Arifin Zakaria JCA:

Background

[1] This is an appeal by the 1st and 2nd appellants (the 3rd and 4th defendants in the court below) against the decision of the learned High Court Judge in allowing the plaintiff's claim. We dismissed the appeal, but we reduced the award of damages from RM208,587 to RM172,673. We now give our reasons for our decision.

The Undisputed Facts

[2] By a sale and purchase agreement dated 6 September 1985 ("the SPA"), the respondent/plaintiff agreed to purchase from the 1st defendant the property referred to as Ground Floor, Lot A, Wisma Shing Yin ("the subject property") at the agreed price of RM170,000. The subject property is erected on the land comprised in the land title known as Country Lease No. 215328055 ("the said land"). At the time of the sale transaction, no subsidiary title had been issued in respect of the subject property.

[3] The respondent came to know about the subject property through an advertisement put up by the 1st defendant in a local newspaper. To finance the purchase, the respondent obtained a loan of RM102,000 from S Y Jie Credit Sdn Bhd ("the credit company"). A loan agreement was entered into on 6 September 1985 between t