PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has deferred its verdict to another date in the appeal by National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) and four others relating to a civil suit they had filed against Public Bank Berhad for breach of contract to protect their bank account confidentiality.
A three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Azizah Nawawi, Datuk P. Ravinthran and Datuk S. Nantha Balan adjourned their decision to another date after lawyers representing NFCorp, its executive chairperson Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail and three subsidiaries and the bank, concluded their submissions.
"Parties will be informed of the (decision) date," Justice Azizah told lawyer Tan Sri Muhamad Shafee Abdullah representing NFCorp, Mohamad Salleh and the subsidiaries and the bank's lawyer Yoong Sin Min in the court proceedings conducted online.
On July 29, 2019, the High Court dismissed the lawsuit brought by NFCorp, Mohamad Salleh and three subsidiaries namely National Meat and Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and Real Food Company Sdn Bhd against the bank.
They subsequently filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal which was heard on Friday (Feb 10).
On May 22, 2012, NFCorp, Mohamad Salleh and the three subsidiary companies filed the suit against Public Bank over breach of contract to protect their bank account confidentiality.
They claimed that their business reputation and credibility had suffered irreparable loss and damage as a result of the security breach of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (Bafia) by the bank.
In today's proceedings, Muhammad Shafee argued that the bank should be held liable for leaking information of his client's account to a third party.
He said the bank's domestic inquiry had found one of its former clerk attached to the credit department of one of its branch, guilty of misconduct for accessing the information on his client's accounts without authorisation.
He said the bank statement was used as a tool to destroy Mohamad Salleh, adding that his client suffered as a result of the information leakage and he was regarded as no longer able to sustain his business.
Yoong, however, submitted that there was no breach of contract by the bank as there was no evidence that the bank's former clerk had disseminated the information or had caused the information to be disseminated.
She said the document that was produced by PKR deputy president Mohd Rafizi Ramli (now Economy Minister) at that time was not part of the documents printed out by the bank's former clerk.
She said the bank treated banking secrecy with paramount importance and had set up systems and procedures to ensure banking secrecy and in all instances had acted honestly and had taken immediate action.
Yoong also said NFCorp, Mohamad Salleh and the three subsidiaries relied on the domestic inquiry proceedings that was never related to them, adding that the findings of a private tribunal was not binding on the court and the court has to make their own findings based on the facts of the case. – Bernama
