PETALING JAYA: The tenure of Tun Mohamed Eusoff Chin, the country's second chief justice from September 1994 to December 2000, was marked by several controversial cases and public scrutiny over issues involving the judiciary.
During his time in office, he was involved in several notable judicial decisions, most prominently the landmark land ownership ruling in Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd v. Boonsom Boonyanit in 2000, which became the subject of legal debate.
According to the then landmark ruling, the rightful owner of a property could not get back a plot of land after it had been sold to a third party, even if the title was proved to be forged.
However, this ruling was subsequently overruled by a five-member Federal Court in 2010, presided by then chief justice Tun Zaki Azmi.
The ruling decided that the case involving Adorna Properties had misconstrued Section 340(3) of the National Land Code.
Eusoff also figured in the Ayer Molek case in 1995, considered to be one of the most controversial cases in Malaysia's legal history.
The case, which involved a dispute over the transfer of shares, attracted controversy over the composition of the Federal Court panel that heard the appeal.
Eusoff also faced public scrutiny in 2000 when allegations surfaced that he had previously gone on a holiday abroad with prominent lawyer, V.K. Lingam, six years earlier, during which he and his family were photographed with the lawyer and the lawyer's family.
However, he told reporters in a press conference then that he had in fact "bumped" into the lawyer in New Zealand.
His name resurfaced again during the V.K. Lingam tape scandal in 2007, which led to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
The inquiry centred on an eight-minute video clip of a telephone conversation allegedly concerning the appointment of senior judges.
In 2022, the Federal Court affirmed that the former lawyer was barred from practising law after a three-member bench, chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, dismissed his final appeal.
