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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 15тп FEBRUARY, 1896.
A BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to amend the practice as to the
WB
vacating of the registration of a Lis pendens.
THEREAS a registered Lis pendens cannot be vacated without the consent of the person by whom it was registered, and such consent is sometimes withheld although the suit or proceeding is at an end or is not being bonâ fide prosecuted : Be it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:
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1. The Supreme Court or any Judge thereof, before whom the property sought to be bound is in litigation, may upon the determination of the Lis pendens, or during the pendency thereof, where the said Court or Judge shall be satisfied that the litigation is not prosecuted bonâ fide, or for other good cause shown, make an order, if such Court or Judge shall see fit, for the vacating of the registration in the Land Office of such Lis pendens without the consent of the party who registered it, and may, in the discretion of the said Court or Judge, direct the party on whose behalf the registration was made to pay all the costs and expenses occasioned by the registration or the vacating thereof, including the costs of the application to vacate, or may make such other order as to such costs or any of them as to such Court or Judge may seem just.
2. The application to vacate a Lis pendens under the foregoing section may be in a summary way by petition or motion in Court or by summons at Chambers, and may be made by any person interested in the property against which the Lis pendens has been registered, whether such person is a party to the Lis pendens or not.
3. If an order shall be made for vacating any such registration, the Land Officer shall, upon the filing with him of a memorial and an office copy of such order, cuter a discharge of such Lis pendens on the Land Office register, and may issue certificates of such Entry, and shall demand for every such Entry the sum of Two Dollars, and shall demand for every such certificate the sum of Que Dollar. Such fees shall be paid by the Land Officer into the Colonial Treasury.
Reasons and Objects.
Ordinance No. 10 of 1856 provides for the registration in the Land Office of lites pendentes which, as enacted by that Ordinance, shall have the same force and effect as a Judgment registered in conformity with Ordinance No. 3 of 1844. Since the passing of the first mentioned Ordinance it has been the practice in this Colony to register, on behalf of Plaintiffs in suits affecting lands, a Lis pendens against the property affected. There is, however, no provision in Ordinance No. 10 of 1856 for the vacating of the registration of a Lis pendens and the only means therefore by which, as the law now stands, a Defondant can in any way clear his title to property against which a Lis pendens has been registered, is by registering a Decree in his favour in the suit.
Should the Defendant die before the determination of the suit and the Plaintiff not proceed, or should the Defendant not be beneficially interested, or not be solely interested, in the property against which a Lis pendens has been registered no other person, interested in such property but not being a party to the suit, can bring it to a conclusion, and such person, therefore, has no possible means of clearing the register in the Land Office from the blot upon the title to the property caused by the registration of the Lis pendens, save with the consent of the Plaintiff at whose mercy he is placed.
Until nearly thirty years ago the same difficulty was experienced in England by persons interested in property there against which a Lis pendens had been registered, and it was found expedient to pass an Act (30 and 31 Victoria e. 47) to remedy the difficulty. This Bill is drafted upon
the same lines as that Act and will have the effect of bringing the law of Hongkong into line with that prevailing in England.
HENRY E. POLLOCK,
Acting Attorney General,
Tillo.
Recital,
The Court nuy order the vacating of registration oi Lis pendens, &c.
30 & 31 Vict. cap. 47 s. 2.
Mode of application. Ibid.
Entry of discharge by Land Officer. Fees.
Ibid.