Klang council’s dumpsite damages cut from RM117m to RM3m

The Court of Appeal on 26 October 2026 cut the damages that Klang's council must pay developer NBC Land Sdn Bhd over a former dumpsite from RM117 million to RM3 million. The three judges, ruling unanimously, also set aside nearly RM50 million in pre-judgment interest. The council, then the Klang Municipal Council (MPK), is now the Klang Royal City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Diraja Klang).

The land

• Purchase: NBC Land, then called Banjaria Sdn Bhd, bought 161.36 acres in Klang from Golden Hope Plantations Bhd on 30 June 2000, on an "as is where is" basis
• Dumpsite: Golden Hope had leased about 36 acres, Lots 77168 and 77169, to the council in 1997 as a municipal dumpsite. The lease expired on 22 April 2002, and the council had in fact used 39.479 acres
• Known risk: NBC Land knew when it bought the land that part of it was a dumpsite, and it later obtained approval for residential development

The 2003 deal

• The agreement: at a meeting on 2 December 2003 the council agreed to carry out the rehabilitation and pay half the cost, estimated at RM6 million. The deal was confirmed in letters in March and April 2004
• The method: covering the waste in place with about 1.5 metres of compacted soil, as proposed by NBC Land's own consultant
• The breach: on 9 December 2016 the council told NBC Land it would no longer honour the deal. The work was never done, and NBC Land sued in 2017

How the case went

• August 2019: the Shah Alam High Court dismissed NBC Land's claims for breach of contract, trespass and nuisance
• First appeal: the Court of Appeal ruled the contract claim was not time-barred, because the breach only happened in 2016. It upheld the dismissal of the trespass and nuisance claims and sent the case back to the High Court to set the damages
• 26 February 2026: the High Court put the cost of fully restoring the land, by digging out and removing all the waste, at RM234.03 million. It ordered the council to pay half, RM117.02 million, plus interest and RM50,000 in costs
• 26 October 2026: the Court of Appeal replaced that award with RM3 million, the council's half of the RM6 million agreed in 2003

Why the award was cut

• The contract sets the limit: the 2003 deal was for soil capping, not a promise to remove every piece of waste and return the site to clean ground, Justice K. Muniandy said
• A different job: the rise from RM6 million to RM234.03 million reflected a different scope and engineering method, not normal cost increases
• No interest: nearly nine years of interest, about RM50 million, on work that was never done would produce "an impermissible windfall", he said
• Costs: the council will pay 5% a year interest on the RM3 million from the date of the order, and NBC Land must pay RM60,000 in costs

The bench and lawyers

• Judges: Datuk Ismail Brahim, who chaired the panel, Justice K. Muniandy and Datuk Dean Wayne Daly
• Council: represented by former Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, with Datuk Seri Nik Suhaimi Nik Sulaiman and others
• NBC Land: represented by Harold Tan Kok Leng

What is not known

• Whether NBC Land will seek leave to appeal to the Federal Court
• Where exactly the site is, and what has been built on the rest of the 161 acres