Appeals Court 'no' to JJ's children and mum over inclusion of shares in estate

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court's decision to grant a declaration to the mother of the late minister Tan Sri Jamaluddin Mohd Jarjis to include three million shares of Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd in her son's estate.

The three-member bench of the appellate court comprising Justices Datuk Azizah Nawawi, Datuk P. Ravinthran and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, also affirmed the High Court decision disallowing Aminah Abdullah's application for a declaration that six million shares in Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd were also part of her son's estate.

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Justice Mohd Nazlan, who delivered the court's unanimous decision in online proceedings on Friday (Aug 19), dismissed the appeal brought by Jamaluddin's children Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis, as well as the cross-appeal by Aminah.

The bench chaired by Justice Azizah ordered both parties to bear their own costs.

Aminah was appealing the High Court's dismissal of her application to include the Alpine Motion and Ivory Insights shares as part of her son's estate while her grandchildren were appealing the ruling on including the Rantai Wawasan shares in their father's estate.

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Justice Mohd Nazlan, who read his broad grounds, said the Rantai Wawasan shares should be included in Jamaluddin's estate as the trust deed, created in 2009 when Jamaluddin was alive, was valid; and that the trust deed created in 2015 by Jamaluddin's children after his demise was null and void.

On the Alpine motion and Ivory insights shares, he said evidence showed those shares never belonged to Jamaluddin and there was also no proof of payment by him for the shares.

On Jan 3, 2019, Aminah, 87, sued Nur Anis and Ikwan Hafiz, claiming that the duo, as joint administrators of their late father's estate, had failed to include shares in three companies as an inheritance in the list of assets in the letter of administration when Jamaluddin died in 2015; and that they had also failed to enter the shares as a liability since July 6, 2017.

ALSO READ: Appeals Court dismisses JJ's mother's bid to adduce further evidence in appeal

Aminah sought for the three million Rantai Wawasan shares worth RM1.44bil, six million Alpine Motion shares worth RM233mil, and two Ivory Insights shares worth RM80mil to be included in her son's estate.

In her statement of claim, she said her grandchildren failed to enter the Rantai Wawasan, Alpine Motion and Ivory Insight shares as part of Jamaluddin's estate with an intention to deny her rights and interests as a beneficiary.

Jamaluddin, better known as JJ, a former science, technology and innovation minister, was killed in a helicopter crash on April 4, 2015.

Lawyers Wan Zafran Pawancheek and Pawancheek Marican represented Aminah while a team of lawyers led by Saheran Suhendran appeared for Nur Anis and Ikhwan Hafiz. – Bernama