CONFIDENTIAL
NOTE FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
XCCI (87)14 3 Copy No.
•
134
For information
(24.3.1987)
Purpose
The
QUEEN'S GARDENS/TREGUNTER DISPUTE WITH HONG KONG LAND
purpose of this memorandum
is to inform
Members of the outcome of the legal proceedings in this case, and the financial and quartering implications.
Background
A
B
2
Members will recall the facts giving rise to this dispute, the legal arguments in relation to those facts and the advice of the Attorney General, which are summarized in paragraphs 2 to 7 of XCCI(86)35, a copy of which is attached at Annex A. Subsequently Hong Kong Land made an offer of settlement which was reported in XCCI(86)55, a copy of which is at Annex B. However, that offer, in the view
view of the Administration, would have put the Government in по more favourable position than it would be in by losing the appeal and thus retaining ownership of the Queen's Gardens site. The Attorney General therefore proceeded with the appeal to the Privy Council notwithstanding his opinion that it was unlikely to succeed.
Legal Proceedings
3
In its judgment, which was delivered on 11 December 1986, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council dismissed the Government's appeal with costs. The Judicial Committee accepted that the Government acted to its detriment and to the knowledge of Hong Kong Land in the hope that Hong Kong Land would not withdraw from the Agreement in principle. However, they agreed with
they agreed with the Hong Kong Courts that the Government had failed to show that Hong Kong Land had created or encouraged a belief or expectation on
the part of the Government that Hong Kong Land would not withdraw from that Agreement in principle or that the Government had relied on that belief or expectation.
CONFIDENTIAL