4 May 2023
RE GUY KWOK-HUNG LAM (林國雄)
- Citation
- [2023] HKCFA 9
- Court
- Court of Final Appeal
- Case number
- FACV13/2022
Where a petition debt is disputed and the dispute falls within an exclusive jurisdiction clause covering legal proceedings, the court should, absent strong countervailing reasons (eg risk to third-party creditors, imminent and massive insolvency, abuse of process), decline to decide the dispute in Hong Kong and instead stay or dismiss the petition so the dispute can be determined in the agreed forum; the Established Approach requiring a debtor to show a bona fide dispute remains subject to this discretion and does not prevail over an operative EJC in ordinary cases.