Richard Malanjum JCA:

Introduction

There are five appeals before us. They arose from two civil suits, S2-23-93-99 (the first suit) and S2-23-33-00 (the second suit).

Both suits were filed by the respondent herein as plaintiff. But in this judgment he will be referred throughout as the respondent. The defendants in the respective suits are the appellants herein and will collectively be referred to as such where appropriate in this judgment. Otherwise the appellants will be referred to by their respective names.

As the background facts and events of these appeals are substantially interrelated we propose to briefly state them first before dealing with the issues and arguments.

The Parties

In the first suit the first appellant is the Bar Council, the second appellant was the former Chairman of the Bar Council being sued on behalf of all the Executive Committee members of the Bar Council including himself while the third appellant is the Malaysian Bar. The first and third appellants are bodies established under the Legal Profession Act 1976 (the LPA).

The respondent is a member of the Malaysian Bar paying an annual subscription fee of RM350 and such further sums as may be re