Insurance fraud


Insurance fraud or takaful fraud is any of the unlawful and
untruthful act commited by an insurance company. It occur and
may be committed at different points in the transaction by
differnt parties such as policy owners.
The components of insurance fraud are the intention to deceive
and also desire to induce the insurance company
Examples of insurance fraud are creating a fraudulent claim
and also overstating the amount of loss and also misrepresenting
facts to receive payment.

Therefore, you should be wary of the unregistered insurance agent.
Other than that, you should also avoid paying premium in cash.
You should make sure you receive a written policy after the
payment of my first premium.

Joint Tenancy Term

According to an article, there is one family which has
a father, mother and a son. However, unfortunately the husband
passed away during an accident. The husband and wife
had a joint account amount to RM50,000 in a local bank.
The wife thought that she will get the money automatically
when the husband passed away.However, to her astonishment,
she could not even withdraw a single cent from the account.

For your information, a joint account holder will be able
to get the money automatically when that bank practise
"Joint Tenancy". This term tell us that when one party die,
the other party will get the money automatically.
Sad to say that, not all banks adopt this practice.

There is one lawyer that argues that there is this term
which is joint tenancy versus tenancy in common. This term
appears in the English and Common Civil Law. He argued that
even Malaysia's bank or lawyers are not able to tell you what
exactly is Joint Tenancy and Tenancy in common.We don't have
the same law as England.

Sexual Harassment

Survey conducted indicates that female employees who had
been subjected to sexual harassment in the officed ranged from
42% - 70% which is at an alarming rate. This survey
is conducted by the former Minister of Human Resources, Malaysia.
This means that 7 out of 10 female workers are being sexually
harassed in the work place.



There are 5 possible forms of sexual harassment, namely:

• verbal harassment :offensive or suggestive remarks, comments, jokes, jesting, kidding, sounds, questioning.

• non-verbal/gestural harassment : leering or ogling with suggestive overtones, licking lips or holding or eating food provocatively, hand signal or sign language denoting sexual activity, persistent flirting.

• visual harassment : showing pornographic materials, drawing sex-based sketches or writing sex-based letters, sexual exposure.

• psychological harassment :repeated unwanted social invitations, relentless proposals for dates or physical intimacy.

• physical harassment :inappropriate touching, patting, pinching, stroking, brushing up against the body, hugging, kissing, fondling, sexual assault.

Psychological abuse

While surfing on the net, i found out that in the previous
years, some proposal is being proposed by The governmental
Women's Development Department. The propotion was made to
the Parliament. They propose that Malaysian men should be
put in jail when they psychologically assault their wife.

As before this, the Malaysian law only give protection to
women from physical violence, which the women's development
department think it is clearly not enough.

This proposal is made due to the statistics showing that about
90% out of the 800 women who called to the Women Aid Organizatin
for help last year reported being psychologically abused.
Of course, there are some who are physically assaulted as well.

However it is very hard to determine whether the woman is being
psychologically abused by the husband. In this case, we wil
start to wonder what is the level to define the words being
used is abusive. At the same time, how many times the abusive
words are to be repeated only we consider it as an offend?

Emotional damage is therefore very difficult to be proved.
At the same time, the issue of causation is important as well.

Defamation Law

One of the risk that bloggers facing is
the defamation law. There is one example where
the famous Malaysia blogger Jeff Ooi is sued by
NST during July 2007. Defamation to be exact
means the way of expressing your words which
may insult the other party in the public.Other than
that Mca Public Service and Complaints Department
head Datuk Michael Chong also filed a defamation
suit againts t Guang Ming Daily for publishing a report which allegedly referred him as"Ah Long King". The report also carried a meaning that he could not be trusted, a criminal, a liar and a dishonest person and not fit to head the MCA Public Service and Complaints Department, he said.
This happened during September 2007.

There are two types of defamation in Malaysia: libel and slander.

Libel is when such words are expressed in a permanent form which is usually visible to the eye, like in a book, e-mail or picture.
Slander is when such words are expressed in a temporary form, usually when spoken or made by body movements.

In civil cases of defamation, when a private person sues another private person for defamation, the Defamation Act 1957 is applicable.
In criminal cases of defamation, when the state prosecutes a private person for defamation, Section 499 to Section 502 of the Penal Code is applicable.

