RE LEUNG WING FAI

HCB 3332/2013

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS NO 3332 OF 2013

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REASONS FOR DECISION

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1.  On 10 May 2013, Fortune Gourmet Company Limited presented a bankruptcy petition against Mr Leung Wing Fai, trading as Wah Ming Engineering Company. A statutory demand dated 10 April 2013 had been served, based on an order made by consent in High Court Action No 1653 of 2011, in which the petitioner was plaintiff and Mr Leung the 2^nd defendant. By that order, which took the form of a Tomlin order, all further proceedings between the petitioner and Mr Leung were stayed, except for the purpose of carrying into effect the terms of the parties’ agreement as set out in the schedule to the order.

2.  The agreed terms require Mr Leung to pay $160,000 by two instalments of $30,000 each followed by 12 instalments of $8,333 each, starting from 15 October 2012.

3.  None of those sums have been paid by Mr Leung. At the hearing of the petition before me on 15 July 2013, Mr Leung said that he was a contractor who had done renovation work for the petitioner as employer. He claimed that he could not understand why the petitioner did not have to pay him the contract sum and that instead he had to pay $160,000 to the petitioner.  He also said he had no means of paying the sum of $160,000.

4.  I do not accept Mr Leung’s explanation.  He was represented by solicitors in entering into the compromise in HCA 1653/2011. The schedule attached to the Tomlin order is written in Chinese which he could read and must have read.  Paragraph 2 of the schedule states that neither party can make any further claim against the other.  It was plainly a full and final settlement of the dispute between the parties.  As Mr Leung himself admitted, the petitioner was claiming against him for over $1 million and by that settlement agreed to accept only $160,000.

5.  Further, on 30 January 2013, by consent, it was ordered in HCA 1653/2011 that paragraph 1 of the schedule to the Tomlin order be enforced, and that Mr Leung do pay the sum of $160,000 forthwith together with interest at judgment rate from 15 September 2012.  Mr Leung was still represented by solicitors when this consent order was made.  The same solicitors accepted service of the statutory demand on behalf of Mr Leung.

6.  As Mr Leung had raised no valid defence to the petition, I made the usual bankruptcy order with costs at the hearing.