The Secretary for Justice formerly known as The Attorney General (3rd Plaintiff) (Respondent) v Wing Lung Wai Community alias Wing Lung Wai Tai Chung alias Tang Wing Lung Wai Tai Chung (2nd Defendants) (Appellants)

Read the full judgment text of CACV 000173/1996 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 29 July 1999 before Chan CJHC, Mayo JA, Rogers JA.

Civil appeal – construction of Block Crown Lease – Lot No. 424 in Demarcation District No. 109, Wing Lung Wai Village, Kam Tin – New Territories Ordinance (Cap.97) s.15 – registered lessee seeking declaration that lot area was 4.64 acres and encompassed site of proposed relocated primary school – Government contending that only 0.15 acre was granted – whether the plan annexed to the Block Crown Lease (now illegible in respect of Lot 424) could be reconstructed from the Field Sheet and DD Control Sheets to show Lot 424 within a larger area – held, the trial judge was right to refuse the speculative inference that the lease plan would have shown Lot 424 in the middle of a 4.64-acre area; the Field Sheet, Field Area Statement and lease plan served different purposes and the lease plan was not identical with the Field Sheet – whether on a true construction of the Block Crown Lease the plan prevails over the Schedule's description in case of conflict – 'more particularly delineated and described' language in the parcel clause – held, the unambiguous statements in the Schedule as to area (0.15 acre) and Crown rent (15 cents) prevail, and the plan does not displace the verbal description on construction of the document as a whole – Wigginton v. Milner [1978] 1 WLR 1462, Eastwood v. Ashton [1915] AC 900, Neilson v. Poole (1969) 20 P & CR 909, Wallington v. Townsend [1939] 2 All ER 225 considered – Lintock Co Ltd v. Attorney General [1985] 2 HKC 555 followed on similar facts – Tang Kwok Ming v Daxprofit Scaffolding Ltd [1999] 1 HKC 657 cited on appellate restraint on factual findings – appeal dismissed – order nisi for costs against 2nd defendants with liberty to apply.

Legal issues: Reconstruction of the plan annexed to the Block Crown Lease · Conflict between Schedule description and plan in Block Crown Lease

Outcome: Appeal dismissed; the 2nd defendants' counterclaim was rightly dismissed.