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Cheung Kong No 2 Victor Li Tzar-kuoi was an unreliable witness, a High Court judge found in ruling against the developer in a suit lodged by the Urban Renewal Authority.
Mr Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung ruled that Cheung Kong and its subsidiary Agrila must pay HK$3 million to the URA for their joint venture in building The Center in Central. This covers the resumption, or buying back, of the site. The judge also ordered the developer to pay all other land costs arising from the development, understood to be about HK$20 million.
The judge also found that lawmaker Abraham Razack, who gave evidence for Cheung Kong, was an unreliable witness.
"I do not find the relevant evidence of Mr Li and Mr Razack reliable," the judge wrote.
The Center, a 346-metre skyscraper on Queen's Road Central, was completed in 1998 but Cheung Kong had refused since 2000 to make payment for the project.
The case goes back to 1989, when the Land Development Corporation, the former incarnation of the URA, entered into a joint venture with Agrila to buy back the land and develop it.
Under the agreement, Agrila was to foot the bill for resuming the land. Cheung Kong acted as Agrila's guarantor. The URA filed the current suit in 2002.
Cheung Kong contended that at a meeting on May 27, 2000, between Li, Razack - then chief executive of the corporation - and chairman Lau Wah-sum, it was released from any further payment after paying the balance of a guaranteed HK$1.9 billion profit. But the judge ruled yesterday there was no such meeting.
Li, the judge wrote, tended not to answer even simple questions directly. "This is particularly so when he was confronted with some documentary evidence which on the face of it is inconsistent with his evidence and case."
Part of Razack's evidence was also contradicted by undisputed evidence, the judge said. "He was unable to give any good explanations when he was asked of this inconsistency."
Cheung Kong, chaired by Li's father, Li Ka-shing, said it was considering an appeal.
 


Cheung Kong No 2 Victor Li Tzar-kuoi an 'unreliable' witness, says judge

Victor Li Tzar-kuoi. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

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