Court rules against builder and City Hall
Published on: Friday, January 20, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: The Court of Appeal unanimously ruled in the favour of the applicants in the case involving the Pinnacle, a 15-storey high rise luxury condominium development on Signal Hill. The applicants had taken out an application for judicial review seeking remedies on the basis that the planning approvals granted by City Hall were illegal and void. The High Court had previously dismissed their application on the basis that they had come to court with unclean hands.
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The three appellate judges unanimously allowed their appeal and ordered costs to be paid by City Hall and the developer, Borneo Wealth Sdn Bhd.Lawyers representing City Hall and the developer had argued at some length that the applicants have no right to question the legality of the approval of the high rise development as their own properties, which were constructed over 30 years ago, allegedly contained some structures that had encroached onto the open space between their houses and the development. The applicants' lawyer, Chung Jiun Dau, however argued that the infringement notices from City Hall were issued to victimise the applicants as a result of the legal action taken by them and that DBKK failed to respond when queried about details of the alleged infringements.The applicants, including former State Attorney-General Tan Sri Herman Luping, took up legal proceedings in 2013 well before any site preparation or construction works had even begun.
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"We are pleased that after three years of legal efforts the Judicial Review into the legality of the approval of this development in a ridge conservation area will finally be heard on the merits."This is public interest matter which we had applied for the court to consider and determine before the construction had even begun. But the respondents have used repeated objections to avoid having the merits being litigated and this has caused proceedings to be dragged out this long," said one of the other applicants, Ratna Seri Arif.