Eusoff Chin, the Chief Justice then, delivered a 4-page judgment that turned land laws in Malaya haywire. The rights of original landowners literally became vulnerable to acts of fraudsters and conmen.
The original landowners (Mrs Boonsom) lost her land. Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd may now have to return to Mrs Boonsom’s estate the land they bought from the conmen. Either way, some one had to suffer the loss.
Mrs Boonsom Boonyanit @ Sun Yok Eng was a Thai national. She owned 2 parcels of land in Tanjong Bungah, Penang. In 1988, a woman who claimed to be Mrs Boonsoom Boonyanit made a statutory declaration that she had lost the original titles to the two parcels of land. The Land Office issued her certified copies of the titles. The forger/impostor then sold the land to Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd for RM12 million.
After coming to know that Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd had become registered as the proprietor, Mrs Boonsom Boonyanit brought an action against Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd to have her land restored to her, but she failed in the High Court on 25 April 1995. She appealed to the Court of Appeal, and succeeded on 17 March 1997. Adorna Properties appealed to the Federal Court. The three-member panel of the country’s highest court comprising of Eusoff Chin, Wan Adnan Ismail and Abu Mansor Ali decided in favour of Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd. That was then 22 December 2000. By then, Mrs Boonyanit has died, with much sorrow.
It was plainly a wrong judgment. Academicians and lawyers condemned that decision.
Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi described the error committed in Adorna Properties case in the previous Federal Court as “obvious and blatant”. He added that some unscrupulous people have taken advantage of the court’s error by falsely transferring titles to themselves.
For nine years, fraudsters had used the loopholes in Adorna Properties case and had conned innocent landowners. The Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Division had said that fraud victims have lost nearly RM15 million worth of land in these 129 cases alone.
It was unbelievable that Mrs. Boonsom failed at the High Court. But at least the Court of Appeal set the matter right, saying that the title of Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd was obtained by forgery and the title is now defeasible and liable to be set aside, unless, of course, it has subsequently been transferred to a purchaser in good faith and for valuable consideration.
The Federal Court’s outrageous decision effectively said that even if the instrument of transfer was forged, Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd nevertheless obtained an indefeasible title to the land.
That grave error has now been put right by the Federal Court in 2009.
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