Lawyer said he did not bring chop to signing of Nina Wang will
Solicitor testifies he did not request secretary to send official stamp when he attested Nina Wang's partial will, but company name is on it
A lawyer did not ask his secretary to bring a chop to the office of Asia's richest woman Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum when she signed a partial will in 2006, a court heard yesterday.
The allegedly fake will at the centre of self-styled fung shui master Peter Chan Chun-chuen's forgery trial, however, does bear a chop for the company, reading: "Solicitor, Hong Kong SAR Ford, Kwan & Co." The will is dated October 16, 2006.
The Court of First Instance heard earlier that the partial will Wang executed in October 2006 formed the base of the counterfeit involved in Chan's trial. The partial will has not been found since its creation.
Yesterday, solicitor Winfield Wong Wing-cheung testified he did not ask his secretary to bring him a chop at Wang's Chinachem office in Tsim Sha Tsui when he attested the partial will.
Chan, who has changed his name from Tony, is accused of forging a will in the name of the late Chinachem chief. The 53-year-old denies the charges.
Wong denied defence counsel Andrew Kan's suggestions that he once walked out of the conference room when Wang and Chinachem senior employee Ng Shung-mo were in the room.
Meanwhile, the court heard that Wong once discussed with other people whether the allegedly forged will, presented by Chan after Wang's death in 2007, was a codicil - a supplementary will to the original one. The 2006 will stated that "all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate" went to Chan.
The court heard earlier that Wang executed a will in 2002 giving her estate to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, formed by Wang and her husband Teddy Wang Teh-huei in 1988.
Wong said that the 2002 will did not leave any room for the allegedly forged will bequeathing the remainder of her estate to Chan. "I don't see any remaining parts that should be dealt with," he said.
Asked if the 2006 will had revoked a previous will, he said: "In my capacity as a lawyer, the document does not set out something that is revoked.
"Supposedly after signing the 2002 will, if amendments needed to be made, in my view, she had to write down what she wanted to amend specifically." But he said the allegedly forged will did not mention what amendments Wang wanted to make.
The trial continues on Monday.
