JULIE CHU
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 October, 2015, 7:01am
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 October, 2015, 7:01am
Paul Chan Mo-po and wife Frieda Hui Po-ming at the High Court in September 2014
Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and his wife, who were ordered to compensate twin pupils and their father by HK$230,000 for defaming the twins over claims of cheating at school, failed to reduce the amount even though a judge believed the couple did so out of “good intentions” and “over-enthusiasm”, according to a judgment.
However, High Court Judge Anthony To Kwai-fung accepted some emails that sent by Chan’s wife Frieda Hui Po-ming were protected by qualified privilege.
He found the couple only needed to pay 60 per cent legal costs for Jonathan Lu, his twin sister Caitlin and their father Carl while the Lu family also needed to pay 20 per cent of Chan’s costs.
The judge believed the couple, who sent out the defamatory emails between December 1 and 16, 2011, initially did it to preserve the image and reputation of the Chinese International School (CIS).
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Over-enthusiasm in the pursuit of this common interest has allowed malice to brew in the mind of [Hui],” the judge wrote.
READ MORE: Jury rules development chief Paul Chan and wife lose defamation case
A High Court jury in September last year found that Chan and Hui had defamed the twins, both CIS students, and their father in six emails, while four of them with malicious.
The court heard that the two sets of parents did not know each other before this case but their children were all then Year 13 students of the school.
Frieda Hui claimed she heard a rumour from her daughter Joyce that the twins were suspected of cheating during a test. She then sent emails – jointly signed by her husband – to the school and about 10 parents in the same grade to talk about the incident.
She wrote emails and discussed with the parents that she had heard the twins were suspected to have cheated in school tests. But the twins had not been punished because their father was a governor of the school.
Even after a teacher had told Hui that the school had conducted two investigations and found the twins to be innocent on December 3 that year, Hui sent further emails to discuss the matter.
Hui insisted she wanted to protect the school’s reputation and was not accusing any of the Lu family.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1865107/hong-kong-development-secretary-paul-chan-mo-po-and-wife
