A man sat outside court unaware a judge was granting his divorce and awarding custody of his daughter to his wife, because a clerk had not called his name.
The ombudsman, Andrew So Kwok-wing, said yesterday he was upholding the man's complaint against the Judiciary, which is to apologise for the blunder.
As compensation, Supreme Court Registrar Julian Betts has offered to waive court fees if the man wants to seek an order varying the terms of the custody agreement.
However, the man would still have to pay his own legal costs.
The case was published yesterday without any names being revealed by Mr So.
He said a similar complaint had been upheld in 1991 and the Judiciary had promised to prevent it happening again by issuing regular circulars outlining proper procedures to the judge's clerks - but it had not done so.
'This is not an isolated incident,' he said.