A DINER'S bad table manners cost him his life after a fellow customer objected to his spitting and attacked him outside a restaurant, the High Court heard yesterday.
Chang Wing-chi, 59, died in hospital after he and Lam Pak-cheung, 56, allegedly fought outside the restaurant where they had just eaten lunch.
However, prosecutor Andrew Allman-Brown said doctors did not operate on Chang for more than 24 hours and had failed to spot on X-rays that he had suffered internal injuries.
The jury heard how Lam, a caretaker, who denies manslaughter, was enjoying a bowl of noodles and a glass of rice wine on July 1 last year when he noticed the man at the next table spitting.
Yu Shu-kei, 36, owner of the Tim Kei Restaurant in Western, told the court he saw Chang spit and heard Lam ask him to stop.
'There was a quarrel. It was something about spitting. Spit got on to someone. I heard one accuse the other of spitting, Mr Yu said.
'I saw the other man spit. He had been to the restaurant twice and on both occasions he had spat like that. On the previous occasion I had already told him not to spit and not to disturb other people.' Mr Yu said Chang, a mason, was 'very arrogant' and became increasingly raucous as he gulped down Chinese wine.