Property tycoon fails to hush up son's HK$1.2b divorce appeal

The billionaire chief of the Prudential Enterprise property empire and his son failed yesterday to keep the next round of a court battle over the son's billion-dollar divorce under wraps.

Court of Appeal judges ruled that the appeal by Samuel Tak Lee and son Samathur Li Kin-kan against a judgment awarding Li's ex-wife more than HK$1 billion should be heard in open court.

Madam Justice Susan Kwan Shuk-hing and Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon will hand down written reasoning later.

The appeal, due in October, follows a Court of First Instance judgment that awarded Li's ex-wife, Florence Tsang Chiu-wing, HK$1.2 billion in ancillary relief after the judge found she was entitled to maintain the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.

In the judgment, handed down in December 2011, Mr Justice John Saunders wrote that the father and son had forged a loan agreement that transferred virtually all of Li's assets to his father and referred the matter for criminal investigation. The judgment has been under a publication embargo, but an executive summary was released to the media.

Filing the application yesterday, Lee's lawyers said the judgment was flawed and that allowing the appeal to be heard in open court would continue to infringe on his constitutional right to privacy and right to an impartial tribunal, which had been "blatantly" breached by the judge.

Michael Thomas SC, representing Lee, said Saunders was biased and had prejudged his client. He said the judge had also failed to warn the father and son that he was going to decide in the judgment that they had engaged in forgery, denying them the chance to mount any defence.