KUALA LUMPUR (July 19): Oct 5 has been fixed as the new hearing date for former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak's appeal against the dismissal of his lawsuit against AMMB Holdings Bhd, AmBank Islamic Bank Bhd and the bank's former customer relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping.

The appeal was initially fixed for hearing in the Court of Appeal on June 25 but was subsequently postponed.

The new date, fixed during case management today, was confirmed by the Court of Appeal’s senior assistant registrar KB Elena Hong Tze Lan when contacted by The Edge.

On Sept 28 last year, High Court Judge Datuk Khadijah Idris struck out Najib's suit on the grounds that it was an abuse of the court process as the former premier had filed it to bolster his defence in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.

“This action was not filed by the plaintiff (Najib) to seek damages, but for a collateral purpose. This was simply an abuse of court process,” she said, pointing out that Najib sought the proceedings against the bank and Yu when the SRC case came up and not years before, when the events initially began to unfold.

Najib filed the suit against Yu over the management of accounts under his name to divert funds from SRC.

Najib named AmBank Islamic and AMMB for breach of duty and negligence in handling his accounts, which resulted in the former premier being convicted in the SRC trial for misappropriating RM42 million.

The Umno lawmaker was sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million by the High Court on July 28, 2020 after being found guilty of all seven charges of criminal breach of trust and money laundering with regard to the RM42 million in SRC funds and abuse of power with regard to the RM4 billion loans awarded by Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) to SRC.

Justice Khadijah said Najib’s suit was “unsustainable” as the bank and its holding company did not have any contractual relationship with the former premier as to the management of his accounts at the bank.

The judge then awarded a cumulative amount of RM30,000 to AmBank and AMMB, which had jointly applied to strike out the suit. Yu, meanwhile, who had also filed an application to strike out the suit, was awarded RM25,000 costs to be paid by the former premier.

Najib filed the suit in 2019, where it concerned his AmBank accounts ending 694, 880, 898 and 906, which he claimed were managed by the bank without his knowledge.

He claimed that AmBank and Yu breached their duties and were negligent in the affairs concerning the accounts as they had disclosed information to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), whom the suit referred to as an unauthorised third party.

Najib also claimed that the bank and Yu acted on Jho Low's instructions to actively ensure the accounts and other banking statements were kept away from the former premier, and they failed to contact him directly to inform that Jho Low was seeking disclosure of information and documents.