Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Crabtree principle

Legal area

Court

28 Mar 2022

PERPETUAL WEALTH (HONG KONG) LTD v. BE SOLUTIONS CO LTD AND OTHERS

Citation

[2022] HKCFI 888
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCCT42/2021

Although the judge was satisfied that the s905(1)(a) threshold was met on the evidence that D1 was a shelf company with nominal capital and a secretarial address, in the exercise of the court's discretion security for costs was refused because D1's counterclaim was in substance a defence arising from the same transaction and did not constitute an independent cross-claim that enlarged the ambit of the action; ordering security would be unjust and tantamount to requiring D1 to provide security before being allowed to defend.
8 Aug 2019

HIGH ROUTE LTD v. WONG CHUNG KAI

Citation

[2019] HKCFI 1914
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA320/2019

The statutory threshold under s905 was crossed because the plaintiff failed to provide credible evidence of assets or present ability to pay, but on the exercise of the court's discretion security was refused because the plaintiff's claim and the defendant's counterclaim arise from the same facts so the Crabtree principle applies and defendant's defending costs are largely costs of prosecuting its counterclaim; therefore the application for security is dismissed.