Mistress was wrongly favoured, court told
Six children left out of father's HK$1.5 billion estate challenge ruling that gave all the property of a businessman to one person
A will by businessman Chiu Yau-chuen would be "unofficious" if he really meant to bequeath his HK$1.5 billion estate to a mistress and disinherit his nine children, the appeal court heard yesterday.
Six of the nine children who were earlier found by a trial judge to have been disinherited in the will are seeking to overturn the decision.
In their appeal yesterday, their lawyer Neville Sarony SC said the decision of Mr Justice Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor of the Court of First Instance had "wrongly favoured" Chiu Chung Kwan-ying, one of the businessman's mistresses.
The barrister estimated that the estate was worth about HK$1.5 billion. "The judge's findings that the defendant [Chiu Chung Kwan-ying] was credible simply cannot stand the analysis which any reasonable jury would have applied," the lawyer said.
Sarony said there was no evidence that the father was prejudiced against his children. The lawyer also argued that the father was ill when the will was prepared in 2003. His health must have had an impact on his awareness of what he was doing but none of the experts examined his cognitive capacity, Sarony said.
"Having left the whole of [the estate] to [Chiu Chung Kwan-ying] and disinheriting the nine children makes it an unofficious will ... that cries out suspicious circumstances. The will on its face was irrational. But the judge had not factored all these things into his decision," Sarony said.
The lawyer also said the solicitor who prepared the will did not have the knowledge of Chiu's family background and that she should not be in a position to give legal advice to the father.