JUDGMENT

Introduction

[1] The question of law for which leave to appeal had been granted for this court's determination is as follows:

"Whether it is incumbent on the solicitor at the time of the execution of a disclaimer by his client to disclose the material facts which affect or may affect the decision of his client."

[2] The issue concerns a solicitor's duty to disclose material facts to his client. We heard arguments on 11 May 2016 and reserved judgment to a date to be fixed. We have now reached a unanimous decision and this is our judgment. For convenience, we shall refer to the parties as they were in the High Court, namely the appellant as the plaintiff and the 1st and 2nd respondents as the 1st and 2nd defendants respectively. The suit against the 3rd defendant was not pursued by the plaintiff as he could not be traced. He is not a party to this appeal.

The Plaintiff's Claim

[3] The plaintiff's claim against the 1st and 2nd defendants was for a sum of RM600,000.00, being the amount she had paid for the purchase of a piece of land held under native title NT013084190 ("the land") measuring 4.25 acres more or less situated at Kampung Laut, Inanam, Sabah. Her case was that she lost the RM600,000.00 through a deception scheme after placing her trust in the 1st defendant, a lawyer and partner in the 2nd defendant law firm whom she had retained to act for her in the land transaction. As it turned out, she never got the land and neither has she got back the RM600,000.00 purchase price that she had already paid for in full.