PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today affirmed that CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd (CTOS) has the power to formulate its own credit score.
A three-member bench led by Court of Appeal president Judge Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim made the decision after dismissing a businesswoman's final bid to restore the High Court's ruling in March.
At that time, High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir had ruled that CTOS does not have the power to formulate its own credit score as it was only empowered to be a repository of the credit information to which its subscribers have access.
Akhtar said this in his judgment before ordering CTOS to pay RM200,000 in general damages to Suriati Mohd Yusoff, who owned a resort in Pulau Perhentian, for inaccurate credit rating.
However, the Court of Appeal in July overturned the lower's court decision on grounds that Suriati failed to make out a case in defamation, negligence or breach of statutory duty against CTOS.
Suriati filed an appeal against the appellate court's ruling to the apex court.
In today's proceeding, the top court, when dismissing Suriati's leave application to initiate the appeal, said the appellant failed to fulfil the questions of law under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act (CJA) 1964.
The court also awarded RM30,000 in cost to the company.
Other members of the bench were Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.
The 43-year-old businesswoman sued CTOS for alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty in misrepresenting her credit rating leading to a loss of reputation, personal losses as well as business losses.
Apart from inaccurate information, she contended that the defendant had given her a low credit score leading to loss of confidence from financial institutions.