Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Exceptional circumstances test

Legal area

Court

31 Mar 2015

SUEN MO JOEL v. DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE

Citation

SUEN MO JOEL v. DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCAL117/2012

The court held there were no special or unusual circumstances to depart from the general rule and therefore varied the costs order nisi so that the applicant is not required to bear the Director's costs incurred in preparing and opposing the leave application; additionally there was to be no order as to costs of the variation application.
7 Nov 2014

WONG CHIM HING V. DISCOVERY BAY TRANSIT SERVICES LIMITED

Citation

WONG CHIM HING V. DISCOVERY BAY TRANSIT SERVICES LIMITED
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCPI254/2011

The default rule is that a plaintiff who accepts a defendant's sanctioned payment in the High Court is prima facie entitled to have costs up to the date of acceptance taxed on the High Court scale, but the court may, in exceptional circumstances, invoke the 'otherwise' proviso in Order 22 r.20 to order taxation on the District Court scale. Exceptional circumstances can include acceptance of a sanctioned payment below the District Court jurisdictional limit of HK$1,000,000 where there is no objective evidence supporting a prospect of recovery above that limit; the defendant should normally giv…