Anita Mui's mom loses court battle over $100m estate

The mother of the late Cantopop diva Anita Mui Yim-fong yesterday lost her legal battle to wrest control of her daughters estimated HK$100 million estate.

The High Court said Muis will, in which she left the bulk of her estate to Karen Trust, with her mother getting HK$70,000 a month for the rest of her life, was valid.

Tam Mei-kam, 84, had argued her daughter was dying of cervical cancer at the time and was mentally unfit to instruct and execute the will which she signed on December 3, 2003. Mui died 27 days later aged 40.

Tam said she would fight the decision all the way to the Court of Final Appeal and would donate the entire estate to charity if successful.

In the 104-page written judgment, High Court Judge Andrew Cheung Kui- nung said he found the three witnesses, who testified Mui was of sound mind when she signed the will, honest, credible and reliable.

They were her principal doctor Peter Teo Man-lung, Muis godmother of 20 years Sheila Ho and HSBCs private trust director Doris Lau.

The judge said Teo, who was present when the contents of the documents were explained to Mui, and who had spent a substantial amount of time talking to Mui during her hospital stay, was in a particularly good position to say whether Muis mental condition was normal.

The judge dismissed the suggestion put forward by Tam that Mui was suffering from a form of hepatic pre- coma, a brain disorder associated with liver disease on December 3.

What is plain to me from the evidence is that the deceased only wanted to give her mother just sufficient money to maintain her then living standard, and nothing else, the judge said.

The rationale is quite plain on the facts she did not trust her mother on managing money.

The judge said Mui was worried that if she left her mother everything in one go, she would squander it all, with the help of her eldest brother, Peter Mui Kai-ming.

Besides her mothers living expenses, Mui set aside up to HK$400,000 as university expenses for each of her brothers four children.

Her properties in Happy Valley and London were left to retired designer Eddie Lau Kai.

The judge ruled the costs of HSBC, the New Horizon Buddhist Association, a repository under the Karen Trust, and Eddie Lau Kai be paid out of Muis estate.