News & Views

Blakemore & Mitsuki (Blakemore), the Japanese member of Ally Law and the oldest international law firm in Japan, were instructing solicitors for a claim filed in Malaysia by Ally Law’s Malaysian member firm, Raslan Loong, Shen & Eow (RLSE). The claim involved a breach of a sale of goods contract regulated by Malaysian laws and was brought by an insurance company called Rakuten General Insurance Company Ltd (formerly Asahi Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd.) after it was assigned the title to sue under subrogation having fully settled the insured’s claims under a policy of insurance taken out in Japan.

Rakuten’s suit faced a preliminary objection by the defendants on the ground that it did not have locus standi because it had failed to comply with Malaysian law of subrogation and therefore could not bring the suit in its own name. Rakuten could have easily joined the insured as co-Plaintiff but both Ally Law firms Blakemore and RLSE remained firm in their advice on the private international law rule that a submission to jurisdiction was separate from the proper law of contracts, and Rakuten resolved to proceed without amending its pleadings despite losing the argument at first instance.

On appeal, the Malaysian Court of Appeal unanimously accepted the arguments of RLSE and reversed the decision of the High Court and reinstated the correct principle of private international law.

RLSE Litigation Team