KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 1): Nur Anis Jamaluddin, daughter of the late minister Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis, has applied to strike out a suit filed by her grandmother Aminah Abdullah against her and four others over alleged fraud.
Meanwhile, Nur Anis’ brother Ikhwan Hafiz Jamaluddin — who is also the managing director (MD) of Nur Power — argued that their grandmother is incapable of administering their father’s estate, and that their father’s half-brother Najeb Ali is using their grandmother to wage a proxy fight, in his defence against the suit.
In the document sighted by theedgemarkets.com, Jamaluddin’s son said it was not appropriate for his grandmother to apply to become the administrator of their father’s estate as she is 86 years old, illiterate and unable to understand English.
Moreover, the suit was filed due to Najeb’s undue influence on her, and for his benefit, Ikhwan Hafiz added.
He also refuted his grandmother’s claim that there was fraud when she renounced her claim of the estate, saying she had willingly signed the documents to that effect after the matter was explained to her by her grandchildren and several lawyers.
“My sister and I did not in any way exert any undue influence on our grandmother [to sign the renunciation].”
“My grandmother had without any proper basis, publicly expressed the view that the estate was valued at a colossal and fantastic sum. This led to negative views being expressed as to the deceased [Jamaluddin] and his source of funds by members of the public,” Ikhwan Hafiz said in his defence.
Nur Anis and Ikhwan Hafiz were allowed to be the joint administrators of Jamaluddin's estate by the High Court in 2017. Their father, a former minister and Rompin member of Parliament, died in a helicopter crash in 2015.
Both siblings are also directors in Nur Power, an independent power company in Kulim, Kedah.
Ikhwan Hafiz said the family also agreed that whatever cash owned by their father would be distributed to their mother Puan Sri Kalsom Ismail and Aminah, while his siblings would get the rest of the estate. Kalsom is also a dentist.
Aminah had named Nur Anis, Ikhwan Hafiz, law firm Wong Lu Peen & Tunku Alina, Jamaluddin's solicitor Liza Chan Sow Keng (now a judicial commissioner) and commissioner of oaths Tengku Fariduddin Tengku Sulaiman in this fraud suit.
She had earlier named the two grandchildren in another suit in 2019, where she claimed her right to a stake in three companies said to be owned by the former minister.
However, the High Court had last month ruled that the shares in Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd belonged to Jamaluddin's estate while the two remaining companies — Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd — are not part of the estate.
Rantai Wawasan is the holding company which owns Nur Power, which was acquired in 2012, among other companies.
Action is an abuse of court process, argues Jamaluddin’s former solicitor
Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis said their grandmother had also testified in the first suit that she did not wish to be the administrator of the estate, and also told the court in the first suit that she was unable to describe the assets and appeared unfamiliar with the complexity of the assets involved.
Besides this, Ikhwan Hafiz also claimed that Najeb had met a close business associate of his father’s, Datuk M Rajaduran, and had sought RM200 million as settlement of the 2019 suit.
“Najeb had unduly influenced my grandmother in the filing of the 2019 suit and this claim herein, and is directing her affairs with respect to the claim including liaising with Aminah's solicitors, with the aim of securing an indirect benefit.
“As Najeb is the only surviving child of my grandmother, he stands to inherit the entirety of her estate upon her demise,” the Nur Power MD said, adding that should Aminah be successful in this action, Najeb — a stranger to the estate who is wholly unqualified to manage it — would become the de-facto administrator of the estate.
Both Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis maintained that they love their grandmother and had always attended to her care and had also helped Najeb in the past.
Ikhwan Hafiz further claimed that the delay in the distribution of the cash to Aminah was due to her not being able to reach an amicable solution with Kalsom, as his mother had filed a harta sepencarian (joint matrimonial assets) claim at the KL Syariah Court.
“This resulted in an uncertainty as to the composition of the assets of my father,” he further said in the defence, denying further there was fraud committed on Aminah by the other defendants.
Nur Anis along with Chan, who was Jamaluddin's personal solicitor, in their defence also applied to strike out this second suit and wanted the disposal of their application to be heard first.
This follows what they alleged as a multiplicity of proceedings following the filing of the 2019 suit.
Chan further claimed in her defence that it was mischievous for Aminah to initiate the action only after she was appointed as a judicial commissioner of the High Court.
She also alleged that Aminah had not raised the issue of the administration of Jamaluddin's estate, and there seemed to be no issue in the distribution of the estate.
“The intention of Jamaluddin at all times was that his children were to be the owners of the relevant companies that he had passed on to them and or arranged to be passed on to them, for them to continue his legacy by running it,” Chan said.
“The majority of the beneficiaries of Jamaluddin's estate agreed not to sue for compensation and this was communicated to Aminah at the material time and she did not raise any disagreement or protested in the matter,” she added.
For these reasons, Chan said this suit is an abuse of the court process and constitute a multiplicity of proceedings.
A case management of this present suit had been done before High Court deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris where the defences were filed prior to this and the next case management for this matter has been fixed on Monday (Sept 6).