PUTRAJAYA, June 26 — The Court of Appeal today ordered Felda to pay RM11 million in damages to 354 Felda settlers over payments for palm fruit for six years after dismissing its appeal.
Justices Datuk James Foong Cheng Yuen, Abdull Hamid Embong and Datuk Abdul Malik Ishak dismissed the appeal in a 2-1 majority decision, with Abdul Malik dissenting.
Felda sought to set aside the Kota Baru High Court’s decision delivered on January 13 last year ordering the agency to pay RM7.8 million plus interest to the settlers after its counsel failed to turn up for the hearing of the suit.
The amount has since increased to RM11 million with accumulated interest but the settlers will not get the money yet as the court has granted Felda a stay of execution pending the agency’s application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
In granting the stay, Foong ordered the amount to remain in the joint account under the names of solicitors for both parties.
About 200 settlers were in court today. Some were seen raising their hands in thankful prayer when the decision was pronounced.
The court was told that each settler would be paid about RM30,000 in damages.
The Felda Kemahang 3 settlers in Tanah Merah, Kelantan, brought the suit against Felda in 2002 seeking between RM20,000 and RM30,000 each in general damages as they alleged that the agency had understated the quality of their oil palm fruits from 1996 to 2002 which caused them to suffer losses.
Sunil Abraham, counsel for Felda and Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd, told the court that he would be filing the leave application on Monday.
Foong, in his judgment, ruled that the award given by the High Court was justified.
He also also touched on a settler’s allegation that Kelantan Umno chief and International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed and Felda had threatened the settlers to evict them if they continued with the action against Felda.
“Felda, as a statutory body, is meant to assist the settlers in raising their standard of living. Instead, we have here a situation of the first defendant (Felda) cheating the plaintiffs (settlers).
“In a position of authority over the plaintiffs in the allotment of land in the said scheme, the first defendant (Felda) had after the suit was filed, threatened to evict the plaintiffs from the scheme for pursuing the action.
“Such intimidation weighs against Felda. Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd is no better since they are associated with or are part of Felda,” he said.
Abdul Malik, meanwhile, ruled that the case should be remitted back to the High Court for retrial as the High Court judge had violated the rules relating to the admission of evidence when he made a finding in favour of the settlers.
“There was no documentary evidence before the learned High Court judge to support the actual loss or estimated loss suffered by each individual plaintiff (settler),” he said. – Bernama
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