The court affirms that titles obtained through fraud and forgery are indefeasible under section 340 of the National Land Code.

Introduction

[1] Before us are four appeals which we, with the agreements of respective counsel, heard simultaneously. These four appeals emanated from two suits:

(a) Suit 22-233-2010 (Suit 233); and

(b) Suit 22-216-2010 (Suit 216)

Which were heard together by the learned High Court Judge who delivered one judgment.

[2] The factual matrix are these. The subject matter of this dispute relates to a piece of land held under EMR 2884, Lot 549, Mukim 02, Daerah Petaling (the Land). The original owners of the Land are See Leong Chye and See Ewe Lin (collectively referred to as See Brothers) who held the same in equal shares. They also had in their possession the original Manual Issue Document of Title (IDT).

[3] By an agreement dated 26 December 2008, Heveaplast Marketing Sdn Bhd (Heveaplast) purchased the Land from the See Brothers. To finance the purchase, Heveaplast obtained a loan from United Overseas Bank (UOB). Pursuant to the aforesaid agreement, Heveaplast became the registered owner with UOB as the registered chargee of the Land.

[4] One Zainudin Maksom a lawyer practising at Messrs Zainudin Wan Nadzim Chua & Maslinda was instrumental in preparing the agreement for the purchase of the Land by Heveaplast.

[5] By another agreement dated 12 February 2009, Heveaplast sold the Land to one Kum Hoi Engineering Industries Sdn Bhd (Kum Hoi) for the sum of RM8,895,556.00. To finance the purchase of the Land, Kum Hoi obtained a loan from Public Bank. A sum of RM3,255,211.58 was paid to UOB as the redemption sum to satisfy the UOB charge. A further sum of RM5,034,767.58 was paid to Heveaplast by Kum Hoi. The release of the aforesaid sums was premised on an undertaking by Heveaplast to repay the same if Kum Hoi and Public Bank cannot effect the transfer and charge on the Land respectively.

[6] Both the transfer and the charge of the Land could not be lodged with the Land Office as there was then a Registrar's Caveat on the Land which was premised on See Brother's complaint that they had never sold the Land to Heveaplast.

Suit 233

[7] In this High Court Suit, the See Brothers are the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs who took legal action against Heveaplast (1st defendant), UOB (2nd defendant), Zainudin bin Maksom (3rd defendant) and Messrs Zainuddin Wan Nadzim Chua and Maslinda (4th defendant), Kum Hoi (5th defendant) and Public Bank (6th defendant). Heveaplast joined the Petaling and Shah Alam Land Offices as first and second third parties for indemnity and contribution. The claims of the See Brothers, in essence as per their statement of claim, were these:

(i) A declaration that the plaintiffs (the See Brothers) are still the registered owners of the Land;

(ii) A declaration that the ownership of the Land was fraudulently transferred to the 1st defendant (Heveaplast) pursuant Presentation No: 2735/2009 on 22 April 2009 and the transfer is null and void;

(iii) A declaration that the defendants (Heveaplast, UOB, Kum Hoi dan Public Bank) have no rights and interest whatsoever (both legal and beneficial) to the Land;

(iv) Consequently, the transfer of the Land to Heveaplast be set aside and the Registrar of Lands of Selangor be directed to rectify the Memorandum of Register of Lands to reflect the See Brothers as owners of the Land and the duplicate issue of document of title of the Land be surrendered to the Pendaftar Hakmilik Negeri Selangor Darul Ehsan for cancellation;

(v) An order that the defendants be restrained from registering any transaction and/or dealings on the Land;

(vi) An order directing the Pendaftar Hakmilik Negeri Selangor be restrained and/or abstained from registering all future dealings and transactions of whatsoever natu