Tam Heung Man v the Incorporated Owners of Lung Poon Court (Block A-F) (DCCJ 4380/2014)

The District Court gave judgment in Tam Heung Man v the Incorporated Owners of Lung Poon Court (Block A-F) (DCCJ 4380/2014) on 26 March 2019.

This case concerns a libel claim brought by the Plaintiff, who is a District Councillor, against the Defendant in respect of two notices published by the Defendant to the residents of the estate, who were also the Plaintiff’s constituency.

The Court carefully examined the defences of fair comment and qualified privilege relied on by the Defendant, in particular the issue of malice in the context of qualified privilege defence, applying the definitive ruling of the Court of Final Appeal in Jonathan Lu v Paul Chan Mo Po (2018) 21 HKCFAR 94. The Court also considered the issue of attribution of malice to a corporation.

The Court found the notices to be defamatory and awarded damages to the Plaintiff in the sum of HK$800,000.

Earl Deng and Tara Liao acted for the Plaintiff.

The judgment can be found here.