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Lawmaker Priscilla Leung Mei-fun (left), a defendant in an action involving Sam Leung. Photos: K. Y. Cheng, Felix Wong

No dough: Hong Kong vendor owed HK$37,000 for unpaid rice dumplings loses case

Tribunal rules the 11 defendants, all civic leaders, paid a middleman and had no contractual relationship with claimant

A food supplier who was not paid after selling more than HK$37,000 worth of rice dumplings to 11 district councillors and community organisers for last year’s Dragon Boat Festival has lost its bid to claim the amount at Small Claims Tribunal.

The case centred on payments for 5,750 rice dumplings supplied by local company KC Hong to the 11 defendants that included Legislative Council lawmaker Priscilla Leung Mei-fun.

Purchases were made through a middleman surnamed Chan, who pocketed between HK$0.80 and HK$2 for every rice dumpling sold. Each one cost HK$6.50.

The transactions in question happened during the city’s annual Dragon Boat Festival in June last year. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

It later emerged that KC Hong’s sole proprietor Lulu Kwok never received the outstanding sum of HK$37,375 after making the deliveries as requested.

But adjudicator Catherine Cheng Kam-lin sided with the defence in finding the 11 had no contractual relationship with the claimant, as they had already paid the middleman and were not aware of the claimant’s existence.

The defendants, she ruled, were honest purchasers who presented a reasonable defence.

“I feel very helpless towards the claimant’s predicament,” the adjudicator told Eastern Court on Thursday. “But it is not the concern of this court to rule on whether [the transactions] involved fraud.”

Thus she advised Sam Leung – Kwok’s husband and representing her claim in court – to seek legal advice to decide on how he should advance his claims.

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That was before Cheng ordered him to pay HK$234 to Sai Kung district councillor Frankie Lam Siu-chung of the Democratic Party, the only one of the 11 defendants to have applied for legal costs.

The other defendants came from Kowloon West New Dynamic and the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong.

They were Alan Lee Chi-keung, Yan Kai-wing, Kwong Koon-wan, Lam Ka-fai, Chong Kin-shing, Lo Wai-lan, Tony Chau Ping-him, Chan Keng-chau and Man Chen-fai.

Among them were six district councillors who were victorious in last November’s elections.

Leung for the claimant said outside court he would turn to the police to continue the claims as he revealed there were at least ten more similar cases involving district councillors.

He said the total losses stemming from the sales amounted to more than HK$80,000.

“I’ve been supplying to district councillors for more than 10 years,” said Leung, who worked with Kwok. “This [case] is a first.”

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