XCHRX LEI SHING HONG SECURITIES LTD. v. NIGAM KIM TEE CHRISTINE

HCA18292/1998

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

ACTION NO.18292 OF 1998

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J U D G M E N T

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1. This is an appeal by the defendant from a decision of a master whereby the master refused to set aside a default judgment entered by the plaintiff against the defendant.

2. Having refused the application for adjournment, the only point that is in issue in this appeal is whether the defendant has any prospect of succeeding in defending the action.

3. The claim by the plaintiff against the defendant is in respect of a guarantee signed by the defendant in respect of a debt due by the principal debtor, Orient Fund Investment Limited ("Oriental Fund"), to the plaintiff whereby Oriental Fund wished to have more time to pay and the arrangement was entered into by an undertaking dated 24 August 1998. The guarantee is given so that the principal debtor would have more time to pay, in fact, by instalments. There is, therefore, more than sufficient consideration for the giving of the guarantee. There is nothing in the papers which suggests that the defendant has any prospect of succeeding in defending the action.

4. At the hearing, the defendant, in person, tried to introduce a new defence that she was insane at the time of the execution of the guarantee. But there is, first of all, no affidavit or no sufficient credible evidence to support this brand new defence. In any event, even the medical report that had been submitted to the court for the purposes of seeking an adjournment does not go that so far to suggest that the defendant was of such mental illness as to be incapable of validly signing the guarantee.

5. I therefore conclude that there is no substance in the appeal and the appeal must therefore be dismissed with costs.