McDonald vs McCurry back in 2006

In 2006, McDonald's won a five year legal battle in Malaysia against a small restaurant named "McCurry". The defendant claimed that McCurry stood for Malaysian Chicken Curry, but a High Court judge ruled that the prefix Mc and the use of colors distinctive of the McDonald's brand could confuse and deceive customers
In April 2009 however, McCurry won the case again after a retrial. Again in September 2009, McDonald’s lost an eight-year trademark battle in a precedent-setting judgment by Malaysia’s highest court. The Federal Court ruled that McDonald’s cannot appeal against another court’s verdict that had allowed McCurry to use ‘Mc’ in its name. The ruling by a three-member panel of the Federal Court ends all legal avenues for McDonald’s to protect its name from what it said was a trademark infringement. “On the basis of unanimous decision, our view is that McDonald’s plea to carry the case forward has no merit," said chief judge Arifin Zakaria. “It is unfortunate that we have to dismiss the application with costs,” he said. McDonald’s will have to pay RM10,000 to McCurry, a popular eatery in Jalan Ipoh on the edge of Kuala Lumpur’s downtown.
McDonald’s lawyers refused to comment, except to say the company will abide by the judgment. A three-member Appeal Court panel had ruled in favour of McCurry Restaurant in April, 2009 when it overturned a 2006 High Court ruling that had upheld McDonald’s contention. Arifin said McDonald’s lawyers were unable to point out faults in the Appeal Court judgment, which had said there was no evidence to show that McCurry was passing off McDonald’s business as its own. The Appeals Court also said McDonald’s cannot claim an exclusive right to the ‘Mc’ prefix in the country.

An article from India

The government of India had asked the accountants,
cost accountants and company secretaries to directly
report to the home ministry cases of suspicious fund
movements in an out of companies, as it looks to crack
down on money laundering and terror funding
“If any suspicious fund movements come to the notice of
the professionals, details of it along with full particulars
of its clients should be reported within 24 hours,” said
a senior government official.

The move is aimed at sensitising professionals of
their responsibilities under Section 51A of the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which aims at preventing
routing of terror funds through domestic firms.

The move assumes significance at a time when India Inc
passes through the annual audit season, which
involves professionals such as CAs and company
secretaries to audit the financials of companies
and vet their management affairs. The government
wants that the professionals act in a more responsible
manner to report cases of corporate malafides as soon
as they come to their notice, the official said.

India is preparing to join FATF, an inter-government body founded by the G-7 countries in 1989 for developing and promoting national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF is currently evaluating India’s preparedness for its membership, which will allow the country to gain access to real-time exchange of information on money laundering and terror financing.

According to an article, there is one family which has
a father, mother and a son. However, unfortunately the husband
passed away during an accident. The husband and wife
had a joint account amount to RM50,000 in a local bank.
The wife thought that she will get the money automatically
when the husband passed away.However, to her astonishment,
she could not even withdraw a single cent from the account.

For your information, a joint account holder will be able
to get the money automatically when that bank practise
"Joint Tenancy". This term tell us that when one party die,
the other party will get the money automatically.
Sad to say that, not all banks adopt this practice.

There is one lawyer that argues that there is this term
which is joint tenancy versus tenancy in common. This term
appears in the English and Common Civil Law. He argued that
even Malaysia's bank or lawyers are not able to tell you what
exactly is Joint Tenancy and Tenancy in common.

Business Law Case Study Question

There is a case law which found on the web regarding on the
law of binding contract.
It was on 9 February 2010, James received a written offer
from Bond for the purchase of James's antique car for the
sum of RM55,000. The letter stated that if Bond did not give
a reply within this two weeks James will made an assumption that
Bond had accepted that offer. However, Bond did no reply on this.
Therefore, James claim that there is a binding contract between
him and Bond.

However, i personally think that there is no binding contract in
this issue. Silence never represent acceptance. Other than that
to make a binding contract to be lawful, there are six elements to
be considered. The elements are :
1) Offer
2) Acceptance
3) Mutual Agreement
4) Capacity
5) Consideration
6) Legality

Therefore , i think there is no binding contract developed
between them in this issue.

Question of the day


I found a question on the internet which voice out the cases like this:

If a subsidiary company increase its authorized and paid up share capital
without knowledge of holding company just to dilute the
shareholding percentage. Kindly inform what are the precautions
in legal terms to be taken by a Holding Company to Control
the increase or decrease the Paid up as well as Authorized Share
Capital in its Subsidiary Companies.

According to the law of company, the authorised capital of the
company can be increased at the EGM of the shareholders by
passing a ordinary as well as special resolution. At this kind of
situation, the authorised capital can not be increased by t
he subsidiary company on its own or without the consent of
the holding company. On the other hand, in the case of
increase of paid up capital by the subisidiary company
within the limit of authorised capital, precaution such
as by having control over the composition of board of
directors of the subsidiary company can be taken by
the holding company.

