In court: Nina Wang’s inheritance battle (2)

(15 May 2009) The second witness asked to sign the will fung shui instructor Tony Chan Chun- chuen claims entitles him to the entire fortune of the late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, never read the document, the Court of First Instance was told yesterday. On day four of the inheritance war between Chan and the Chinachem Foundation, Winfield Wong Wing-cheung, said the second witness, Chinachem sales manager Ng Shung-mo, signed the document without reading it.

ninawang-20090514a.JPGWong was one of the signatories to a 2006 will which Chan claims is the one now before the court.

In earlier testimony, Wong had expressed doubts that Chan’s will was the document he signed. He added further doubts yesterday before the hearing was adjourned until today.

“One or two days [after the signing] Ng came to my office [and asked if I knew the details of the will],” Wong said. “I asked him whether he read the document before signing.” Ng replied he had not, Wong said.

Wong said he also did not recall carrying either his personal or company chop when he went to Wang’s office to witness what he called a partial will.

The will presented by Chan carried Wong’s company chop, upside down. “To my recollection, on that day I did not bring [my] chops,” he said. “In the past, if chops were required, my practice [has been] to bring both.”

He said he could not confirm that the signature and Hong Kong identity card number which appeared on Tony Chan’s document was his. But he did agree that the signature on Chan’s will was similar to his.

When Chinachem lawyer Denis Chang asked Wong, “Are you able to say that what you see [on Chan's will] is your signature?”, he replied “It looks similar. To my recollection, the document [I signed] and [Chan's will] have some discrepancies so I don’t know if this document was signed by me or not,” he continued. “I do not ever recall having seen [Chan's will], even though my signature apparently appears on it.”

Wong reiterated that he did sign what he considered to be a partial will for Wang in October 2006. He said it contained a specific gift with an amount that had more than six zeros expressed in numerals and made out to a person surnamed Chan. Wong said that as a solicitor, he deals with wills and probates regularly and has taken on two to three cases a month for the past 20 years.

Chan was absent for the second day in a row on day four of the hearing.

ninawang-20090515.JPG(14 May 2009) A solicitor yesterday told the Court of First Instance he does not think the will in the court’s possession – and which leaves the entire estate of the late Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum to fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen – is the one he witnessed in 2006. Solicitor Winfield Wong Wing- cheung also recalled that at the time he told Wang the will was, at best, partial and required more work.

Wong also thought the sum of money mentioned in it was something “greater than HK$10 million.”

He was testifying on the third day of the court battle between Chan, who claims he was Wang’s lover, and the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which Wang founded and is the sole beneficiary of her fortune in an uncontested 2002 will.

Wong said he was summoned by Wang to her office in October 2006 to sign a document that looked like a partial will. However, he did not think it was the will now held in court and known as Document A.

“I noticed a number [on the will] but I did not see [the amount] clearly,” Wong said.

“I saw a number that was greater than HK$10 million.”

He said after looking at the document he told Wang it was only a partial will.

“I told her: `You still have a lot of things to deal with. You should get a solicitor to prepare a more formal document.”‘

He said Wang replied that she knew it was only a partial will and that she would deal with the other issues later.

Wong noted the beneficiary’s last name appeared to be Chan though he could not remember the exact name.

Wong said he met Wang in a large conference room the morning he signed the document. She was seated at the head of the table and he to her left.

A second witness was Chinachem sales manager Ng Shung-mo, who remained standing while the two were seated.

“Solicitor Wong, sorry to trouble you, but I need you to witness this document for me,” Wang told Wong.

“I asked `May I have a look at the document to see what it is?,”‘ Wong said.

After he told her it was only a partial will, he asked Wang if she was clear about the contents to which she replied she understood.

Wong said he asked Wang to sign the will first before passing it to Ng.

“I said `Brother Shung, you sign first,”‘ he recalled.

He then instructed Ng to write down his Hong Kong identity card number. Wong then signed it before handing it back to Wang.

Wong said when Wang first entered the room, he noticed she was carrying a document or documents in her hand but that he could not recall whether it was a single sheet of paper or more than one.

Wong has yet to be cross-examined by Chan’s lawyers.

The court also heard two other witnesses yesterday – the two men who signed the 2002 will that bequeathed Wang’s assets to Chinachem Charitable Foundation – Chinachem Group project director Heng Kim-thiam and the major shareholder of Casa Design International, Eric Li Chi-ming.

Both Heng and Li confirmed they had signed the will in the presence of Wang.

The 2002 will was written in Chinese and had gone through five drafts with the help of one of Wang’s sisters.

The 2006 will Chan possesses was written in English and starts off with, “All of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, of every kind and description, wherever situated and whether now owned or hereafter acquired, including any power of appointment, I [Nina Wang Kung Yu- sum] give, devise and bequeath to Mr Chan Chun-chuen [identity number given] who was born in Hong Kong on the [date of birth given].”

Chan was not present yesterday. He sat in the front row for the first two days of the case.

This entry was posted in NinaWang. Bookmark the permalink.