Following its recent judgment in Tenwow International Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) & Anor v PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP & Anor [2024] HKCA 1193 which resulted in a letter of request being issued to the Shanghai High People’s Court for audit working papers held by the 2^nd defendant, the Court of Appeal on 21 March 2025 granted the Plaintiffs leave to appeal against the judgment to the Court of Final Appeal, on the following questions of great general or public importance:

Question 1:

Does the Hong Kong Court’s jurisdiction to issue a letter of request extend to securing the production by a party to litigation in Hong Kong of documents which (a) are in the possession of that party, (b) have been enumerated in that party’s list of documents, (c) that party is under an existing obligation to produce as part of general discovery, but (d) are prohibited from such production without the requisite approval under the law of the place where the documents are located, regardless of whether or not such documents are material to an issue at trial and admissible in evidence in trial?

Question 2:

Does a request for a Mainland Court to facilitate regulatory approval for production of documents in Hong Kong proceedings as part of general discovery fall within the scope of Article 6 of 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?

The Court of Appeal’s decision on leave to appeal can be found here.

A summary of the substantive Court of Appeal judgment can be found here.

Benjamin Yu SC leading