PUTRAJAYA: The legal dispute between former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng and former Penang Gerakan chairman Teng Chang Yeow over an article on the Pulau Jerejak land deal issue has been tentatively settled.
Lim's lawyer Datuk N. Mureli informed a three-man Court of Appeal bench today that parties had reached a settlement and a consent judgement draft has been filed in respect of his client's defamation suit against Teng at the High Court.
The consent judgement draft comes on the heels of a Federal Court decision regarding a similar issue, this year, and the Court of Appeal is bound by that decision.
In the virtual proceedings today, lawyers for both parties indicated that they had agreed not to proceed with the appeal following the top court's ruling.
Lawyer Datuk Harpal Singh Grewal who appeared for Teng confirmed that his client had agreed to the terms of the consent judgement draft.
Judge Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, who chaired the bench, allowed Lim's appeal and ordered for the case to be sent back to the Penang High Court for the consent judgement to be recorded.
"There is basis in the appeal because of the recent Federal Court case.
"There are issues to be tried, so we send back the case to the High Court and consequent to this, at the High Court, parties will record the consent judgement," he said, before ordering RM75,000 in costs.
The court fixed Nov 22 for the case to be mentioned at the High Court.
Judges Datuk Supang Lian and Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya also presided in the proceeding which was conducted via Zoom.
On June 29, 2018, the George Town High Court struck out Lim's suit after allowing Teng's application.
Lim had in April 2017, filed the suit naming Teng, who is also former Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, Star Media Group Bhd news editor David Tan and journalist Crystal Chiam Shiying as defendants.
In his statement of claim, Lim alleged that Teng had given the permission and caused the defamatory and false statements to be written and published in the newspaper and its website through the other defendants.
He claimed that the third and fourth defendants had maliciously published a defamatory and false statement in an article titled "Pulau Jerejak land sale questioned" dated Nov 16, 2016, which referred to the plaintiff.
Lim had sought general, exemplary and aggravated damages, as well as interest and costs, among others.
