Court battle begins over Anita Mui's HK$100m estate

The mother of Anita Mui Yim-fong began her belated High Court battle for the late Canto-pop queen's multimillion-dollar estate yesterday.

At a pretrial hearing in the Court of First Instance, the estate administrator asked for permission to sell a property held by the estate in Shouson Hill Road to pay HK$104,000 in outstanding mortgage payments, and administration costs and fees to maintain the estate's assets. The administration costs came to HK$300,000 a month.

Mui's mother, Tam Mei-kam, 84, representing herself, earlier said she had no money due to expensive legal fees. She receives HK$68,000 a month from the estate.

The mother claimed the will made on December 3, 2003, less than a month before Mui lost her fight against cervical cancer on December 30, at the age of 40, was not valid because her daughter was not in full command of her faculties when she signed the document. The original writ, filed in March 2004, said that if the court found the will invalid, Ms Tam was entitled to be the sole administrator of the estate.

The unmarried singer left assets worth more than HK$100 million, the court heard.

Ms Tam said she would testify that someone had 'inappropriate influence' on her daughter.

Ms Tam's only witness is private neurologist Edmund Woo, who has written a report based on the hospital's medical records in an attempt to prove that Mui did not have the mental capacity to sign the document.