23 ex-board members in civil suit

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 23 former Port Klang Authority (PKA) board members, including two former cabinet ministers and a tycoon, will become a party in a civil suit filed by PKA against its former general manager, Datin Paduka O. C. Phang (pix).
This follows a Federal Court ruling to dismiss applications for leave to appeal filed by the 23 board members, today.
The panel of judges was led by Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop who sat together with Tan Sri Hasan Lah and Tan Sri Abu Samah Nordin.
Ahmad Maarop granted RM10,000 costs and said "triable issues to go on in the High Court".
The two former cabinet ministers are Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh and Tan Sri Chor Chee Heung and executive chairman of Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam.
PKA had filed a civil suit against Phang for breach of fiduciary duty as its former general manager and board member of PKA in relation to the Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ) at the Shah Alam High Court.
In her defence, Phang claimed that the breaches complained by PKA were made as a result of the collective deliberation, discussion and decision making process, undertaken by the board of members of PKA, all of which were approved by the relevant ministries.
On May 5, 2011, Phang filed 'third party' notices to include the individuals, who were PKA board members, at the material time in the suit.
The members filed an application to strike out the notices at the High Court.
In 2015, Phang's application was struck out by the High Court and an appeal against the decision was filed by Phang at the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal on Feb 17, 2017 reversed the decision and held that the PKA board's minutes of meeting produced showed involvement by the 'third parties' (former PKA board members) on the discussion and decisions pertaining to the PKFZ project.
The main action is fixed for continued trial at the Shah Alam High Court on Sept 19, Sept 25 and Sept 29, Oct 9 to Oct 12 and Oct 23 to Oct 25 and Nov 6 to Nov 9, 2017.
Phang was represented by M. Thomas Philip, Lavinia Kumaraendran and Mavinthra Jothy while the 23 members were represented by lawyer J. Doshi.