Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Reasonable diligence requirement

Legal area

Court

21 Apr 2023

CHEN JINHUI v. WONG KAM SAN (黃錦新), by his guardian ad litem, HUANG YUEXIA (黃月霞) AND OTHERS

Citation

[2023] HKCA 513
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV178/2021

The Court dismissed the applications for leave to appeal: the Ladd v Marshall conditions were not satisfied for the excluded categories of new evidence; the reasonable diligence requirement could not be relaxed because the proposed evidence did not show a reasonable prospect that the CFI judgment was obtained by fraud for which the Plaintiff was responsible; Exhibit ZRW-32 (post-trial interview) was inadmissible because credibility could not be tested by cross-examination; interlocutory leave to appeal was refused as the questions did not meet the threshold for referral to the Court of Final…
21 Apr 2023

CHEN JINHUI v. WONG KAM SAN (黃錦新), by his guardian ad litem, HUANG YUEXIA (黃月霞) AND OTHERS

Citation

[2023] HKCA 513
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV173/2021

The Court refused leave to appeal: the Ladd v Marshall conditions govern applications to adduce new evidence on appeal; the reasonable diligence requirement will only be relaxed where there is a reasonable prospect that the judgment was procured by fraud causative of the impugned judgment and, in the context of an application to adduce fresh evidence, the evidence did not show such a prospect nor that the respondent was responsible for or aware of the fraud; post-trial interview evidence whose veracity cannot be tested by cross-examination is properly excluded; the questions raised were not o…
11 Oct 2019

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS

Citation

[2019] HKCA 1122
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV66/2017

The Court refused leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal because the questions were either not reasonably arguable or were premature and fact‑sensitive and therefore unsuitable for determination on a leave/striking out application; consequentially the application for leave was dismissed and costs awarded to Mayer.
12 Jul 2019

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS

Citation

[2019] HKCA 777
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV66/2017

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding it was not plain and obvious that Mayer’s contention on adoption of fraud was unsustainable and that the strike out judge erred in dismissing Mayer’s claim against the 4th and 5th defendants. The 2016 handwriting expert reports constituted new evidence and met the materiality threshold because they could establish conscious and deliberate dishonesty that was an operative cause of the earlier judgment; therefore the action to set aside the earlier judgments for fraud could not be struck out at this stage. Leave to amend was permitted and the stri…
7 Feb 2017

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS

Citation

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCCL2/2016

The Statement of Claim disclosed no reasonable cause of action against the 4th & 5th defendants because Mayer failed to plead or prove that B&A knew of, adopted, or knowingly relied on any fraud; the purported fresh evidence is not newly discovered or, alternatively, could have been obtained with reasonable diligence and is not sufficiently material to have changed the outcome. The action is struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action and as an abuse of process; Mayer ordered to pay the defendants' costs.

Hong Kong Case Law

CHEN JINHUI v. WONG KAM SAN (黃錦新), by his guardian ad litem, HUANG YUEXIA (黃月霞) AND OTHERS

CHEN JINHUI v. WONG KAM SAN (黃錦新), by his guardian ad litem, HUANG YUEXIA (黃月霞) AND OTHERS

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS

MAYER CORPORATION DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL LTD v. ALLIANCE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE LTD AND OTHERS