High Court declares lawyer Chang a ‘vexatious litigant’

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has declared lawyer Matthias Chang a “vexatious litigant” .

This ruling will prevent Chang, the ex-political secretary to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, from filing any further claim against American Express (M) Sdn Bhd (Amex) without getting leave from the court.

Yesterday, Amex’s lawyer Prakash Menon said High Court Judicial Commissioner Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham had on Friday declared Chang as a “vexatious litigant”.

“This is due to the application by Amex to obtain the declaration. The court could grant the declaration if the applicant (Amex) can prove that the defendant has persistently and habitually filed claims against the same or different people without reasonable cause,” Prakash said when contacted yesterday.

Prakash said the court had the discretion to grant the declaration under Schedule of the Courts of the Judicature Act 1964.

Prakash said Amex had filed the application on March 5 last year to get the declaration.

In the application, he said, the credit card company applied for the court to restrain Chang from filing any proceeding against Amex arising from the judgment which they obtained in 2005 without the leave of the judge.

When asked to elaborate, Prakash said that “numerous cases and applications arising from the judgment over his failure to settle his credit card debts had all been dismissed by the courts.”

However, Prakash said Chang had settled his RM29,000 debts together with interest to Amex after the company filed bankruptcy proceedings against him.

The High Court had on March 26 last year dismissed a breach of contract and defamation suit Chang brought against Amex, ruling that he had failed to prove his claim against the company. Prakash said the matter is now pending at the Court of Appeal.

He had filed the suit against Amex in 2002, after his credit card was suspended.

In the course of the trial, Chang was cited for contempt of court after a spat with Justice Noor Azian Shaari.

He was fined RM20,000 in default one month’s jail, and was ordered to pay the fine within a week. Chang refused to pay the fine and had, instead, opted for the prison sentence.

After 12 days in jail, he was freed when Court of Appeal judge Datuk Sulaiman Daud granted an ex-parte order for his release.