The High Court today set Monday to hear an application for leave from Nouvelle Beauty Centre Sdn Bhd, the company of the late cosmetics millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya, to file its defence in a legal suit on the sale and purchase of a property worth RM3 million.

Justice Zabariah Mohd Yusof set the date after meeting the parties in chambers.  

On Aug 5, Low Choong Yen, 59, and his wife, Lim Bee Geok, 52, filed a suit naming Nouvelle Beauty Centre as the defendant for breach of the sale-and-purchase agreement for the property in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

The writ of summons was filed 25 days before Sosilawati, 47, and three others - her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, 44, CIMB bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, were murdered in Tanjung Sepat, Banting.

Nouvelle Beauty Centre's lawyer Mohd Hadi Ar Rais Muhamad told reporters the company filed the leave application for an extension of time to file the defence and affidavit-in-reply.

Mohd Hadi said his law firm, Azra & Associates, was recently appointed by the company's new managing director, Sosilawati's daught Erni Dekritawati Yuliana Buhari, 25, to represent the company in the case as Ahmad Kamil, who was one of the dead, had been the company's lawyer.

During the last proceeding, on Nov 3, Nouvelle Beauty Centre was not represented by counsel.

In the writ of summons, Low and Lim claimed that in an offer letter signed by Nouvelle Beauty Centre dated April 2, the company had agreed to sell to them a 144.9sq-metre piece of land, with a four-storey office building on it, for RM3 million.

Deposit not returned

Low and Lim claimed that they had paid an earnest deposit of RM60,000 upon signing the letter for the purchase, with the balance deposit of RM240,000 to have been paid upon signing of the sale-and-purchase agreement.

They claimed that the balance payment of RM2,700,000 was to be paid within 90 days of the signing of the sale-and-purchase agreement.  

They also claimed that the terms and conditions in the draft of the sale-and-purchase agreement had been agreed to and finalised by both parties on April 22, 2010.

After the sale-and-purchase agreement was signed, they said, Nouvelle Beauty Centre, through a letter dated April 30, 2010, informed them that the company had no intention of proceeding with the sale because it had to wait for six to 12 months to transfer the ownership of the property to a non-bumiputera and to receive the full payment for the property.   

Low and Lim said through a letter dated May 3, they informed Nouvelle Beauty Centre that it was bound by the terms and conditions in the sale-and-purchase agreement which both parties had agreed to.

On May 25, 2010, they said, Nouvelle Beauty Centre returned to them the sale-and-purchase agreement, the letter of ownership transfer, application form for permission to change ownership and their cheque for RM240,000.

They claimed that Nouvelle Beauty Centre failed to return the RM60,000 that they had paid as earnest deposit.

Low and Lim are seeking a declaration that there was a valid agreement between them and Nouvelle Beauty Centre for the sale and purchase of the property and for the company to proceed with the transaction, as well as an injunction to stop the company from disposing of the property to anyone else.

- Bernama