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 ©MySinchew
(Used by permission)
by Bob Teoh & Tan Lee Chin
Another group of 307 pig farmers are waiting for the Court of Appeal to hear
their final appeal to be allowed to sue the government for claims arising from
the Nipah outbreak a decade ago.
In another case, the Court of Appeal had allowed another group of 184 pig
farmers to sue the government. But it appealed to the Federal Court on Tuesday
(15 July) that the farmers’ suit is defective and frivolous and should be thrown
out. Judgment is reserved.
Both groups of farmers are from Bukit Pelanduk, the country’s pig farming hub
before the virus outbreak killed off the industry. Both filed claims against the
government six years ago for alleged negligence in containing the epidemic in
1998.
 The group of 184 farmers filed their suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court which
has gone up all the way to the Federal Court to decide whether the government is
protected by immunity from such suits, among other things. The second group of
307 farmers filed theirs at the Seremban High Court in March 2002. The
government succeeded in striking out their suit two years later. But the farmers
appealed to the Court of Appeal. They are waiting for a hearing date for the
court to decide whether they have a case against the government.
In the Seremban High Court suit, the 307 farmers are suing the Negeri Sembilan
Director of Veterinary, State Government, Director General of Veterinary
Services, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Health and the Federal
Government.
The farmers’ grounds for claims are that the government had breached their
statutory duties, violate their constitution rights, negligent, breach their
legitimate expectation, trespass and breach natural justice.
The pig farmers are asking the court to make a declaration to allow them to
resume pig farming in the area and also financial compensation to be quantified
by the court adequate to compensate their loss of over 300,000 pigs.
The viral encephalitis outbreak which affected workers in the porcine industry,
was caused by a then unknown virus later identified and tagged as Nipah. The
outbreak occurred between September 1998 and May 1999. Of the 265 infected, 105
died. The government ordered over one million pigs to be culled to contain the
outbreak. It took some eight months to bring the epidemic under control.
The outbreak was thought to have started around Ipoh in September 1998 but
subsequently spread to Bukit Pelanduk in Negri Sembilan, the hub if the
industry.
The Negri Sembilan Government has banned pig farming in the state since March
1999, and degazetted land for pig farming as well as revoking all licences for
pig farming. The authorities had also culled pigs and cause destruction to their
structures of various pig farms.
The Government, like in the Kuala Lumpur High Court case, has also asked the
court to strike out the pig farmers’ case summarily without having to go to
trial also on grounds that it is defective and frivolous .The High Court agreed
and struck off the farmers’ suit in March last year, 5 years after the case was
filed.
The farmers promptly appealed to the Court of Appeal. Hearing date has not been
fixed.
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Circular No 304/2008
