Suriyadi Halim Omar JCA:

[1] This was an appeal heard by us against the High Court's decision rejecting the application of the appellant, a firm of advocates and solicitors, to disqualify Messrs Chellam Wong, also a firm of advocates and solicitors, from acting in the matter in which it had a pecuniary interest. The relevant provisions adverted to by the appellant in its submission were rr. 5 , 27(a) and 28(a) of the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978 .

[2] To understand the issue at hand, it is necessary to appreciate the facts of the case, which led to the disqualifying application. The appellant had initially represented Far Legion Sdn Bhd and Kewmoor International Limited, the current respondents, in civil suit D5-22-395-1996 against two companies called DB Trustee (M) Bhd and Mercury Industries Bhd. The respondents had agreed to an interim professional fee of RM300,000 to the appellant for that legal representation. A final note dated 4 April 1997 to pay a professional fee of RM320, 868.60 was issued later to the appellant.

[3] Due to bad blood subsequently flowing between the appellant and the respondents, a new set of lawyers represented the latter ie