Zawawi Salleh JCA (delivering judgment of the court):

INTRODUCTION

[1]Before us there are two appeals, namely, W-01(A)-55–02 of 2016 (‘Appeal 55’) and W-01(W)-56–02 of 2016 (‘Appeal 56’) emanating from one judgment of the learned judicial commissioner (‘JC’) of the High Court at Kuala Lumpur. Both the appeals were heard together as they are based on the same factual matrix and issues.

[2]Appeal 55 is an appeal by the plaintiff against the whole of the learned JC’s decision while Appeal 56 is an appeal by the defendants against the part of the decision involving the award of exemplary and aggravated damages.

[3]For ease of reference, in this judgment, the parties will be referred to as they were in the High Court.

FACTS OF THE CASE

[4]To put the issues in these appeals in proper perspective, a brief narration of the facts of the case is necessary and may be shortly stated as follows:

(a)the plaintiff was a scrap metal trader. His trading premises were rented from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall Workers Union;

(b)the plaintiff had a valid business registration licence from the registrar of business and exemption certificate from the Royal Malaysian Police pursuant to the Second Hand Dealers Act 1