HCB 9850/2002, HCB 17353/2002 and HCB 20609/2002

S’s words:-

The trustees in those three cases tried to ask the Court to vary the costs order. Without going into details of each case, I believe the Judgment of HCB 11719/2002 should be sufficient for me not to repeat any words further.

Is it a coincidence that different Judge(s)/Master(s) all rejected the trustees’ entitlement for costs in different cases?

Please re-consider your quasi-judicial obligation before making applications.

--- quote from judgment ---

Date of Decision (Handed Down): 13 November 2007

By their letter dated 29 October 2007, the trustees asked me to vary my order to the extent that they are not entitled to recover their costs of and occasioned in the hearing for directions before Master Kwang on 27 March 2007 only, which was the hearing for the interim order prolonging the bankruptcy of the bankrupt.

The trustees’ grounds 1 and 2 can be considered together. It is not necessary to go into detail of the trustees’ grounds in support of their application as they have withdrawn their application. This court had no opportunity of investigating into those grounds. The trustees chose not to withdraw their application after Judge Kwan’s judgment handed down on 9 January 2007. In fact, Judge Lam in Fred Lee v Liu Man Hoo HCB11719of 20002 unreported and Judge Barma in Fred Lee and Chow Wai Lan, Christine v Wong Hing Wah Michael HCB26018 of 2002 commented that the trustees should have raised the misconducts with the bankrupt after they had discovered such misconducts. They should not wait until the end of the bankruptcy order. They have failed to do so here.

The question remains: Were they discharging their quasi-judicial obligations? I repeat my reasons in paragraphs 9-11 of my Decision in Bankruptcy Proceedings No.9850 of 2002. I take the view that in exercising my discretion as to the trustees’ costs from the estate, I should take a global view of the matter, taking into consideration of all relevant factors. I hold that the trustees have not shown to me that they had taken reasonable investigation into the matter before they took out this application. This application has prolonged the bankrupt’s bankruptcy order unnecessarily. I do not consider that the trustees have discharged their quasi-judicial obligations.

For the reasons above, I confirm my order to disallow the trustees’ costs of their application from the estate. I also disallow their costs for this application from the estate.