Abdul Hamid J:

This is an application by the defendants that -

(a) All further proceedings in this suit be stayed until the plaintiff provides security for costs in the sum of $3,500 and has paid the first defendant all costs due and outstanding from him to the first defendant in civil suit No. 1138 of 1966 in the High Court at Kuala Lumpur and the appeal therefrom; and

(b)Upon providing such security and payment of the costs aforesaid this summons-in-chambers be restored for hearing the application for an order that this suit be struck out on the grounds that it is frivolous and/or vexatious and/or is an abuse of the process of this Court.

It is the applicants' contention that civil suit No. 1138/1966 (hereinafter referred to as "the previous suit") is substantially the same as the present action.

In the previous suit, the plaintiff/respondent claimed that as adoptive son of Valliappa Chettiar and by reason of the adoption, he is one of the beneficiaries of the estate of the deceased. Referring to the appointment of the first defendant/ applicant as executor and trustee on 20 February 1961, the plaintiff questioned the validity of the purported will in respect of whic