TNB told to pay RM2.8mil
29/05/2008 The Star  By PRISCILLA DIELENBERG

GEORGE TOWN: Tenaga Nasional Bhd's application for stay on a High Court judgment to pay RM2.8mil as compensation to 12 landowners has been dismissed.

Justice Ghazali Cha, in chambers yesterday, dismissed the application in the presence of TNB's counsel David Matthew and counsel for the landowners R. Ramanathan Pillai.

No change: The 18-storey Wisma TNB in Jalan Anson, Penang, where the writ of seizure and sale was executed on May 16. A check yesterday revealed it was business as usual at the tower.

The High Court judge, however, granted TNB a 48-hour interim stay to file for an interlocutory order at the Court of Appeal pending the outcome of the appeal proper.

TNB put up a national grid system, which is a permanent structure, on 14ha of land in Sungai Bakap in 1997 and offered the landowners RM230,000 in compensation.

The landowners, however, refused to accept the amount and filed a suit at the High Court in 1999. They claimed the structure had affected the development potential of the land.

On Feb 15 last year, the High Court ordered TNB to pay RM2.8mil compensation to the landowners.

The amount came up to RM4.8mil after taking into account interest accumulated from 1997.

TNB filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the order on March 10.

On May 16, court bailiff Raja Mohamad Harun Al-Rashid Raja Akbar Al-Rashid executed a writ of seizure and sale at the 18-storey Wisma TNB at Jalan Anson here and proceeded to do part of the inventory.

The inventory-taking was to resume on May 20 but was deferred pending TNB's application for stay on the judgment.

A check at Wisma TNB yesterday revealed operations as usual.