Tenwow International Holdings v PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP and Anor

, the Court of Appeal ordered a letter of request be issued to the Shanghai High People's Court for audit working papers held by PwC Zhong Tian.

This is an audit negligence claim brought by liquidators of Tenwow International Holdings and its subsidiary against, 

, PwC Zhong Tian, an accounting firm in Mainland China.

Due to restrictions in the Mainland prohibiting cross-border transfer of audit working papers, PwC Zhong Tian applied for a letter of request to be issued to the Mainland Court under the “Arrangement on Mutual Taking of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Matters between the Courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” to facilitate the production of its audit working papers.

The application was rejected at first instance. Anthony Chan J held that, 

, letters of request are normally issued for obtaining evidence from non-parties or for the taking of evidence of a party overseas, rather than for production of documents and discovery.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal for the following reasons:

This judgment clarifies the ambit of the court’s jurisdiction to issue letters of request, and is the first successful application (on a contested basis) in Hong Kong for a letter of request made by a party in respect of production of its documents.

 and Jason Karas (Solicitor Advocate), instructed by Karas So LLP, appeared for the Plaintiffs.

, instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, appeared for the 2

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