Less than a month after the apex court ordered the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) to pay RM11 million to 354 settlers in Felda Kemahang 3 for cheating them, it today granted a stay of the order.

This follows an application from Felda's counsel Firoz Hussein, who applied for the order following Felda's application to seek a judicial review over the Jan 19 decision.

Firo NONE z submitted that Felda was worried that the funds, which are being jointly held in the solicitor's accounts, would be disbursed pending the review application and might not be recovered if a review was allowed.

A three-member panel chaired by Court of Appeal president Alauddin Mohd Sheriff unanimously allowed the application.

The other Federal Court judges were Justices Hashim Yusof and Md Raus Sharif.

The settlers were represented by lawyers Wan Rohimi Wan Daud and Yusfarizal Yusoff.

Felda's leave unanimously dismissed

On Jan 19, chief justice Zaki Azmi, who led a three-member panel, unanimously dismissed Felda's leave application when he said the court was satisfied there was no part of law for the matter to be reviewed by this court.

"Following this, we uphold the findings of the High Court and the Court of Appeal and order Felda to pay the amount owed," Zaki had said in his oral judgment.

The others in Zaki's panel were Justices Gopal Sri Ram and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin.

It was r felda kemahang settlers and lawyer duta court 260609 eported that some 600 people, including family members of the affected Felda Kemahang 3 settlers, Tanah Merah, Kelantan, greeted the news with joy as the 354 settlers were each expected to get between RM25,000 to RM30,000 each.

The settlers named Felda, its area manager Ibrahim Ismail (since deceased) and Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd as defendants.

On Jan 13, 2008, Kota Bharu High Court judge Mohd Azman Husin ordered Felda to pay RM7.8 million plus interest after counsel representing Felda and Felda Palm Industries failed to turn up for the hearing.

On June 26 last year, the appellate court delivered a two-to-one verdict in favour of the settlers, when Judge James Foong noted that Felda, which was supposed to uplift the standard of living of the settlers, had instead cheated them