XCHRX POON YUET CHUN v. TSE SO KWAN

HCA 8006/93

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

ACTION NO. 8006 OF 1993

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D E C I S I O N

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1. This is an application by the Defendant for an order varying the order nisi as to costs that I made in the judgment handed down on 29th June 1999.

2. In that judgment, I found that on one cause of action, that is conversion, the Defendant was not liable to the Plaintiff.

3. The fact that the Plaintiff's articles had been burned is not in dispute, nor is it disputed that the Defendant's husband had caused the burning to take place. As I indicated in my judgment at p.31, this court deplored those acts of vandalism. This court did not accept the evidence of the Defendant's witness, her husband. I simply found that there was no evidence that the Defendant had authorized her husband to do so and the Plaintiff had not made any claim against the husband himself.

4. There is no reason for the Plaintiff to be penalised in costs in those circumstances by having to pay the Defendant her costs on this issue. As to whether there should be no order as to costs. I have considered the time spent on this issue, which was minimal compared with the time spent on the rest of the case, and therefore, I would decline to vary the order nisi that I had made in my judgment.