Lawyers acting on behalf of a former liquidator of Wing Fai Construction, David Kennedy, have issued a statutory demand for HK$2.7 million against businessman Robert Yip Kwong.
James Wadham, a partner of law firm Clifford Chance, said the demand was issued against Yip for the partial payment of unpaid legal bills relating to a contempt case Yip and Kelly Cheng Kit-yin brought against Kennedy.
The pair had claimed Kennedy was in contempt of court after he gave police transcripts of their private examinations during a liquidators' investigation into the collapse of Wing Fai Construction in 2002.
In October 2009, in a judgment by the Court of Final Appeal, five judges ruled in Kennedy's favour: 'A liquidator's functions include serving the wider public interest by investigating wrongdoing and reporting the same to the authorities so as to enable them to take appropriate action.'
The judges, led by Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, said a liquidator 'may use any information obtained through such examinations to perform his functions, including that of reporting wrongdoing to the authorities'. 'In so reporting, he may disclose such information. And he may make such disclosure by supplying the transcripts of private examinations to the authorities. In doing that, he would not be violating any confidence.'
The judges ruled Yip and Cheng were liable for Kennedy's legal costs.