James Foong JCA (delivering majority judgment):

This is an appeal by the defendants against a decision of the High Court which allowed the plaintiff’s claim for defamation and awarded a sum of RM200,000 as general damages, RM50,000 as exemplary and aggravated damages, and RM980,000 as special damages, all with interest thereon and costs to the plaintiff.

BACKGROUND

The dispute between the parties started in this manner. The plaintiff was, at the material time, the sole representative in the State of Johore of two institutions of higher learning: (a) St Clements University of Turks & Caicos, British West Indies (St Clements University) and Irish Business School of Dublin, Ireland (Irish Business School). The plaintiff was actively promoting degree courses offered by these two institutions to students of the second defendant. The second defendant had a large reservoir of potential candidates because its students were mostly engaged in courses awarded with a diploma or a certificate. The appeal of a degree qualification from these two institutions represented by the plaintiff was the chance to qualify for acceptance into the Malaysian Association of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries