Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Demeanour assessment

Legal area

Court

11 Oct 2000

HKSAR v. TO FUK WING

Citation

HKSAR v. TO FUK WING
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA583/2000

The appeal is allowed because the conviction was unsafe: the magistrate failed to give adequate reasons for disbelieving the appellant (appearing to rely on an unsupported formula of 'I simply did not believe his evidence'), created the impression of improper reliance on demeanour contrary to guidance that demeanour is a last resort, and failed to give the required corroboration/warning in a pre-30 June 2000 sexual offence trial; cumulatively these defects required quashing the conviction and setting aside sentence.
26 Jul 1996

R. v. WONG HANG

Citation

R. v. WONG HANG
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA527/1996

The magistrate's credibility findings were unsafe because she over-relied on demeanour and other insufficient reasons; the evidence left reasonable doubt as to whether the appellant intended to injure the victim, therefore the conviction could not stand.
11 Aug 1981

SUKIT PACHIMSAWAT KAMALEE PACHIMSAWAT v. THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION AND ANOTHER

Citation

SUKIT PACHIMSAWAT KAMALEE PACHIMSAWAT v. THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION AND ANOTHER
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV4/1981

The defendants failed to discharge the high civil burden of proving that the plaintiffs were parties to the fraud: handwriting expert evidence and passport/identification evidence undermined the allegation that the 2nd plaintiff committed the Bank of America forgeries; the trial judge made material errors of reasoning and relied on speculation and insufficient factual findings (including failure to find the 2nd plaintiff was absent from Hong Kong); on the balance of probabilities the court concluded the defence had not proved plaintiffs' complicity and allowed the appeal, ordering repayment w…

Hong Kong Case Law

HKSAR v. TO FUK WING

R. v. WONG HANG

SUKIT PACHIMSAWAT KAMALEE PACHIMSAWAT v. THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION AND ANOTHER