Woman who abused ex-domestic worker Erwiana blocked from appealing Hong Kong damages order involving other Indonesian
Judge who ordered her to pay HK$170,000 says application ‘must be refused’ in ‘interests of justice’
The Hong Kong employer jailed for torturing Erwiana Sulistyaningsih was blocked from mounting an appeal against a recent court order to pay another Indonesian domestic helper HK$170,000 (US$21,600) in damages for assault and for holding her captive nearly a year.
The District Court on Thursday threw out Law Wan-tung’s summons for leave to appeal and stay of execution of a court order, after judge Liu Man-kin reviewed his February judgment and concluded the application “must be refused”.
“There is no reasonable prospect of success in the defendant’s appeal,” he wrote. “Further, I am of the view that there is no other reason in the interests of justice that the appeal should be heard.”
But Law’s counsel, Stephanie Wong, argued in appeal filed two weeks later that the court had erred in not dismissing those claims.
Without challenging any of the factual findings made by the judge, Wong said the court had given an exceedingly liberal reading of Tutik’s claims.