Benjamin Cheung's creativity was hindered by the crash, a court hears
A celebrated Hong Kong comic book artist lost the ability to be the 'soul' of his creations after a traffic accident left him in chronic pain, a court heard yesterday.
The accident on October 1, 1998, in which Benjamin Cheung Man-yau, 46, sustained fractures to his spine, interrupted his creativity, Ambrose Ho SC told a hearing into the assessment of damages. His wife Li Ying-yi also sustained injuries to her cheek, eye and forearm.
The couple are suing Lai Wing-kwong, the driver of the light goods van in the accident, as well as the van's owner, To Sai-hung, after an earlier hearing found them to be liable.
The cartoonist and his wife were knocked from their motorcycles on a Yuen Long road and required extensive treatment and hospital care, the Court of First Instance heard.
'He was the main artist in producing the drawings, producing the storylines, producing the characters, giving the characters life ... basically he was in one sense the soul of the comic book,' Mr Ho said.
The main area of dispute between the parties was the size of Cheung's claim - $5.7 million - for post-trial lost earnings.