Murinda Ying was ordered to pay $7500 for contempt of court after flouting
a court order by having her property company sell a Papatoetoe house twice over
to escape a prior sale she wanted to get out of. Her company also had to surrender all profit
made on the second sale.
Hsiang-Fen
Ying, also known as Murinda Ying, was the sole shareholder and director of King
David Investments Ltd, now in liquidation.
King David owned properties in south Auckland.
Ms Ying
regretted signing up in April 2013 to sell King David’s Papatoetoe property in Hoteo Avenue to Zie
Zhang for $399,000. Ms Zhang sued to
enforce the contract. Her right to ownership
was finalised by an out-of court agreement.
This agreement was filed in court giving it the status of a court
order. It required King David to
complete the sale to Ms Zhang with Ms Zhang having to pay only $179,000 all-up. Ms Ying refused to perform. She said the out-of-court agreement was all a
misunderstanding: she was jet-lagged during negotiations, she did not properly
appreciate its terms and the interpreter present did not properly translate the
document. Both the High Court and the
Court of Appeal ruled the out-of-court agreement was enforceable.
When Ms Zhang
learnt Ms Ying’s company subsequently sold Hoteo Avenue to someone else for
$655,000 she applied to have Ms Ying arrested for contempt of court. The High Court was told King David had sold
off its assets: Hoteo Avenue was sold to an unsuspecting third party (who has
legal ownership) and a second property at Wintere Road, Papatoetoe, was gifted
to a family trust (which in turn was selling to another third party).
Ms Ying was
held to be in contempt of court and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000. This fine was reduced to $7500 by the Court
of Appeal. It was her company, King
David Investments, which was in contempt by refusing to complete the sale to Ms
Zhang. Ms Ying was liable for criminal
contempt as an accessory; aiding and abetting her company in its refusal to
comply with the court order.
The Court
of Appeal was told Ms Ying paid $550,000 into court following the sale of
Wintere Road. Ms Zhang was paid $506,000
out of these funds being the profits King David made on the second sale.
Young v. Zhang – Court of Appeal (21.12.17)
18.025