Banker claimed he lost inheritance

Saturday, November 20, 1999

Angel Lau

This is a report about a civil court case which features quite difficult vocabulary related to the law. Study the vocabulary carefully before trying the exercise.

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A retired Hang Seng Bank director had told his sister he had "lost" her share of their grandmother's estate when she him about it, a court heard yesterday. Lo Hung-kwan denied Lo Siu-yin her share until she wrote to his father-in-law, the banker and Dr Ho Sin-hang, Western Court was told.

Ms Lo, 78, has taken her 77-year-old brother to court in a private for she claims he in 1947. Mr Lo swore he was the only next-of-kin of Lo Yu Lau-ying when she died without leaving a in 1946. His sister the statement was deliberately false.

No plea has been taken from Mr Lo as his defence team has asked a to halt the private on the of delay and the death of a key . Ms Lo, a mother of eight, took the stand yesterday.

She said she first learned of her brother's 1947 to administer the estate, which consisted solely of shares in a property company, in September 1989. Although the full extent of the estate has not been revealed, she once asked for $215 million to settle the . Mr Lo has given her a total of $12.5 million over recent years as the .

Ms Lo said she did nothing about the matter for four years from September 1989 because she was receiving cancer treatment in Australia. She returned to Hong Kong in July 1993 and Mr Lo.

"I asked for my share and he said he had lost it all," the woman said. "He said whatever money he then had he had earned himself."

Angry with the response, she him of committing . Once home, she wrote a letter to Dr Ho detailing her accusations. A response came the following day from his daughter, Mr Lo's wife, Ho Hing-wah, arranging a meeting. Mr Lo eventually wrote out an agreement to end the with a $2.63 million payment, representing the current value of the company shares.

But Ms Lo told the court the figure had been supplied by Ho Hing-wah and Lo Hung-kwan. She received a further $1.84 million in 1993 when she asked for her share of the of the sale of a property in Guangzhou. The property belonged to their grandfather.

The case, before Josiah Lam Wai-kuen, continues on Monday.

Copyright © 1999 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. Reproduced with permission.

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