Mohd Ghazali JCA (delivering the judgment of the court)

There are two appeals before us. These appeals arose out of the same suit. The appellants in the first appeal (the second and third defendants in the court below) are the Director of Forestry and the Government of the State of Sabah, respectively and the appellant in the second appeal (the first defendant in the court below) is the Board of Trustees of Yayayan Sabah. In this judgment, for ease of reference, I will refer to the appellants as they were in the court below.

The respondents in these two appeals are the plaintiffs in the court below. They are Mau Kam Tong and Mau Kim Siong who are the executors of the estate of Mau Ming, deceased (‘the deceased’) and Tang Yiu Chi (‘TYC’).

The deceased and TYC, prior to the demise of the deceased on 10 December 1989, were partners in two business enterprise named ‘Syarikat Lama’ and ‘Tung Lee Contractor’. With regards to this, it would be appropriate to mention here that the evidence does not show that Syarikat Lama and Tung Lee Contractors are companies incorporated under the Companies Act 1965Section 22(4)Companies Act

A private company shall have the word ‘Sendirian’ or the abbreviati