W v. W

HCMC 3/2004

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES NO. 3 OF 2004

(formerly known as FCMC No. 4361 of 2004)

____________

BETWEEN

____________

Before: Deputy High Court Judge Carlson in Chambers

Date of Hearing: 7 February 2005

Date of Ruling: 7 February 2005

___________

R U L I N G

___________

1.I will refer to the parties as the husband and the wife.  This is an application for further and better particulars of the wife’s affirmation in support of her application for maintenance pending suit.  The suit is a defended one although the parties have now been separated for about 18 months and so they could very easily opt for a consent divorce where both are agreed that the marriage is at an end.  This is a course that I would strongly commend to them if only as a means of saving on costs let alone on the emotional stress of fighting what would be an unnecessary defended divorce.

2.It is obvious from the wife’s lengthy affirmation that the parties are wealthy which would in the ordinary course of events suggest that there should be enough money available to arrive at a satisfactory settlement of the financial application.

3.Of this application, the wife says there is no need for her to provide particulars of what is a full affirmation particularly, where on an application for maintenance pending suit the court can only look at the matter broadly and make such order as is reasonable in all the circumstances.

4.The husband who has still to file his affirmation submits through Mr Kwong, who appears for him, that the wife has sufficient means of her own to make an application for maintenance pending suit unnecessary.

5.The request for particulars is contained in a letter dated 3^rd January 2005.  It is an extremely detailed request which I should observe, by way of general comment, asks for far too much given the relatively limited nature of the inquiry which the court would need to embark upon on an application for maintenance pending suit.  Sensibly in my view, Mr Kwong has now limited what he asks for to paragraphs 15, 16 and 17 of the request.  Whilst much of what is asked for under these paragraphs should be provided, alot is unnecessary at this stage for a proper disposal of the application.

6.Under paragraph 15, I will order the wife to provide her latest bank statements and credit card statements going back 6 months from today’s date.  Similarly, the current value of her equity and/or mutual fund holdings in the past six months should be provided.  She should also list the main items of jewellery which she has where the individual pieces exceeds $10,000.00 in value.  Lastly, she should list real property owned by her and provide in general terms the value of each property.

7.Under paragraph 16, the request relates to child maintenance but it has now become clear that the son, who is the only relevant child, is maintained by the husband and so it will not be necessary for her to provide these particulars where the son is wholly maintained by the husband.  This part of application for maintenance will therefore fall away and it is on this basis that I am not going to order particulars.

8.Under paragraph 17, the wife should produce the lease and rent receipts of the property that she currently occupies.  She will be at liberty to edit out the address.  She must also give full particulars of the mortgage expenses of $37,000.00 and provide supporting documentation in relation to that property or properties as may be the case.  She should also provide documentary evidence of the utility charges as well as the management fees of the property which she is currently living at.  She should provide fuller particulars of what are described as “other expenses” of $8,000.00 of month and also of her car expenses.  Under her personal expenses, she must provide fuller particulars of insurance premiums of $30,000.00 of month and produce the policies and also show how the medical and dental expenses of $15,000.00 a month are arrived at.

9.All the information that I have ordered is to be served and filed within 21 days of today. 

10.In my view these are sufficient particulars to enable the husband and the court to deal with this matter properly.

11.For his part, the husband must file his affirmation in reply to the wife’s within 14 days of today.  Any affirmation in reply by the wife will be filed and served within 7 days after that.

Miss Yanky Lam, instructed by Messrs Lau & Ngan, for the Plaintiff

Mr Jimmy Kwong, instructed by Messrs William Sin & Co., for the Respondent