The title of a bona fide immediate purchaser without notice can be defeated by a non-registered equitable interest under an earlier agreement, confirming the supremacy of equitable rights over subsequent registered titles.

[1] This is an appeal against the concurrent findings of the High Court and the Court of Appeal allowing the respondent's claim against the appellant vide encl 62, pursuant to O 14A of the Rules of the High 1980 (RHC). The appellant before us is one Samuel Naik Siang Ting who was the 1st defendant at the High Court while the respondent is Public Bank Berhad who was the plaintiff there.

[2] Leave to appeal to this Court was granted to the appellant and two others, namely - Lee Soo Eng and Ti Moek Hua, on 19 June 2013. However, notice of appeal was filed only by the appellant. The others had not filed their notices of appeal and did not appear in Court during the hearing of the appeal before us. Therefore, their appeals are deemed discontinued.

Factual Background

[3] This matter was dealt with summarily under O 14A of the RHC. Based on the Statement of Agreed Facts the factual background leading to the present appeal before us are as follows.

[4] At all material time, Majlis Perbandaran Manjung (MPM) (the 6th defendant at the High Court) was the registered proprietor of a piece of land held under master title HS(D) Dgs 11103, PT No 4108, Mukim Sitiawan, District of Manjung (the land) before it was sub-divided. The land was subsequently sub-divided into various lots known as Lot 3, Lot 4, Lot 5, Lot 6 and Lot 7 (the Lots).

[5] MPM, vide a Joint Venture Agreement dated 19 November 1998 appointed a company known as Bersatu Maju Properties Sdn Bhd (BMP) (the 10th defendant at the High Court), as a developer to develop the land into a mixed development project including three-storey shop offices thereon.

[6] Thereafter, on various dates (between 10 October 2001 and 21 January 2002) MPM and BMP executed various sales and purchase agreements in relation to the Lots in favour of the following purchasers - namely, Mohd Yusoff bin Baharom (Lot 3); Ong Kee Chai and Ong Lai King (Lot 4); Wong Siew Ming (Lot 5); Ong Sang Huat Holdings Sdn Bhd (Lot 6); and Lim Peng Guan and Beatrice Veronica Arulappen (Lot 7). For the purpose of the present appeal, all the abovenamed purchasers are collectively referred to as "the earlier purchasers".

[7] The respondent, at the request of the earlier purchasers had granted loans to enable them to finance the purchase of the Lots. For that purpose various letters of offer were issued and various loan agreements were executed between the respondent and the respective earlier purchasers.

[8] At the material time, when the sale and purchase agreements and the loan agreements were executed, the individual title for each of the Lots had not been issued yet. Thus in order to facilitate the granting of the loans the earlier purchasers executed separate deeds of assignment whereby they assigned absolutely all their respective titles, rights to and/or interest in the Lots in favour of the respondent. As an added security for the loans, MPM and BMP furnished the respondent with Letters of Undertaking, whereby MPM and BMP expressly undertook to deliver the documents of title to the Lots, upon issuance thereof, to the respondent to facilitate the execution of the relevant memorandums of transfer in f