SHAH ALAM, Sept 29 — Fifty Taman Sri Muda residents have won a lawsuit against the government over negligence and breach of duty in connection with the devastating 2021 floods, which claimed 12 lives and wreaked havoc in the area.
The media reported that the High Court found the government liable for damages caused by the disaster, with Judicial Commissioner Shoba Rajah ruling that the residents had proven their claims against the federal government and two state agencies.
“The court holds that the plaintiffs established a foreseeable duty of care arising from the defendants’ (government) operational functions and disaster management responsibilities.
“The defence’s ‘act of God’ argument is inapplicable where reasonable human intervention was available. Negligence has been established. Foreign doctrines of immunity are irrelevant under Malaysian law,” she said today.
The respondents included the government of Malaysia, the National Disaster Management Agency’s (NADMA) director-general, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions), the Malaysian Meteorological Department’s (MetMalaysia) director-general, and the and the minister of environment and water.
The court also held the Selangor Irrigation and Drainage Department (JPS) and the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) jointly liable with the federal government.
In her ruling, Shoba noted that although data showed unprecedented rainfall on December 18, 2021, the state had the means to assess the severity of the situation but failed to turn the information into effective measures to protect residents.
Consequently, the court found the federal government liable for the operational failures of NADMA and MetMalaysia.
“NADMA failed to escalate the disaster response, maintain a Disaster Operations Control Centre, and deploy the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team unit effectively.
“MetMalaysia failed to issue timely warnings at the appropriate danger category despite its forecast activity benchmarks,” she said.
Shoba added that the court found serious shortcomings in the disaster management system, including the failure to conduct public awareness programmes in Taman Sri Muda despite the area being known to be flood-prone. Authorities also failed to accurately assess the disaster level, resulting in delays in mobilising the necessary response.
The court also pointed to delays in passing information from district to state authorities and the absence of designated liaison officers to coordinate the response. This resulted in search-and-rescue operations being carried out largely by non-governmental organisations and members of the local community.
Regarding Selangor JPS, Shoba ruled that the agency could not escape liability on the grounds that the rainfall had exceeded the capacity for which its infrastructure was designed.
“Once the assets were constructed and placed into operation, JPS assumed a continuing duty to maintain, upgrade, and operate them with reasonable competence.
“The defence that the capacity of the infrastructure had been exceeded is therefore insufficient where operational failures have compounded the problem,” she said.
Similarly, the court ruled that MBSA could not avoid its statutory responsibilities by arguing that the retention ponds and primary infrastructure were under JPS.
Shoba said that ownership of the infrastructure did not remove the local authority’s independent duty under street, drainage, and building laws to maintain the public drainage system within its jurisdiction.
The court has fixed Tuesday (October 6) for case management to determine the hearing date for the assessment of damages.
The residents were represented by lawyers James Joshua Paulraj, Regine Ng, Ahmad Badri Mustaffa, M Gobinath, and P. Taneswaran.
Senior federal counsels Mohammad Al-Saifi Hashim, Nurul Farhana Khalid, and Liew Horng Bin appeared for the federal government, while state legal counsel Faris Shah Kamarulzaman and lawyer Norazalina Hairuddin appeared for Selangor JPS and MBSA respectively.
