PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) and the military have successful excluded themselves from a lawsuit by the next-of-kin of three passengers who were on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif ruled in their favour, dismissing an appeal by the next-of-kin to reinstate MAB and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief as defendants in the lawsuit.

The five-person Federal Court panel, which included Court of Appeal President Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Federal Court Justices Ahmad Maarop, Zaharah Ibrahim and Balia Yusof Wahi, also dismissed the appeal by the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department (DCA) to strike out their name from the suit.

This meant the case will continue against the DCA, MAB's predecessor Malaysia Airlines System Berhad (MAS) and the Malaysian Government.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, MAB lawyers said the decision was likely to cause MAB and the Air Force to be removed as parties in other similar suits filed by other family members of passengers who disappeared in the tragedy.

They said there have been 30 such cases filed, of which 18 were settled.

Senior Federal Counsel Alice Loke represented RMAF, DCA and the Malaysian Government, Sangeet Kaur acted for the families and Logan Sabapathy acted for MAB.

On Aug 28, 2015, the next-of-kin filed the suit to seek damages over the missing MH370 passengers Tan Ah Meng and his wife Chuang Hsiu Ling @ Cindy Chuang and their eldest son Tan Wei Chew.

The suit was filed by the couple's children Tan Wei Hong and Tan Wei Jie, plus the parents of Ah Meng, Tan Hun Khong and Lai Chew Lai, and the mother of Hsiu Ling and Chuang Hung Chien.

In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said MAS had breached its contract when it failed to ensure the airliner was in a good condition, which resulted in the passengers and aircraft becoming untraceable.

They also claimed that when contact with the plane was lost, the DCA failed to take appropriate action to regain contact or launch a search operation and that its disappearance could have been prevented if the RMAF had monitored its radars in real time and taken all needed action when the incident happened.

The Boeing 777-200ER jetliner went missing while on a flight from the KL International Airport to China on March 8, 2014.