Azizan and Azza Azmi informed the court that they could only exchange the valuation reports on Thursday, and need a month to reply to each other’s valuation reports.

Hearing date vacated

As a result, Roslan decided to fix April 10 as case management to fix new hearing dates for the assessment of compensation.

Semantan Estate, represented by Messrs Chooi & Co, where Chai appeared with Alexie Ng Ying Ching, had wanted two types of documents: acquisition plans for the 263.272-acre land taken by the government following three gazette notifications, and survey plans showing the land’s accessibility.

Earlier this month, the company had filed another discovery application to seek memoranda of transfers (1956–1957) for several lots in Mukim Batu, Kuala Lumpur, which record ownership changes and sale prices and also zoning of the wide areas which the company claimed would serve as evidence of the land value.

Chai argued that these documents, which are not in the company’s possession, are in the government’s possession, and are needed for their valuers to comply with their valuation report as per the Court of Appeal’s order for the compensation to be done based on the Dec 3, 1956, market rate.

“As these documents are about 70 years old and are not in the company’s possession, they should be with the government. This discovery application should be allowed as it would also help this court to make a final assessment to the compensation of the land based on the 1956 rates,” Chai said.

Semantan Estate listed that the documents could be kept by the four government agencies mentioned.

Azza in reply said the documents are not in the government’s possession as they had conducted a search at the KL City Hall, the Land and Mines Department, the National Archives, and also the Department of Survey and Mapping.

“There is one document which we found and produced, but they (Semantan Estate) say they did not require this one,” she said.

Azza further described Semantan Estate’s application as amounting to a fishing expedition, as their affidavit in support is based on the company liquidator’s statement and not its valuers.

Chai replied that the government’s stance that those documents could not be found was not satisfactory, as they can search for them with the Selangor agencies, as Kuala Lumpur was made a federal territory on Feb 1, 1974.

The long-standing dispute follows a 2009 court ruling that the government had trespassed in acquiring the land since 1956. This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

Following that, the company filed an application to reacquire the land and also sought a return of the land title to Semantan Estate. The company failed to reacquire the land following a High Court decision, but another High Court granted an order for the land title to be returned to Semantan Estate.

Following proceedings at the Court of Appeal, and in a decision in June last year, the appellate court upheld the High Court’s decision in barring the company from acquiring the land physically and also allowed the government’s appeal not to register the land back to the company.

The appellate court directed the High Court to assess compensation for the land according to the 1956 market rate after the company had only been paid RM1.32 million in compensation that year.

The Federal Court had in October upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision, resulting in the High Court being ordered to hold a hearing on the compensation following the appellate court order.

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