Nina Wang case goes to top court

The Chinachem Charitable Foundation can ask the Court of Final Appeal to decide in what capacity it holds Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's HK$83 billion estate.

Three Court of Appeal judges yesterday granted leave to the foundation to take the case to the top court, as the estate was worth more than HK$1 million and the matter fell within the law's requirement.

"There is no dispute that the foundation is entitled to the property comprised in the estate," vice-president Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon wrote in the judgment.

The appeal court in April upheld the Court of First Instance's finding that the foundation was to manage the estate as a trustee, with discretionary power to distribute funds. As a trustee, the foundation must carry out the terms of Wang's 2002 will, including performing charity work.

If the foundation was the absolute beneficiary, as it had contended, it would have become the sole owner of the Chinachem Group, one of the city's largest private property developers.

The foundation wants the top court to consider again whether the foundation received the estate as an absolute gift.