JUDGMENT

Elaine Yap Chin Gaik JC:

Introduction

[1] The plaintiff and defendant are administrators of the estates of their respective deceased fathers, Lau Heng Guan @ Lan Heng Yuen and Toh Bu Yong. They have competing claims over land that to this day, remains registered to one Kam Kwok Ping who also goes by various iterations of the Chinese characters of his name ("Landowner").

[2] Both the plaintiff and defendant claim that their respective fathers had entered into oral contracts to purchase the Land from the Landowner. They agree only that the Landowner and his descendants are untraceable. Both parties have previously attempted to claim ownership of the Land by unilaterally securing default court orders against the Landowner.

[3] The plaintiff has filed the present suit to set aside such a default Order obtained by the defendant on grounds of fraud and illegality. In response, the defendant launched a counterclaim, seeking injunctions to restrain the plaintiff from exploiting the Land and claiming damages for breach of a contract by which the plaintiff was to pay him 50% of profits from the Land.

Background Facts

[4] The subject land is freehold agricultural land in Sungai Pelek, Sepan