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8 Hong Kong L.J. 344 (1978)
Fair Compensation and the Speculative Element: The Kowloon Dairy Case

handle is hein.journals/honkon8 and id is 372 raw text is: Notes and Comments FAIR COMPENSATION AND THE SPECULATIVE ELEMENT: THE KOWLOON DAIRY CASE THE appeal to the Court of Appeal from the decision of the Lands Tribunal in Ching Chun-kau v Director of Lands and Survey' known to many as the 'Kowloon Dairy' case,2 raised several important issues in relation to compensation for land resumption. The basic facts were that the claimant, Ching Chun-kau was awarded compensation of $108,000 following resumption by the Crown of New Kowloon Dairy Farm Lot No 10. The Crown had previously offered $935,000 although the claimant had purchased the land in 1973 for $3,487,920 in the expectation of being able to develop it at a substantial profit. On the face of it the award of $108,000 by the Lands Tribunal was, to use the words of Pickering JA, 'palpably inadequate.' The Court of Appeal remitted the case to the Tribunal for reconsideration but in doing so did not, it is suggested, deal adequately with the problems posed by the appeal. Indeed it is the purpose of this commentary to demonstrate that the court may have erred in law in a number of respects. The reason for this may well be that the Crown, out of understandable sympathy for the plight of the claimant, was persuaded not to press its case strenuously with the result that the court was not directed to some of the arguments which might have been advanced.3 At all events even if the decision of the Court of Appeal was right the reasons given in support are, with respect, suspect, and the difficulties raised by the appeal should be regarded as swept under the carpet but not resolved. There was no dispute as to what the claimant had lost, namely the unexpired term of 22 years of a Crown lease. The disagreement arose from the method of valuation. Under section 10 of the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance4 it is clear that in general terms compensation is to be based on 'loss or damage suffered by the claimant due to the resumption.' However, this is qualified by the provisions which follow and in particular by CA, Civ App No 52 of 1977. Kowloon Dairy Ltd was not a party to the proceedings but was a tenant of the claimant. In the judgment of Pickering JA reference is made to the Crown allying itself with the appellant's argument and to the Court of Appeal being unable to allow an appeal by consent. The failure of the Crown to fight the case strenuously was possibly made worse by the fact that the claimant had engaged the services of a particularly persuasive and experienced advocate. 'Cap 124, LHK 1974 ed.

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