KC Vohrah J:

The defendant wanted to buy a Proton Saga from the plaintiff. What he did on 29 May 1989 was to sell a car, a Toyota Corolla, bearing registration number CR 9806, purportedly registered with the JPJ Pahang, to the plaintiff and he used almost the whole bulk of whatever he received from the sale of that car to purchase the Proton Saga from the plaintiff on the same date.

The Toyota car was seized by the police some six months later, on 18 January 1990. It is not disputed that the car that the defendant sold to the plaintiff was a stolen car and that the registration card in respect of the car was a forgery. Neither is it not disputed that the plaintiff or the defendant had not known that the car was a stolen car.

The plaintiff sued for the refund of RM18,728.45 being the money had and received by the defendant as consideration for the Toyota car.

The defendant resisted the claim on the ground that the defendant when he originally bought the Toyota from a third party was not aware that it was a stolen car; he had been a bona fidepurchaser of the said car with no knowledge whatsoever of defects relating to the ownership of the car and he had acquired good title i