Family to stay put in laneway they call home
Mother and two sons win their claim to part of Causeway Bay lane following mall owner's bid to remove them after more than 30 years there
A family has won a claim to ownership of part of a lane behind one of Causeway Bay's best-known plazas.
The decision by the Court of Appeal yesterday means an earlier order to vacate the entire lane behind Lee Theatre Plaza will exclude two corners where the family lived and ran small businesses.
Lam Chim-ching and her two sons Tong Wah-jor and Tong Wah-hei won the sites under the rule of adverse possession in which a person who occupies a site for a specified period without the owner's objection can claim ownership.
But the court rejected their claim to the entire lane, saying that as it was also used by pedestrians they could not claim exclusive possession.
Plaza owner Lee Theatre Realty, a unit of Hysan Development, said it would study the ruling but warned that the lane must be cleared of obstructions so it can be used for access.
The Court of First Instance in December 2009 ordered the family, who have occupied the lane since the 1970s, to yield possession to the company.
In a written judgment yesterday, appeal judge Peter Cheung Chak-yau said the boarding-up at night of the two corners showed the family's intention to exclusively possess those specific parts of the lane.
