The court established that a bona fide dispute on debts must be supported by evidence and that statutory demands under s 218 of the Companies Act 1965 can proceed without prior judgments.

[1] This is an application for a Fortuna injunction filed by the Plaintiff to restrain the Defendant from presenting a winding up petition under s 218 of the Companies Act 1965 against the Plaintiff. I initially allowed the application at the conclusion of the ex-parte hearing. At the subsequent inter-parte hearing, I set aside the ex-parte injunction and dismissed the application of the Plaintiff. These are my reasons for the dismissal.

Key Background Facts

[2] The Plaintiff is a locally incorporated private limited company. The Defendant is a law firm partnership. The Plaintiff had retained the services of the latter in the former's successful claim against ABB Industrial Contracting Sdn Bhd ("ABB") in Civil Suit S1-22-951-2002 ("Suit 951") and in its challenge to the appeal filed by ABB in Civil Appeal W-02(W)-1078-07/2015 ("the Appeal"). The Defendant has thus been acting for the Plaintiff in respect of Suit 951 since 2002 and thereafter the Appeal, and had the first bill issued on 3 May 2002 (described in the accompanying cover letter as "estimated costs") in respect of the High Court Suit 951 and the second bill on 16 October 2015 on the Appeal. The latter bill is in the form of an undated "estimated bill" towards professional charges for work done for the amount of RM319,360.00. These bills, particularly the latter, are the bone of contention between the parties.