LO YING TO v. TSING YING SI t/a T & C CO

HCB 3397/2007

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

IN BANKRUPTCY

NO. 3397 OF 2007

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D E C I S I O N

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1. This is a bankruptcy petition presented by Lo Ying-to (“the Petitioner”) against Tsang Ying-si, trading as T & C Company (“the Debtor”).  The debt on which the petition is based is a debt of $18,047.61 arising from a Labour Tribunal award dated 31 August 2006, together with interest thereon from the date of award until payment at the judgment rate.  In addition to the debt owed to the Petitioner the Debtor is also, as often happens in these cases, indebted to a number of other former employees, or employees, in this case six other employees, with total claims of some $49,921.34 in respect of which it seems awards in the Labour Tribunal have also been obtained.

2. The Debtor has appeared before me today and has indicated that she considers that there may be some discrepancies in the amounts that have been put forward by the Petitioner and the other employees at the Labour Tribunal hearing.  However, it does not appear that any steps were taken by the Debtor at the Labour Tribunal hearing to dispute these sums or to seek an adjournment or time to investigate the correct amount of the sums that she says should have been claimed.  It also appears that no application has been made to set aside or to appeal against the award of the Labour Tribunal and, in the circumstances, I am satisfied that debts in the sums indicated in the petition are owing from the Debtor to the Petitioner and the other employees.

3. The only proposal that the Debtor has put forward for settling the indebtedness is, I am told, an offer to pay the sum of HK$2,000 per month until the entirety of the debt is paid.  That offer has been rejected by the employees.  I cannot possibly say that their refusal of the offer was in any way unreasonable, bearing in mind that they have already been waiting some time for payment and that on the repayment schedule that has been proposed, the principal amount of the debt alone will take just short of three years to clear.  By that time there will also be further interest accrued and so the likely total period required for full repayment is likely to stretch well past three years.  That is a length of time for which it is not reasonable to expect the employees to have to wait for repayment.

4. Although the Debtor has indicated that she feels that it is unsatisfactory for her to be bankrupted over a sum of $68,000 odd, the fact is that under the Bankruptcy Ordinance the legislature has indicated that the minimum debt on the basis of which a bankruptcy petition may be presented is $10,000.  In the circumstances, although the sum on which this petition is based may not seem to be a very large one to the Debtor, it is nonethelessone on which a petition may be founded, and it (and the other debts owed) cannot be regarded as insignificant from the point of view of the Petitioner and the other employees. 

5. As the Debtor is not able to pay the debt, I have no alternative but to make the usual bankruptcy order with costs against the Debtor.