Read the full judgment text of HCA 691/2015 on BabelCite. This Court of First Instance judgment was delivered on 18 September 2019 before Au-Yeung J (Queeny Au-Yeung).
Civil procedure – consolidation – severance – case management – land disputes – five related actions concerning the same subject lands in D.D.99 – whether the three TA Actions (HCA 1295/2015, 1849/2015 and 1850/2015) should be consolidated with the filing of consolidated pleadings – held no, the TA Actions should be heard together before the same trial judge with HCA 1295/2015 designated as the leading TA Action and composite witness statements filed, in order to avoid further delay and costs given that the consolidation issue had already been the subject of four hearings – Rules of the High Court Order 4 rule 9(1) provides the court with four options including consolidation or trial together or one after another – Chan Yuet Ying v Wong Choi Hung applied – whether the adverse possession issues in the 691 and 694 Actions should be severed from the tenancy issues and consolidated with the TA Actions – held yes, severance is appropriate under Order 15 rule 5 because the adverse possession claims and tenancy claims concern different portions of the land and different parties, and the MUL Camp's tenancy case does not depend on the squatters' averments – Jose Miranda Da Costa Junior v Lorenzo Yih applied – the tenancy issues in the 691 and 694 Actions should be stayed (not consolidated) pending the TA Actions because the TA pleadings already cover those issues and discontinuance is inappropriate given potential costs issues – whether previous pleadings should be expunged – held no, pleadings should not be expunged where they were validly filed and neither consolidation nor severance retroactively renders filing unjustified – the court exercises its case management discretion to designate HCA 691/2015 as the leading AP Action and HCA 1295/2015 as the leading TA Action, with cross-binding findings of fact and use of revised case summaries – consolidation order made on 8 March 2019 in HCA 691/2015 not to be sealed or take effect – practitioners reminded to file consolidation summons in all cases proposed to be consolidated rather than seeking order in one case upon undertaking to file similar summons in the others – costs of various actions and amendments to be in the cause of the respective AP Actions, TA Actions or third party proceedings.
Legal issues: Whether the TA Actions should be consolidated with filing of consolidated pleadings · Whether the adverse possession issues in the 691 and 694 Actions should be severed from the tenancy issues · Whether existing pleadings should be expunged
Outcome: The court declined to order consolidation of the 5 actions and declined to order expungement of pleadings. The court ordered severance of the adverse possession issues in HCA 691/2015 and HCA 694/2015 from the tenancy issues, with the tenancy issues to be stayed pending the TA Actions. HCA 691/2015 was designated the leading AP Action and HCA 1295/2015 the leading TA Action.
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