A civil suit brought by Port Klang Authority (PKA) against Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) over the rectification of a sales and purchase agreement for 1,000 acres of land for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project, would go for trial at the High Court.

This follows a five-member Federal Court panel chaired by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria, today disallowing KDSB to appeal to the Federal Court against a Court of Appeal’s decision which did not favour the company.

Arifin, who sat on the panel with Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Federal Court judges Hashim Yusof, Ahmad Maarop and Hasan Lah, dismissed KDSB’s application for leave to appeal.

The panel also ordered KDSB to pay RM10,000 in legal costs to PKA.

PKA had, on Sept 25, 2009, filed the civil suit against KDSB, seeking rectification of the agreement signed on Nov 12, 2002 for the land worth RM1.88 billion.

PKA also sought a declaration that it should not be chargeable on interest of RM720 million on the balance purchase price of the land under the agreement and sought a refund on the interest already paid to KDSB.

PKA contended that mistakes and fraud were involved in the agreement and that the value of each square foot of the land should be RM21, and not RM25.

PKA also claimed the purchase price was already inclusive of interest as stated in the agreement and that it would be paid over 15 years.

On Feb 7, last year, the High Court in Shah Alam allowed KDSB’s application to strike out the suit.

On June 25, last year, the Court of Appeal reinstated the suit after allowing PKA’s appeal, ruling that the suit could not be said as unsustainable as there were disputed facts to be tried.

KDSB then filed an application at the Federal Court for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision in reinstating the suit.

Lawyer N Navaratnam represented KDSB while Khoo Guat Huat and Cindy Khaw appeared for PKA.

- Bernama