Revenue/ Income tax law

Sources of income which is subject to income tax are as follow:

• Gains and profits from trade, profession and business
• Salaries, remunerations, gains and profits from an employment
• Dividends, interests or discounts
• Rents, royalties or premiums
• Pensions, annuities or other periodic payments/li>
• Other gains or profits of an income nature not mentioned above.

in an example:
Harlina operates a petrol station in Greenlane, Penang,
under the dealership operated by Petronas. under
the dealership agreement with Petronas, the principal
agreed to reimburse Harlina in respect of sums expended
by heron sales promotion, advertising, etc, in return for Harlina
agreeing to buy for resale only the company's brand
of petrol. During the year 2007, a reimbursement
of RM50,000 was receivable from Petronas in respect
to a lucky draw organizedby the petrol station.

Issue: Advise Harlina on whether the reimbursement of RM50,000 payable
by Petronas is taxable.

Discussion : It is taxable. Such a receipt is in essence a recovery of advertising and
promotion expenses which are deductible business expenses.

Geena case


Geena runs an unregistered online investment portal, where she
managed to get people to deposit their money to the account.
Later, it was discovered that all these are a scam and she planned
to flee with the money, only to be arrested by the immigration
officers due to her fake passport.

-Geena is liable under Civil law. As this is an intentional deception
made for personal benefits and to damage the other parties.

-Geena has violate the forgery laws , counterfeiting fraud. It is the process
of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with
the intention to deceive. A person commited a forgery crime when he/ she

• alter any writings of a person
• utter any writings which he/she knows to be forged.

- Geena has conducted the unlicensed activity as the online investment portal
is unregistered.
- Geena has also engaged herself in the investment fraud as she intends to
flee with the money when the people discovered that it was a scam.

Ryan case

When driving his car in Georgetown, Ryan called and talked with his
wife though his mobile phone without the use of hands-free device.
While talking, he lost control over his car and eventually hit a walking
pedestrian.

- Ryan is liable under criminal law. This is because he has violated the
rules of driving. It is an offends against the state.

- The pedestrian should pursue this matter to the criminal courts in order
to recover his losses and injuries. When the matter is brought to the criminal
court , an accused may be convicted if he is guilty and acquitted if he is
innocent. By the time when the accused is convicted, he will be fined or
go through the imprisonment, or both. The pedestrian can sue the drivers
for the medical expenses and the pain and sufferings caused by the reckless
driver.

The pros and cons of Doctrine of Stare Decisis

Supporters of the system argue that it makes decisions "predictable", that is, a business person can be assured of the same decision in the same sort of case. The argument most often used against the system is that it is undemocratic as it allows unelected legislators to make law, or that it preserves wrongly decided cases. Critics also sometimes accuse particular judges of applying the doctrine selectively, invoking it to support precedents which the judge supported anyway, but ignoring it in order to overturn precedents with which the judge disagreed.

The doctrine of stare decisis post some of the pros and cons below:

Flexible
It is sometimes said to be flexible. A judge is not so free where there is a binding precedent. Unless it can be distinguished he must follow it, even though he dislikes it or considers it bad law. His discretion is thereby limited and the alleged flexibility of case law becomes rigidity.

Avoids mistakes
It provides guidance based on the previous judges' experience. therefore, it prohibit the happening of wrong judgement by the judge itself if he was left to make the decision alone.

Greater certainty in the law
It can be considered as the most important advantage claimed for the doctrine of judicial precedent.

Causes injustice
The overruling of an earlier case may cause injustice to those who have ordered their affairs in reliance on it. Precedent may produce justice in the individual case but injustice in the generality of cases. It would be undesirable to treat a number of claimants unjustly simply because one binding case had laid down an unjust rule.

Limits development of the law
It is a limiting factor in the development of judge-made law. Practical law is founded on experience but the scope for further experience is restricted if the first case is binding.

First entry- Intro on business law

As this is the first entry of my blog post
i would just roughly mention on the introduction of business law.
Business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce
and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of
private law and public law. It is important that manager nowadays should
be getting more familiar with the business law especially for those who are
responsible in making decisions.

Even though business law is quite strict nowadays but there are still some shortcomings
both in small business law and in corporation law. The number of shortcomings is pretty
numerous until some find it struggling to manage their business without an assistance
of certain services. The thing is that direct or uncovered business is theoretically
possible in legal environment of business.

more to come in the coming posts. :)