breach of contract

Dear Sir,
I want to know in Malaysian courts, if there is a breach of contract case, and the plaintiff is claiming a substantial amount from the defendant. However if the defendant could not come up with a lump sum to pay, will the court consider payment in installments?
In the contract, there is no mention about the term of payment.
Thank you.
Regards.

So long as the defendant admits to owing the amount that is claimed for, how that amount is paid is left entirely between the parties i.e. it can be paid by instalments or by one lump sum. The Court is not concerned with how the defendant pays the amount it owes, it is only concerned whether the defendant owes the money or not.

thank you for the reply. now the problem is, the plaintiff (i think this term is inappropriate, because we haven't been to court yet) do not want installment payment. They want it to be paid in lump sum, however I don't have that much of money. They are threatening to sue, if I don't pay them in a lump sum. That's why, I am wondering, if this case goes to court, can the court intervene and allow me to pay back in installments. This contract is actually a training bond contract between a company and me (the employee).

Unfortunately, as I have said before, the Court is unlikely to bother whether you pay the debt due as a lump sum or through instalments. What I suggest that you do is that you write officially (on a without "prejudice basis") to the Plaintiff and offer repayment on an instalment basis, and see what they do next. If the sum is small, the Plaintiff might have difficulty suing as the legal fees may not justify the recovery of the sums owed by you. If the Plaintiff insists on suing you, then when you receive your summons, you can fill the "Notis Kehadiran" accordingly with your proposed instalment payments at the appropriate places. That's the best that you can do.

thank you very much for your reply. can i please know, how much is considered a big amount. Is RM 50K considered small or big?
sorry, to ask so many questions. thanks again.

Dear valiant,
First let me congratulate you for being honest and wanting to meet your obligations.
Since u say the amount is 50K it would be worth the while for the company to engage the services of counsel to sue you for what is due to them.
Usually in a training bond a specified period of service would be mentioned. How much of it have you served? That could be taken into consideration to determine the amount you owe the employer.For a start if you are sued you can tell the court you wish to contest the amount as you have served a portion of the period after training.
If you admit you owe them 50k the court will enter judgement against you. The next step will be for the employer to enforce the judgement - it can be done in a variety of ways JDS, Bankruptcy etc.
I would suggest you wait for the summons and seek the services of a lawyer to see how the repayment can be arranged favourably for you or how you can buy time to make the repayment.  
iradvice

thanks for the reply. the bonding period is 36 months. i have already completed 27 months. For the remaining 9 months, the company is claiming about RM50K. Forgive me for using this term, but the agreement is really unfair. at the time of signing, i was stupid enough not to read it properly. according to the agreement, in the event of breach, the employee has to pay liquidated damages in amount of salary for the remaining months of unserved bond period  plus the amount of the training cost divided by the number of the remaing months of unserved period. this is coming to about RM50K. i only underwent training for 6 months. and please enlighten me as to what is a JDS?

regards.

A JDS is a Judgement Debtor Summons.This is a process in the Subordinate Courts to enable the plaintiff who already has obtained judgement against the defendant to enforce such order to recover what has been ordered as due to him. In a JDS the summons need to be served in person. On the date of mention the court will ask you how you wish to satisfy the order made against you. At this stage you cannot contest the amount claimed. If you can prove you have no means (say you are unemployed and have no assets) the Court may order you to pay in small installments.
You have served a substantial portion of your bond. One way to go about is to see how much was spent on you by the Company including training fees, air fares, salaries and allowances paid while you attended the training and divide it by the number of months you had to serve. You would get a monthly figure that will assist you to determine, if the 50K was indeed a reasonable amount. If it is not you should take your chances with the court by contesting the claim to be made by your employer.
If you can prove to the court the amount sought is unreasonable and you did not have much choice but to sign the document when you went on the course the Court may decide it is an "unconscionable bargain" and will relieve you of your legal duty to fulfil the terms of the agreement.
Good luck to you.

thank you very much for the reply. i really appreciate your help and guidance. if i use the formula of training fees, air ticket, salary and allowance, the amount i have to pay comes to about RM15K (for the unserved period). But since in the agreement, it is written as salary to be paid  in event of breach is for the bonding period (36 months) and not the training period (6 months), that's where the large amount of discrepancy comes out. it looks like the company wants to punish those who wants to leave early. i wish to thank you again, for your time and kindness for helping me out.

thank you.
regards.

hi, im facing a similar situation when i was made to sign on unfair terms.

I was sent into a new department.My training course is worth rm3300 and it is compulsory for me to undertake this course as part of my jobrole. I requested many times to pay for it myself but my employer refuses, my option is to sign the bond or to leave the department as i need to attend the course as part of my job role.

The bond stated that i am bonded for 2 years n if i leave early, i would need to pay my total salary for all the months unserved. I had to sign as i could not risk changing into a different dept. I have left the company and is facing compensation of rm60k+ for unserved service.

Can i contest that the compensation amount is unfair? or an arbitraty figure? Cost of training is rm 3300 but they are asking me to pay rm60k. its in insane to think that the co face fin loss of rm3300 vs rm60k they asking me to pay. Also, in my original employment letter there was no mentioning of this training bond. The training bond contract came in much later when i was transfered into the new dept.

Please help,please.

Dear All,

I have singed a bonding agreement, which stated that I have to serve the company for 2 years and if I resign before the period ended, I need to pay them double the amount of the training course, for which they have paid.

Let's say I resign after serving the bond agreement for 1 year only, do I need to pay the full amount as in the agreement or do I need to pay half of the amount since I have served the company for half of the bonding period?

Is it legal for a company to ask the employee to pay for a penalty which is double the actual amount the company had spent?

Please advice.