In Lok Tin Choi v Lai Kwai Lin ([2015] HKEC 389, CA) a mother held land in the New Territories on trust for her son. The land included two lots that had been resumed by the Government. The mother claimed to have an interest in the compensation money. This was on the basis of Chinese law and custom requiring her son to maintain his mother for her life and to provide dowries (if applicable) for the two unmarried daughters.
Cheung JA gave the principal judgment. Section 13 of the New Territories Ordinance allows the court to recognise and enforce any Chinese custom or customary right affecting land in the New Territories. The definition of ‘land’ in section 2 of the Ordinance does not cover compensation received on the resumption of land and so the court had no power to enforce any Chinese custom or customary right said to affect the compensation money. The cases that held that compensation received in respect of Tong land remained subject to the trust were not authority for the proposition that the compensation was equivalent to land. Cheung JA refrained from comment on the Chinese law and custom that had been invoked.
Michael Lower
