A villager who lost his hut in a fire while fighting a developer over ownership of a plot of land in Yuen Long agreed yesterday to try to settle the matter out of court.
Yu Siu-cheuk, 80, said he had been living in the hut in Tong Yan San Tsuen for 20 years and should be considered the land owner. He agreed to try settling the dispute with Realray Investments, a New World Group subsidiary, through mediation.
The dispute arose from Yu's claim to 7,000 sq ft of land when Realray became the registered owner on February 7, 2007. Yu argued that he had been living on the plot since 1979, more than the required 20 years under the Limitation Ordinance, but the developer said he started occupying the land in 1995.
The Court of First Instance found in favour of the developer in April 2009, but Yu secured the retrial on appeal seven months later.
Yu's lawyer, Erik Shum, said the developer had suggested that Yu did not occupy the land until 1995 because that was the year he installed electricity and water meters for the hut.
Shum said this assumption was wrong, with aerial photos taken by government helicopters showing that there had been human activity on the land - including cultivation, and erection of building structures and fences - since the 1980s. The developer did not dispute this, but questioned whether the activities had been conducted by Yu.
Mr Justice Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor said: 'It seems to me that there is objective evidence not capable of being disputed by the [developer].'