Former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chief Tajudin Ramli and national assets management firm Pengurusan Danaharta Bhd (Danaharta) have resolved their multi-million ringgit suit, bringing the six-year legal battle to an end.

This follows Tajudin’s decision to withdraw his appeal on the RM13 billion counter-claim against the various entities which has been struck out by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“We are very pleased to inform the court that the parties have ironed out the glitches,” Tajudin’s lawyer Lim Kian Leong told the Court of Appeal this afternoon.

Both parties have also agreed to bear their own legal costs, he said.

On Dec 7, 2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had ordered Tajudin to pay Danaharta RM589.14 million with 2 percent annual interest above the base lending rate of Malayan Banking Bhd, backdated to Jan 1, 2006.

The quantum was linked to loans taken by Tajudin to buy a majority stake in MAS.

In view of Tajudin’s confidential settlement with Danaharta,  the RM589.14 million he was ordered to pay the firm would be dropped.

Lim said his client had agreed to withdraw a total of 27 appeals, where 11 were against Danaharta, “in the spirit of settlement”.

Tajudin also withdrew his lawsuit against numerous other litigants including Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Naluri Corporations, Celcom (M) Berhad, Atlan Holding Bhd and CIMB Group.

“I’ve made the same request for costs to be borne by each of the remaining parties, but I think my learned friends each have their own responses.

“The reason my client is asking for these parties to bear costs is for the spirit of settlement... in the spirit of settlement, he has withdrawn all his appeals and ask for the same spirit (from the others),” Lim said.

However, the lawyers representing the parties disagreed to waive the cost incurred as information pertaining the settlement was “too last minute”.

“The settlement has nothing to do with us. We were only told on Friday that there might be a settlement. We cannot agree to our party bearing the costs,” said one lawyer.

“The settlement that my friend (Lim) talks about is private and confidential between Danaharta, the Malaysian government and the appellant,  in their motion they said the settlement involves GLCs,” said another lawyer, K Kirubakaran, who represented Atlan.

“We were dragged into this counter-claim (by Tajudin), which was eventually struck out. We had to prepare for the appeals,” said Kirubakaran.

Similar arguments were posed by the other lawyers who appealed to Court of Appeal Judge Abu Samah Nordin to maintain the costs awarded by the High Court which Tajudin was ordered to absorb.

Lim stressed that the withdrawal was in “good spirit” and asked for a reasonable amount to be fixed by the court.

Tajudin to pay other parties RM15,000 each

After a 15-minute stand down, the judge instructed Tajudin to settle the costs totalling to RM15,000 for each of the remaining appeals.

As for the government, however, Tajudin was only ordered to pay RM5,000.

Tajudin became the largest shareholder in MAS after he borrowed RM1.79 billion from the government in 1994 to purchase a 32 percent stake in the national carrier.

He later sold the shares back to the government in 2001 at RM8 per share but defaulted on the multi-million ringgit loan taken to purchase MAS, following which Danaharta filed a suit against him in 2006, seeking RM589.14 million with interest.

He then filed a counter-suit claiming RM13.46 billion from some 24 parties and individuals.

The tycoon claimed that he had acted on the instructions by then-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and finance minister Daim Zainuddin to take over MAS. Mahathir, however, has denied ever having given such instructions.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, in a letter last August, had informed litigants that the government and the Finance Ministry had agreed that all suits against Tajudin would be withdrawn for an out-of-court settlement.

The legal team was to be replaced by lawyers from Hafarizam Wan Aishah & Mubarak, a firm that regularly acts for Umno, in a bid to save the government billions of ringgit.