Lim’s lawyer Americk Sidhu told a three-member Federal Court bench chaired by Nallini Pathmanathan he was informed Ruslan passed away last week.
“I am withdrawing the suit against the defendant (Ruslan) following his passing on Sept 17,” he told the judges at the outset of the appeal hearing today.
Nallini then struck out Ruslan as a party to the suit with no order to costs.
The other judges who sat with Nallini were Abdul Rahman Sebli and Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.
In 2012, Lim, then the Penang chief minister, sued Perkasa, its president Ibrahim Ali, Ruslan, as well as newspaper companies The New Straits Times Press and Utusan Melayu.
In court today, Perkasa and Ibrahim were represented by lawyer Adnan Seman.
Lim is relying on a Sept 26, 2018 ruling by the apex court that a government can sue a citizen for defamation, refusing to accept the common law Derbyshire principle that public authorities cannot bring an action against a person for lowering their reputation.
The question of law which was consented to by all parties last year for the Federal Court to determine was whether Lim had locus standi to maintain the lawsuit in his official capacity.
On Dec 21, 2016, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals by Perkasa and the publishers to overturn a decision by the High Court which ordered them to pay damages to Lim for defaming him.
The appellate court had ruled that Lim could not sue the media for defamation in his official capacity.
Then Court of Appeal judge Rohana Yusuf (now Court of Appeal president) had said the court was bound by its earlier decision in the case of Utusan Melayu against former Pahang menteri besar Adnan Yaakob, that a public official could not sue anyone, including the media, for defamation.
Rohana said the court had accepted the principles decided in Derbyshire.
However, following the Sept 26, 2018 ruling by the Federal Court in another case that the government can sue for defamation, the publishers abandoned their appeals last year, agreeing to follow the High Court decision and pay him RM200,000 each in damages.
Nallini today said the bench reserved its verdict, after hearing submissions, as points of law raised required a written judgment.
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