An unwelcome reminder of why 'the law is an ass'
Every now and again we are reminded of the truth of the expression, "The law is an ass."
Ever since Aquitaine Investment Advisors moved into new premises in June, it has been receiving hand-delivered legal documents: writs, bundles of skeleton arguments from two law firms - Simmons & Simmons and Howse Williams Bowers. However, the respondents no longer occupy the premises.
Aquitaine has told the messengers and emailed the chief operating officers of both law companies informing them of the situation. But still the documents have kept arriving.
"We tell both firms' delivery employees that the service is incorrect - their response is simply: 'We know this, just throw them away'," writes Aquitaine's group managing director, Marlene Whittman. She added, "I can't do that. It's not the right way to treat sensitive legal documents."
She began to wonder about the professionalism of these two law firms.
However, Kevin Bowers, a senior partner with Howse Williams Bowers, told that much as he regrets the situation, there is nothing he can do about it. His company represents the liquidator of Wing Fai Construction. Two of the defendants are acting in person and have given their previous office premises, now occupied by Aquitaine, as their address for serving documents. The defendants in question have disappeared. "Until they change that address, I have no option but to keep sending documents there even though I know they are not there. It's a court rule. I'm under a court direction to carry on doing it," says Bowers.
He concedes that it's unfortunate for Whitman and he wishes he could send them somewhere else. But the law is the law, and from time to time it's an ass.
It's a poor show if you fall asleep on the job. But if you're an air traffic controller, it's pretty serious. But this is what happened at Wuhan airport recently. A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 was preparing to land, reports AFP, but had no response from the air traffic control tower for 12 minutes. The plane landed safely but "because air traffic control was asleep on duty, [the plane] called many times," civil aviation authorities said in a statement quoted by the business magazine . "But there was no reply, and no contact could be made with the control tower."
Citing a separate investigation, said two controllers had fallen asleep. The incident happened on July 8 and the statement was dated July 29 but there was no explanation for the delay in making it public. The report triggered online anger at the danger the incident posed for air safety. "Such serious consequences. Should let him sleep as much as he wants in prison," said one post.
Arts affairs
In our piece of July 31 headed "Tycoon bids for a piece of Central Police Station project", we wrote that two of the bidders that submitted a proposal to operate the contemporary art element of the project were "ruled out on a technicality because they were not set up as non profit-organisations".
However, the bidder mentioned, a consortium which included Asia Arts Archive, Para Site, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Ink Society and the School of Architecture of the Chinese University of Hong Kong are in fact all set up as non-profit organisations, and with the exception of the latter have charitable status.
The technicality which made the consortium ineligible for consideration was that it was not registered as a special purpose company.
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