KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — The mother of the late minister Tan Sri Jamaludin Mohd Jarjis has succeeded in her bid to include three million shares in Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd in the list of her son’s estate.
This was after High Court judge Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril allowed Aminah Abdullah’s application for a declaration that the shares of Rantai Wawasan are part of Jamaludin’s estate and ordered the defendants, Nur Anis Jamaludin and Ikwan Hafiz Jamaludin to pay costs of RM80,000 to their grandmother.
However, Mohd Firuz dismissed Aminah’s application for declaration that six million shares in Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and two shares in Ivory Insight Sdn Bhd are part of the estate of her late son.
The application is related to the suit filed by Aminah as the plaintiff against her two grandchildren over their failure to include three companies’ shares, worth RM1.3 billion, in the list of her son’s estate.
Mohd Firuz in his 26-page judgment said based on the testimony given by defendants’ witnesses, the court is prepared to accept that the shares of both Alpine and Ivory were purchased for the benefit of the first and second defendants respectively.
“In 2011-2012, they were indeed involved in the operations and management of the two companies under the guidance of their late father. This is not the same as the situation in the case of the Rantai Wawasan shares which was their very first involvement in the deceased (Jamaludin) businesses officially,” he said.
The judge further said that despite the inconsistencies of the defence case, the basic rule in a civil case is that the plaintiff must prove her case.
“In this regard, the plaintiff failed to proof the shares in Ivory were paid by the deceased or that he was the original beneficial owner of the shares. Whilst, I do agree with the plaintiff’s submission that the manner how the defendants presented their defence was far from perfect, this does not mean that the plaintiff has proven her case.
“In my final analysis, I am constraint to find that the plaintiff failed to tilt the balance of probabilities concerning the claim for the Ivory shares against the defendants. To my mind, it is for the plaintiff to prove that it was the deceased who paid for the shares and not for the defendants herein to prove that the deceased did not pay for the shares,” he said when delivering the decision via online yesterday.
Mohd Firuz further said as the plaintiff failed to adduce any evidence on the fact that the Alpine shares in the company were paid by the deceased, the court was of the view that the plaintiff has not proven the existence of a trust nor a constructive trust.
Aminah was represented by lawyers Pawancheek Merican and Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman while counsel S. Suhendran and Frank Wong appeared for Nur Anis and Ikwan Hafiz.
Aminah, 87, who filed the suit on Jan 3, 2019 claimed Nur Anis, 36, and Ikwan Hafiz, 34, as joint administrators of Jamaludin’s estate, had failed to include the three company shares as inheritance in the list of assets in the letter of administration when Jamaludin died in 2015, and also failed to enter the shares as a liability since July 6, 2017.
In her statement of claim, Aminah claimed that the two defendants failed to enter the shares of the three companies — Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd, Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insight Sdn Bhd — as part of the deceased’s estate with an intention to deny her rights and interests as a beneficiary.
The plaintiff contended that her two grandchildren had failed to state the estimated value of the shares, which worth RM1,384,312,154, two and half years after Jamaludin died.
Jamaludin was killed in a helicopter crash on April 4, 2015.
Aminah claimed Nur Anis and Ikwan Hafiz had also failed to include an apartment worth RM10 million in the United States in the list of Jamaludin’s assets that was enclosed with the letter of administration, and also failed to inform her that the Syariah High Court had issued her the faraid certificate on Jamaludin’s estate on October 6, 2016.
Aminah is seeking a court order for her name to be included as joint administrators of Jamaludin’s estate being that she is the biological mother of the deceased and for the two defendants to pay dividends, bonus and profit from the shares in the three companies. — Bernama
