Lebanese jeweller files summary judgment against Rosmah

KUALA LUMPUR: The Lebanese jeweller company Global Royalty Trading SAL has filed for a summary judgment at the High Court against Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (pic) in its claim for RM67.5mil over alleged unreturned jewellery.

A summary judgment is obtained when the court decides on a case through written submissions without a full trial and without calling witnesses. In its application, it contended that Rosmah had continuously failed to return the jewellery to the plaintiff.

“The plaintiff states that the defendant does not have a meritorious defence and the denials made by the defendant are just merely bare denials.

“There is no necessity for a trial as the issue raised by the defendant is not a triable issue and does not require the assessment of the credibility of witnesses to be seen or heard by the learned judge in court,” it said.

Global Royalty further stated that Rosmah’s defence was clearly unsustainable in law or on the facts; therefore, averting the need for a full trial would save the court time and costs.

The company wants leave from the court to enter a full and final judgment against Rosmah for a mandatory order that the jewellery be returned and given to the company within 14 days from the date of judgment.

In the event the jewellery is not recoverable or returnable to the company, it seeks an order for Rosmah to be liable to pay them RM67,461,027.37 or equivalent to US$14,567,270.00 (based on an exchange rate as at March 1) for the costs of the jewellery.

Meanwhile, Rosmah also applied to obtain a court order for Global Royalty to deposit US$1mil with the court as security for costs.

In her supporting affidavit, Rosmah said Global Royalty was a foreign company located outside of the Malaysian court’s jurisdiction and that Malaysia did not have any reciprocal agreement to enforce a court’s judgment with Lebanon.

“Therefore, it is clear that if I succeed in my defence and obtain costs from the court, I would face difficulties in enforcing the court order. It would be unfair for me to have to go to Lebanon to enforce the cost order,” she added.

In its statement of claim, Global Royalty claimed that Rosmah had lied in her affidavit and in her statement of defence by saying that 44 pieces of jewellery sent to her by the company were seized by the Malaysian authorities.

It said this was because only one of the 44 pieces was kept by the police, and the remaining 43 pieces were not in the custody of the authorities.