Hong Kong Ordinances

LIMITATION ORDINANCE - SECT 30

Court's power to override time limits

(Past version on 30/06/1997).

(1) If it appears to the court that it would be equitable to allow an action
to proceed having regard to the degree to which- (Amended L.N. 307 of 1998)

   (a)  the provisions of section 27 or 28 prejudice the plaintiff or any
        person whom he represents; and

   (b)  any decision of the court under this subsection would prejudice the
        defendant or any person whom he represents, the court may direct that
        those provisions shall not apply to the action, or shall not apply to
        any specified cause of action to which the action relates.

(2) The court shall not under this section disapply section 28(2) except where
the reason why the person injured could no longer maintain an action was
because of the time limit in section 27; so that if, for example, the person
injured could at his death no longer maintain an action under the
Fatal Accidents Ordinance ( Cap 22) because of the time limit under the
Carriage by Air Ordinance ( Cap 500), the court has no power to direct that
section 28(2) shall not apply. (Amended 13 of 1997 s. 20)

(3) In acting under this section the court shall have regard to all the
circumstances of the case and in particular to-

   (a)  the length of, and the reasons for, the delay on the part of the
        plaintiff;

   (b)  the extent to which, having regard to the delay, the evidence adduced
        or likely to be adduced by the plaintiff or the defendant is or is
        likely to be less cogent than if the action had been brought within
        the time allowed by section 27 or 28, as the case may be;

   (c)  the conduct of the defendant after the cause of action arose,
        including the extent, if any, to which he responded to requests
        reasonably made by the plaintiff for information or inspection for the
        purpose of ascertaining facts which were or might be relevant to the
        plaintiff's cause of action against the defendant;

   (d)  the duration of any disability of the plaintiff arising after the date
        of the accrual of the cause of action;

   (e)  the extent to which the plaintiff acted promptly and reasonably once
        he knew whether or not the act or omission of the defendant, to which
        the injury was attributable, might be capable at that time of giving
        rise to an action for damages;

   (f)  the steps, if any taken by the plaintiff to obtain medical, legal or
        other expert advice and the nature of any such advice he may have
        received.

(4) In a case where the person injured died when, because of section 27, he
could no longer maintain an action and recover damages in respect of the
injury, the court shall have regard in particular to the length of, and the
reasons for, the delay on the part of the deceased.

(5) In a case under subsection (4), or any other case where the time limit, or
one of the time limits, depends on the date of knowledge of a person other
than the plaintiff, subsection (3) shall have effect with appropriate
modifications, and shall have effect in particular as if references to the
plaintiff included references to any person whose date of knowledge is or was
relevant in determining a time limit.

(6) A direction by the court disapplying the provisions of section  28 (2)
shall operate to disapply the provisions to the same effect in section 3 of
the Fatal Accidents Ordinance ( Cap 22).

(7) In this section "the court" (法院) means the court in which the action
has been brought.

(8) References in this section to section 27 include references to that
section as extended by any provision of this Part and Part IV. (Replaced 67 of
1976 s. 5) [cf. 1975 c. 54 s. 1 U.K.]

"the court" (法院)