Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Hong Kong Case Law

Bigamy and nullity

  • 25 May 2007

    L v. C

    Citation
    L v. C
    Court
    Court of Appeal
    Case number
    CACV181/2006

    The Court of Appeal held the trial judge erred in principle by re-opening and adjusting the parties' negotiated agreements on the basis of a separate 'inherent fairness' valuation exercise; where the parties intended the agreements as a clean break and acted upon them with legal advice, the assets allocated under those agreements should be put to one side and their values ignored when dividing the remaining matrimonial assets. The wife's deliberate non-disclosure warranted an adverse adjustment of HK$25,000,000 (as allowed by the trial judge) and the trial judge's figure calculations containe…

  • 25 May 2007

    L v. C

    Citation
    L v. C
    Court
    Court of Appeal
    Case number
    CACV169/2006

    Court of Appeal held the trial judge erred in principle by re-opening and adjusting the parties' concluded asset allocation agreements primarily by reference to monetary disparity; where parties freely, with legal advice, intended a clean break the court should respect the isolation of those assets unless good and substantial cause is shown. The judge's compensatory adjustments based on his valuation exercise were set aside; remaining (non-agreement) assets should be equally divided subject to an adverse adjustment for proven non-disclosure. The finding of bigamy was upheld but did not disent…