KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan is pursuing its "breach of contract" cases against 11 of its assemblymen who defected after the September 2020 snap state election, says Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
The party president said the case of Sebatik assemblyman Hassan Amir Gani was still in appeals in the courts while they were now in the legal process of pushing the vacancy of the seats as they breached the contract to vacate the seat if they defected from the party.
He said the decision to pursue the case was done following the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision against Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin to pay RM10mil for breaching an election bond with PKR after she defected from the party in 2020.
Zuraida was appealing the June 24 High Court decision.
"We have studied the judge's decision on Zuraida's case. It is similar to our case. They have breached their contract with us," he told reporters here after meeting with tenants of Tanjung Aru Low-Cost Flats who are facing eviction by a state agency.
"Their agreement with us (Warisan) to vacate their seats if they leave the party. Even if they say we did not have a bond, it is not necessary that it is about money. It is about a breach of agreement.
"We feel they also should be liable to paying the cost incurred by the party for financing them to be candidates and campaign cost," he said, adding they had studied the Kuala Lumpur Court decision that was based on breach of contract.
Shafie said that the pre-signed letters to vacate their seats had not been accepted by the State Assembly and that they would pursue the case in court.
Warisan lost 11 of the 23 seats it won in the Sept 26, 2020 election after the assemblymen defected to parties under Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Warisan candidates had signed contracts for their candidacy which included undated but pre-signed letters to vacate their seats if they quit Warisan to join another party.
The pre-signed letters to vacate the seat were not accepted by the State Speaker after the assemblymen informed the Speaker that they had no intention to vacate their seats.
Hassan was the first to defect from Warisan on Feb 26, 2021.
In June 2022, Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Wong Siong Tung declared that the undated and unsigned resignation letters were unlawful.
In passing the judgement, Justice Wong said that an elected representative should be able to act on his own independent judgment and should not be legally constrained by the party or the electorate.
He said the combination of undated signed resignation letters and pledge of loyalty to Warisan prior to the 2020 state elections equalled an unlawful scheme.
"An elected member of legislature should be free to act according to the best of his or her ability and his independent judgment should not be legally constrained by obligations to either his party or to the electorate or subject to be dictated by anybody.
"Any arrangement that fetters or deprives such freedom of elected members of the legislature will be contrary to public policy and is unlawful," Justice Wong said, adding that any cause of action based on such an arrangement to deprive such freedom could not be sustained in law.
In Zuraida's case, Justice Akhtar Tahir said the bond signed by Zuraida on April 25, 2018 was a valid and binding contract.
