Super Strategy Investments Limited & Anor v Kao, Lee & Yip

6 January 2009, Hong Kong

The matter arose from the sale of 10 flats at Henredon Court, Shouson Hill, a luxury residential property in Hong Kong in May 2007. The defendant was the solicitor firm acting on behalf of the sellers and claimed a fixed "consultancy" fee of 0.65% of the purchase price of HK$710 million, on the ground that it had engaged in "estate agent's work". The Plaintiffs' case was that there was no concluded agreement that the defendant should be so entitled.

Judgment

The court of appeal (Rogers VP, Barma and Wright JJ) agreed with the judge (Saunders J) that there was nothing in the relevant agreement (the owners agreement dated 30 March 2007) to the effect claimed by the defendant and that the agreement did not indicate that the defendant would be carrying out any work apart from conveyancing.

The Law

Under Section 56(3) of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), a fee agreement must be in writing and no such agreement existed between the defendant and the owners. The work carried out by the defendant was clearly "non-contentious business" under section 2(1) of the Ordinance and the plaintiff was entitled to ask the court to order the defendant to produce a bill of costs under section 65(1) of the Ordinance.

^