On 2nd February 2010, the long awaited judgment of the highly contested litigation case of the century over the vast estate of Mrs. Nina Wang was handed down. Our firm represented Chinachem Charitable Foundation Limited in its battle against the fung shui guru, Mr. Tony Chan, who claimed Nina Wang loved him so much that she left him everything.
In line with our expectation, we won the case for our client. Upon receiving the judgment, our firm’s dedicated team of lawyers and support staff working on the case comprising of nearly 40 members together with most people of the community cheered for joy for our client.
The Court ruled that the Will made by Mrs. Nina Wang in the year 2002 which the Foundation sought to propound was the last Will of Mrs. Wang. The wish of Mrs. Wang under that Will was to give the whole of her estate to the Foundation for charitable use. The Will produced by Mr. Tony Chan was found to be a forgery, a challenge which we mounted against Mr. Tony Chan after we took over the matter from the previous team of lawyers acting for the Foundation. A summary of the judgment (the full judgment runs up to 326 pages) is attached for readers who are interested to know a bit more about the reasons for the ruling.
Mr. Tony Chan has indicated that he would be lodging an appeal. He has 28 days to do so. The last date to lodge the appeal is 2 March 2010 but so far we have not yet received his Notice of Appeal. On the next day after the delivery of the judgment, Mr. Tony Chan was arrested by the Police for a suspected offence of forgery (which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years of imprisonment). It is expected that it will take some time for the Police investigation to be completed and for a charge, if any, to be formally laid against him.
We are very proud of our team members and our team of Counsel who all worked very hard to bring about the victory.
Dated the 12 February 2010
Notice: This newsletter is intended for general information only and should not be taken as legal advice of Wilkinson & Grist. For any enquiries, please contact
Ms Anita Kwan (anitakwan@wilgrist.com)
© WILKINSON & GRIST 2010
