Chief Justice Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Mohamad says revisiting procedure of the Federal Court should remain or there will be no end to litigation
PUTRAJAYA: May 23, 2008
The jurisdiction of the Federal Court to review its own decision is limited and confined to exceptional cases. Therefore, it should not be abused by parties dissatisfied with the court's earlier judgment.
Chief Justice Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Mohamad said this in his seven-page judgment dismissing an insurance company's review application.
He said the Federal Court might review its earlier decision when it had applied a statutory provision already repealed, there was a lack of quorum after two presiding judges retired, and the decision was obtained by fraud or suppression of material evidence or where bias was established.
He said certain cases unsuitable for review included those seeking the Federal Court to determine whether its earlier panel had interpreted or applied the law correctly or where the court had or had not made a correct decision on the facts.
Hamid said it had been the practice in the Federal Court all these years for a party dissatisfied with its earlier judgment which failed to follow the precedent to take it up in another appeal called "revisiting". He said the "revisiting" procedure should remain or else there would be no end to litigation.
"This court has so many times warned against such attempts," he said to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd which had sought to have the Federal Court review its earlier decision ordering the company to pay RM60 million in damages and also eight per cent interest per annum from 1990 to Asean Security Paper Mills Sdn Bhd (ASPM).
The Federal Court's earlier panel restored a High Court decision ordering the company to pay damages in fire insurance claims to ASPM for property destroyed in a warehouse fire in Kampung Acheh, Sitiawan, more than 10 years ago. Before the case went up to the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal had ruled for the insurance company on the grounds that the fire was intentional.
The present Federal Court panel, comprising Hamid, Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi and Federal Court judge Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, handed down a unanimous decision in favour of ASPM.
Hamid said Mitsui Sumitomo was asking the Federal Court to exercise its review jurisdiction to set aside its earlier decision overturning the finding of facts made by the Court of Appeal and reinstating the decision of the High Court on the facts.
This was clearly outside the scope of the Federal Court's review jurisdiction, he said.
"To allow the application is to invite all the vices that this court has been repeatedly warning against, that is there will be no finality in its judgment and it will encourage judge-shopping," he said.
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