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PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has granted a stay of the High Court order instructing the government to immediately pay RM1.1mil in damages to the family of deceased Dutch model Ivana Smit, over negligence in the investigation of her death.
A three-judge panel, chaired by Justice Mohammed Zaini Mazlan, allowed the government's application for a stay of execution in the unanimous decision delivered here on Tuesday (Nov 18).
"We are therefore satisfied that there are special circumstances that warrant a stay.
"We allow the application. The execution of the High Court judgment dated July 29 is stayed pending the disposal of the appeal," he said.
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The court did not make an order as to costs.
Other judges on the panel were Justices Ismail Brahim and Lim Hock Leng.
On Nov 13, the High Court rejected the government's application to postpone the payment of RM1.1mil in damages to Smit's mother,, Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen in a lawsuit related to her daughter's death.
Justice Roz Mawar Rozain ordered the government to deposit the amount, along with accrued interest, into a trust account on the same day.
The court also ordered the government to pay costs of RM8,000 to Verstappen.
On Nov 20, 2020, the model's mother had filed the lawsuit against the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dang Wangi investigating officer Asst Supt Faizal Abdullah, the Home Minister and the Malaysian government as defendants, alleging a breach of statutory duty and negligence in the investigation into the cause of her daughter's death.
Verstappen claimed her daughter was found dead on the sixth floor of CapSquare Residence on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from the 20th floor of a condominium unit owned by US citizens Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy.
She claimed the police were negligent in failing to cordon off the crime scene, seize the victim's personal belongings, collect evidence, conduct a proper investigation into Johnson and Almazkyzy, and in failing to arrest, extradite and ensure their presence at the inquest as key witnesses.
On July 29, Justice Roz Mawar allowed Verstappen's lawsuit and ordered the government to pay RM500,000 in general damages, RM300,000 in aggravated damages and RM300,000 in exemplary damages, in addition to RM100,000 in costs to the plaintiff.
Justice Roz Mawar also directed the IGP (the first defendant) to remove ASP Faizal (the second defendant) from the task force and ordered the police to reopen the investigation as ordered by the High Court in 2019 against the Coroner's Court's decision.
On March 18, 2019, the Coroner's Court ruled that Smit's death was due to misadventure (accidental death).
Dissatisfied with the Coroner's Court decision, Verstappen appealed to the High Court here and on Nov 22, 2019, then-High Court Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah (now a Court of Appeal judge) overturned the Coroner's Court's decision.
He replaced it with "death caused by an individual or several unknown individuals" and ordered the Attorney General to instruct the police to initiate an investigation.
