TNAG-1617-FCO40-2225-Executive-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-meet-1987 — Page 308

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