Toll concessionaire Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd was today given a reprieve by the Federal Court against an order for it to disclose detailed information on all the company's assets to Fawziah Holdings Sdn Bhd to which it may have to pay RM65 million.

The court allowed the company's application for an 'interim stay' against conditions imposed in a ' conditional stay of execution' granted by the Court of Appeal last week to Metramac.

The interim stay is pending a hearing on March 27 when the court will hear the company's full application to suspend the conditions of the original stay which includes:

  • the setting aside of RM50 million in a joint account with Fawziah Holdings within a month or by 4pm on March 31; and

  • to forward an affidavit by one of its directors to disclose detailed information of all its assets including their nature, movement and status by March 15.

    • "We are inclined to allow the applicant's request for an interim stay against the second condition of the stay of executions made at the court below," said Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim who sat with Justices Allaudin Mohd Sherif and Richard Malanjum.

    'Oppressive' conditions

    At the outset of the proceedings, counsel for Fawziah Holdings Benjamin Dawson requested that the stay application be postponed to next week saying that the affidavit filed by Metramac had just been served on his client this morning.

    "The rules require that we are given seven days to reply to the documents. We were unable to study the documents properly. Further our lead counsel (Dr Cyrus Das) is unable to attend court due to other commitments that had been made earlier."

    However, Metramac's counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah objected to the postponement saying there was "an urgent need" on Metramac's part to stay the condition against the company.

    "The stay condition is an abuse of the court process. The applicant is a toll operator and to ask it to set aside RM50 million - not to be used - would be oppressive. Secondly, we are also asked to provide full details of assets.

    "We submit there is in no way these conditions would protect Fawziah Holdings in the RM65 million judgment," said Shafee.

    He said if one of the company's directors is made to sign an affidavit disclosing details of Metramac's assets, it would be in "total breach of the self-incrimination rule".

    "I have the duty to protect my clients who are facing a contempt proceeding (brought by Fawziah Holdings against Metramac's directors who allegedly flouted an order restraining them from disposing assets up to RM100 million)."

    He then proposed that the court issue an 'interim stay' against the conditions pending the full hearing of the original stay application

    'Self-induced' complaints

    Dawson again objected stating that the court cannot "stay a stay order" which he claimed was unlawful.

    He said the conditions imposed by the Court of Appeal was to preserve Metramac's assets and to safeguard Fawziah Holdings' interest in the event they execute the RM65 million judgment awarded.

    'I am surprised that the applicant finds it onerous to set aside RM50 million when barely two months ago it paid RM106 million to a holding company as dividends and another RM57.5 million in January. So to say that setting aside RM50 million is onerous is almost self-induced," he said.

    As to the complaint against the requirement to submit a full disclosure on assets, Dawson argued this was necessary as there seemed to be a pattern in funds moving out of Metramac as soon as it comes in.

    After lengthy arguments by both parties, the court said that it was inclined to grant an interim stay on the second condition set out in the conditional stay order by the Court of Appeal.

    "I don't see how your client will be prejudiced if we merely extend the time for the applicant to submit a full disclosure of the company's assets," said Justice Malanjum told Dawson.

    On Jan 12, the Court of Appeal had ordered Metramac - the concessionaire of the East-West Link Expressway and the Sungai Besi Expressway - to pay RM65 million to Fawziah Holdings for loss of advertising rights.

    The case attracted public attention when Justice Gopal Sri Ram - in his judgment - accused tycoon Halim Saad and his former business partner Anuar Othman of siphoning RM32.5 million from Metramac under the patronage of former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

    Halim and Daim have since denied the allegations. They have been made official parties to the suit in a bid to expunge Gopal's remarks.