A villager who won a retrial after a court awarded disputed land to a developer lost his hut in a 'suspicious' fire a year ago, and has since been living in a storeroom on the site.
Villager Yu Siu-cheuk, 80, brought a claim against Realray Investments, a New World group subsidiary, under the Limitation Ordinance. The Court of First Instance held a hearing on the claim yesterday after Yu secured a retrial of the 2009 case.
Yu said he had continuously occupied 7,000 square feet of land in Yuen Long since the winter of 1979 - more than the required 20 years - before he started proceedings in February 2007 to claim adverse possession.
The Court of First Instance previously found in favour of the developer in April 2009, but Yu secured a retrial on appeal seven months later.
In court yesterday, Yu's lawyer Erik Shum read out the villager's recent witness statement. 'A fire broke out in my hut. At that time, I was in the hut. I looked up in the roof and it was already on fire.'
Outside the court, Shum said police found the fire to be suspicious but had not solved the case. When the fire broke out on March 10 last year, Yu had escaped from the hut carrying his youngest dog and his television, Shum said.