Hashim Yeop Sani SCJ:

This is an appeal against the order of the Judge under O. 14 of the Rules of the High Court. The Judge is his grounds of judgment determined what he thought was the sole question of law before granting summary judgment. He said (at p. 11) that the only dispute was non-disclosure of material facts by the plaintiffs on the proposal for insurance. He concluded that there was no merit or triable issue in the defence and granted interlocutory judgment with damages to be assessed at a later date.

To appreciate fully the situation involved it is desirable to go into the background facts in some detail. The writ was taken out on 19 January 1986 and the claims were under a policy of insurance vide Fire Insurance Policy No. 6/01/0086/0183 dated 25 January 1985 for the sum of RM328,000 and a consequential Loss Policy No. 6/02/002/02/83 dated also 25 January 1985 for the sum of RM329,000 in respect of rentals, profits and salaries. It would appear that on 11 May 1985 during the currency of both policies the premises insured were severely damaged by fire.

The statement of defence was filed on 10 March 1986 which denied liability. In para. 4 of the statement of def