JUDGMENT

Celestina Stuel Galid J:

Background

[1] The Plaintiff, an undischarged bankrupt, was previously a practising advocate and solicitor in the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak. He was adjudicated as a bankrupt on 19 December 2022.

[2] On 19 February 2024, the 1st Defendant's newspaper, Daily Express has published an article entitled "Action on 13 Sabah Lawyers". An online version was also published on its website on the same day. In the article it was reported that thirteen Sabah lawyers have been suspended from practice since the year 2018. The Plaintiff was named as one of the thirteen.

[3] The Plaintiff sued the 1st Defendant which is the publisher of the newspaper and the 2nd Defendant, the editor of the newspaper for defamation. There were three other defendants but as at the date of hearing this application, the action against them has either been withdrawn or struck out.

Enclosure 63

[4] The present application is by the 1st and 2nd Defendants to strike out the claim pursuant to O 18 r 19(1)(b) and/ or (d) and O 92 r 4 of the Rules of 2012 ("ROC 2012").

[5] The grounds for the application are (i) that the Plaintiff, being an undischarged bankrupt at the time of filing the act