PUTRAJAYA: The children of former minister Tan Sri Jamaluddin Mohd Jarjis, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2015, failed to get leave from the Federal Court to proceed with their appeal in connection with the inclusion of Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd shares worth RM1.044bil in the list of their father's estate.
Ikhwan Hafiz Jamaludin, 35, and Nur Anis Jamaludin, 37, were seeking to obtain leave to appeal against the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal which ruled in favour of their grandmother, Aminah Abdullah, to include three million of Rantai Wawasan shares in the list of their father's estate.
A Federal Court three-member panel comprising Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli and Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang dismissed the children's leave to appeal application by a 2-1 split decision.
Justices Abdul Rahman and Rhodariah decided the majority decision, while Justice Nallini dissented.
In the court's majority decision delivered online, Justice Abdul Rahman said the leave to appeal was dismissed because the two questions of law that the children wanted the court to determine were related to concurrent findings of facts by the lower courts.
He also said the children's application for leave failed to meet the threshold requirement of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
Justice Nallini dissented, saying leave ought to be granted as there were no concurrent findings of facts by the lower courts.
On Jan 3, 2019, Aminah, 88, sued her grandchildren, claiming that the shares of three companies -- the Rantai Wawasan shares, six million Alpine Motion shares worth RM233mil and two Ivory Insights shares worth RM80mil - should be considered as part of her son's estate.
On Aug 13, 2021, Aminah partly won her suit in the High Court to include the three million shares in Rantai Wawasan in the list of her son's estate.
The High Court, however, ruled against Aminah in respect of the other two company shares.
The Court of Appeal, on Aug 19 last year, dismissed both the appeals by the children and Aminah and upheld the High Court's decision.
Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis subsequently filed leave to appeal to the Federal Court against the court decisions on the Rantai Wawasan shares.
Aminah, however, did not file leave to appeal against the court decisions relating to the Alpine Motion and Ivory Insights shares.
Lawyers Saheran Suhendran, Frank Wong and Rodney Gan represented Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis, while counsels Zainur Zakaria, Pawancheek Marican and Suzilawati Ismail appeared for Aminah.
Jamaluddin, better known as JJ, and a former science, technology and innovation minister, was killed in the helicopter crash while travelling from Pekan, Pahang, enroute to Kuala Lumpur. - Bernama
