Abdul Malik Ishak J:

Background Facts

A brief chronology of events must be set out in order to understand the case better and these events can conveniently be itemised as follows:

(1) 20 April 1998 - The writ of summons and the statement of claim were filed by the plaintiff and thereafter served on the defendant.

(2) 27 June 1998 - The defendant entered an appearance.

(3) 14 July 1998 - The defendant filed and served the statement of defence and counterclaim dated 13 July 1998.

(4) 30 July 1998 - The plaintiff filed and served the reply and defence to counterclaim dated 27 July 1998. (5) 27 July 1998 - The plaintiff amended the writ of summons and the statement of claim without the leave of the court pursuant to O. 20 r. 1 of the Rules of the High Court 1980 ("RHC") and not O. 1 r. 20 of the RHC as stated in encl. 9.

(6) 11 September 1998 - The amended writ of summons and the amended statement of claim were served on the defendant.

(7) 24 September 1998 - The defendant applied pursuant to O. 20 r. 4 of the RHC to disallow the amendment.

(8) 11 March 1999 - The defendant