KUALA LUMPUR: Lebanese jeweller company Global Royalty Trading SAL has filed for a summary judgment at the High Court against Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in its claim for RM67.5mil over alleged unreturned jewellery.
A summary judgment is obtained when the court decides on a case through written submissions without a full trial and without calling witnesses.
The company filed the notice of application via Messrs David Gurupatham & Koay on Thursday (Aug 10).
In its application, it contended that Rosmah had continuously failed to return or hand back the jewelleries to the plaintiff.
"The plaintiff states that the defendant does not have a meritorious defence and the denials made by the defendant are just merely bare denials.
"There is no necessity for a trial as the issue raised by the defendant is not a triable issue and does not require assessment of credibility of witnesses to be seen or heard by the learned judge in court," it said.
Global Royalty further stated that Rosmah's defence was clearly unsustainable in law or on the facts, therefore averting the need for a full trial would save the court time and costs.
ALSO READ: Rosmah: Missing gems not my fault
"There is no triable issue in the instant case and neither are there any other reasons for a trial," it added.
The company wanted leave from the court to enter a full and final judgment against Rosmah for a mandatory order that the jewelries were to be returned and given to the company in 14 days from the date of judgment.
In the event the jewelleries were not recoverable or returnable to the company, it sought an order for Rosmah to be liable to pay them RM67,461,027.37 or equivalent to USD14,567,270.00 (based on an exchange rate as of March 1) for the costs of the jewelleries.
Meanwhile, Rosmah also filed her own notice of application to obtain a court order for Global Royalty to deposit US$1mil with the court as security for costs.
She filed the application via Messrs Reza Rahim & Rajivan on Thursday.
ALSO READ: Rosmah needs to file statement of defence in 'missing' jewellery suit by June 2
In her supporting affidavit, Rosmah said that Global Royalty was a foreign company located outside of the Malaysian court's jurisdiction and that Malaysia did not have any reciprocal agreement to enforce a court's judgment with Lebanon.
"Therefore, it is clear that if I succeed in my defence and obtain costs from the court, I would face difficulties in enforcing the court order.
"It would be unfair for me to have to go to Lebanon to enforce the cost order," she added.
ALSO READ: Lebanese jeweller sues Rosmah over 43 'missing' pieces of jewellery
On March 29, the Lebanese jeweller sued Rosmah, demanding that she pay US$14.57mil (RM67.46mil) for violating a contract involving 43 pieces of jewellery sent to her five years ago.
In its statement of claim, Global Royalty claimed that Rosmah, 71, had lied in her affidavit and in her statement of defence by saying that 44 pieces of jewellery, including diamond necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets and tiaras sent to her by the company’s agent were seized by the Malaysian authorities for offences under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
The company said this was because only one of the 44 pieces of jewellery was kept by the police and the remaining 43 pieces were not in the custody of the authorities.
