JUDGMENT

Suraya Othman JCA:

Introduction

[1] This is an appeal against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge dated 4 January 2018 which allowed the defendant's application to strike out the plaintiffs' writ of summons and statement of claim pursuant to O 18 r 19(1)(a), (b) and/or (d) of the Rules of 2012 ("ROC 2012").

[2] Aggrieved with the said decision, the seven plaintiffs: Transnasional Express Sdn Bhd (Plantiff 1), Plusliner Sdn Bhd (Plantiff 2), Syarikat Kenderaan Melayu Kelantan Berhad (Plaintiff 3), Syarikat Rembau Tampin

Sdn Bhd (Plaintiff 4), Kenderaan Langkasuka Sdn Bhd (Plaintiff 5), Konsortium Transnasional Berhad (Plaintiff 6) and/MHSB Properties Sdn Bhd (Plaintiff 7) filed the instant appeal. After hearing the parties and after taking into consideration the written as well as the oral submissions, we allowed the appeal. We now provide our reasons for allowing the appeal and for convenience, the parties will be referred to as they were in the High Court.

Background Facts

[3] The defendant, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd, are the owners of the buses. Plaintiffs 1 to 6 are express bus companies which are subsidiaries of Plaintiff 7. Plaintiffs 1 to 3 had e