Developer cannot begin building in Mei Foo before December hearing

A developer wanting to build a high-rise at Mei Foo Sun Chuen has no legal argument to secure an interim injunction preventing protesting residents from blocking the site because it is not in a position to start work, the Court of Appeal says.

The court gave its reasons yesterday for earlier rejecting Billion Star Development's challenge to a judge's refusal to grant the interim ruling.

It said Deputy High Court Judge Queeny Au Yeung Kwai-yue had exercised her discretion in the decision, in which it would not 'lightly interfere'.

This leaves the developer unable to start work ahead of a substantive hearing in December in which it seeks an injunction against the protesters as well as damages.

The court rejected the developer's appeal on June 30. In a written statement of the reasons yesterday, it said Au Yeung's original decision on April 29 'was an exercise of discretion on her part which, on well-established general principles, the court would not lightly interfere with'.

Billion Star's 'inability to obtain an interim injunction relating to the access roads means, in reality, that it is not in a position to commence construction works on the land pending the substantive hearing'.

'There is therefore no real risk of people wishing to trespass onto the land for the purposes of stopping the proposed construction works.'