The Plaintiff and the Defendant in this suit are two of the five sons of one Alagappa Chettiar who died on 11.9.1977. The other three sons are Alagappa Subramaniam, Alagappa Annamalai and Alagappa Arunachalam. During his life and until his death Alagappa Chettiar was the "Karta" of a Joint Hindu Family of which he and the five sons were members. After his death the Defendant became the Karta of the said Joint Hindu Family. At the same time the Defendant together with Alagappa Arunachalam became the joint executors of the estate of Alagappa Chettiar. However on 3.9.1981 Alagappa Arunachalam renounced his executorship thereby leaving the Defendant as the sole executor of the estate of the deceased.

Among the properties of the said Joint Hindu Family were 3 pieces of land, one in Kajang, one in Seremban and another one in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng Seng, Kuala Lumpur. After the Defendant became the "Karta" these 3 pieces of land were sold during the period between August 1979 and June 1982. Following the sale of these properties the Plaintiff requested the Defendant for interim distribution of his share of the proceeds of the sale. Despite repeated requests made by the Plaintiff between October 1982 and February 1983 the Defendant had refused to give any distribution of the proceeds of sale to the Plaintiff. Even though there had been various correspondences made by the Plaintiff's Counsel to the Defendant's Counsel requesting for the same they did not prove to have been successful. In the circumstances the Plaintiff, on 10.3.1983, filed in Court this action asking for the following prayers :-

"(a) A decree partitioning the properties of the Joint Family.

(b) An order that the account be taken of the movable and immovable properties of the Joint Family and of the amount due to the Plaintiff from the Joint Family and/or from the Estate of the deceased.

(c) An order that an interim distribution of the assets of the Estate of the deceased be made forthwith.

(d) Alternatively, that the Defendant place the proceeds of the sale of the properties belonging to the Joint Family in the joint names of the Plaintiff and the Defendant.

(e) Such further or other relief as the Honourable Court may deem fit and proper.

(f) Costs of this suit.".

On 18.7.1983 on the application by the Plaintiff the Court issued a Partition Order of the Joint Family properties in which the Plaintiff was entitled to one-fifth share. Under the same Partition Order the Plaintiff was to be given an interim distribution of the assets of the said Joint Family within 2 weeks. In addition to that, an account of the assets of the Joint Family was to be taken within 2 months and the amount due to the Plaintiff to be determined.

Because no interim distribution was given to the Plaintiff even though ordered by the Court the Plaintiff decided to apply for a Garnishee Order in respect of monies deposited with the United Asian Bank Bhd amounting to approximately RM500,000.00. On 24/11/1983 the Court granted the Garnishee Order in favour of the Plaintiff amounting to RM495,450.00.

As Karta of the Joint Family, the Defendant finally furnished the accounts of the Joint Family on 19.1.1984. This is referred to as "Accounts in Tamil" because the accounts were written in Tamil. On the instruction of the Court another account in English, supposedly to have the same content, was subsequently produced by the Defendant.

The Plaintiff was not satisfied with the particulars of many items in the Account produced by the Defendant and as such raised objections. Eventually it was agreed between both parties to accept the account except on the following items namely :-

(a) Items 198, 199 and 200

The Defendant's claim for bonus amounting to RM1,079,500.00 being 10% of the difference between the value of the Kajang Estate Land, the Seremban Estate Land and the Yap Kwan Seng Lands as declared for the purposes of Estate Duty and the actual price that the Lands were sold;

(b) Item 201

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