PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday reserved judgment on an appeal by the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) and several others over an alleged breach of contract in protecting information in their bank accounts.
A three-member bench led by Datuk Azizah Nawawi said the court needed time to consider the case.
"We will inform the parties once we are ready with our decision," said Azizah, who sat with Datuk P. Ravinthran and Datuk S. Nantha Balan.
NFCorp and four other appellants claimed that the leaked Public Bank account information was used by the then PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli to bolster allegations that the plaintiffs leveraged a government loan to purchase eight KL Eco City properties.
The other appellants are the company's executive chairman, Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail, and its three subsidiaries — National Meat and Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and Real Food Company Sdn Bhd.
Earlier, the court heard submissions from counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for the appellants and Yoong Sin Min appearing for Public Bank.
Yoong said her client always put customer confidentiality as its top priority.
She said the bank had a very systematic procedure to secure the customer's private information.
Shafee claimed that his client suffered losses due to the leak of their banking information.
On July 29, 2019, the High Court dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs had failed to prove their claim against the bank on a balance of probabilities.
The court also ordered the five plaintiffs to pay RM350,000 in costs to Public Bank.
Salleh is the husband of former Wanita Umno chief Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.