[1] The appellant (plaintiff in the High Court) appeals against the decision by the learned Judicial Commissioner (JC) in allowing the application by the 1st-4th respondents (1st-4th defendants in the High Court) in striking out the writ and the Statement of Claim of the appellant under O 18 r 19(1)(a) of the Rules of 2012.

[2] Parties shall be referred to as they were, in the High Court. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants will be referred to as D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5 respectively.

[3] Each of the defendants filed their appeal to the Court of Appeal separately as follows:

- Civil Appeal No: W-02(IM)(NCC)-2221-12-2016 concerns the appeal on the striking out application by D3;

- Civil Appeal No: W-02(IM)(NCC)-324-02-2017 concerns the appeal on the striking out application by D2;

- Civil Appeal No: W-02(IM)(NCC)-325-02-2017 concerns the appeal on the striking out application by D4;

- Civil Appeal No: W-02 (IM)(NCC)-326-02-2017 concerns the appeal on the striking out application by D1.

All the appeals were ordered to be heard together by Order of the Court dated 19 June 2017.

[4] After perusing the Appeal Records and hearing submissions from learned counsel, we d