Pawnshop loses court fight over theft costs
A pawnshop has lost its legal battle to recover in full the money it had advanced on two gold necklaces that were later found to be stolen from Chow Sang Sang Jewellery.
Instead, District Court Judge Leung Chun-man ruled that the Yau On Pawn Shop in Tai Po and the jewellery chain must each bear half of the financial losses involved. He ordered the necklaces returned to Chow Sang Sang.
This means each side has to shoulder HK$19,750 in losses, pay their own legal costs and split the HK$5,114 in police costs.
Pawnshop manager Hung Shui-wang said he was disappointed and planned an appeal to seek the full HK$39,500 his shop had advanced.
'It is not about money,' he said. 'The legal costs I have spent are far more than the values of the two gold necklaces. What I want is justice. It is unfair for us to shoulder half of the losses. From our view, it was a loophole in the management on the other side that gave rise to our losses,' Hung said.
He said he took every possible step to check whether the goods had been stolen, and should not be blamed. Chow Sang Sang's law firm, Bobby Tse & Co, said the judgment was what the jewellery shop had sought.
In his written judgment, Leung said one side could not be held more blameworthy than the other.
Under the law, the judge said, losses and damages from pawning unlawfully gained items should be equally split if there were no - or equal - fault on either side.
'The loss and damages in the present case was effectively the pawn amount of HK$39,500,' he said. 'To get the necklaces returned, Chow Sang Sang must pay Yau On half of that amount.'
The pawnshop had brought the issue to the District Court to contest what it called an unfair sharing of responsibility.
Chow Sang Sang Jewellery wanted the pawnbroker to share half the loss but Hung wanted the full amount back.
A former employee of the jewellery shop was jailed for three months over the theft. During the trial, Hung said the two necklaces were pawned on June 5 and 19 last year but Chow Sang Sang did not notice they were missing until 15 days after the first one was pawned - even though the firm checked its stock twice a day.
As a result, he had no way of knowing from the police missing properties list that the two necklaces were stolen.
Had Chow Sang Sang discovered the necklaces missing earlier and immediately reported the matter to police, the Yau On Pawn Shop would not have offered a loan on the stolen goods, Hung said.
He said Chow Sang Sang was responsible for the loss because it had been slow in reporting the theft to the police.
Sharing the pain
Both sides must share the damages involved in the pawning case
The pawnshop and jeweller must split the redemption value of two necklaces, in Hong Kong dollars, of: $39,500
