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Paul Chan Mo-po and wife Frieda Hui Po-ming at the High Court in September 2014. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong development secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and wife fail to reduce HK$230,000 compensation in pupils defamation case

JULIE CHU

Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and his wife yesterday failed to convince a court to reduce compensation of HK$230,000 they were previously ordered to pay twin pupils for defaming them over claims of cheating at school – despite a judge believing the couple did so out of “good intentions”.

High Court Judge Anthony To Kwai-fung upheld the amount which the couple were told to pay last year after six emails they sent about twins Jonathan and Caitlin Lu, as well as their father - Chinese International School (CIS) governor Carl Lu - were ruled to be defamatory, while four of them were also malicious.

To, however, accepted some emails sent by Chan’s wife Frieda Hui Po-ming were protected by qualified privilege – a defence which permits someone in a position of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered defamatory if made by anyone else.

READ MORE: Jury rules development chief Paul Chan and wife lose defamation case

The judge believed the couple initially wrote the emails, which were sent between December 1 and 16, 2011, to preserve the image and reputation of CIS.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Over-enthusiasm in the pursuit of this common interest has allowed malice to brew in the mind of [Hui],” the judge wrote.

The High Court heard last year that the two sets of parents did not know each other before this case but their children were all then Year 13 students of the school.

Hui claimed she heard a rumour from her daughter Joyce that the twins were suspected of cheating during a test. She then sent emails – jointly signed by her husband – to the school and about 10 parents in the same grade to talk about the incident.

She wrote emails and discussed with the parents that she had heard the twins were suspected to have cheated in school tests, but that the twins had not been punished because their father was a governor of the school.

Even after a teacher had told Hui that the school had conducted two investigations and found the twins to be innocent on December 3 that year, Hui sent further emails to discuss the matter. Hui insisted she wanted to protect the school’s reputation and was not accusing any of the Lu family.

To found the couple only needed to pay 60 per cent legal costs for Jonathan Lu, his twin sister Caitlin and their father Carl while the Lu family also needed to pay 20 per cent of Chan’s costs.

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