| To give effect to voluntary transactions affecting land during the Japanese occupation. [16 July 1948] (Originally 34 of 1948 (Cap 256 1950)) Cap 256 s 1 Short title This Ordinance may be cited as the Land Transactions (Enemy Occupation) Ordinance. Cap 256 s 2 Interpretation Remarks: Amendments retroactively made-see 29 of 1998 s. 105 In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires- "assignor" (转让人) and "assignee" (承让人) mean respectively the persons purporting to dispose of or acquire the property to which an instrument relates and include the executors, administrators or assigns of an assignor or assignee, as the case may be, and in the case of an assignor or assignee who disposed of or acquired any property as trustees of any trust, the persons from time to time lawfully acting as trustees of such trust; "green ink entries" (绿墨记项) means the entries made in green ink in the Land Registry registers recording particulars of transactions registered in the Japanese registers and identified in the Land Registry registers by the initials of the Land Registrar; (Amended 8 of 1993 ss. 2 & 3) "Japanese assignment" (日占期转让契) means an instrument registered or recorded in the Japanese registers purporting to relate to a disposition of any land, house or building otherwise than by way of mortgage or reassignment; "Japanese house registration office" (日本房屋登录所) means the office in which during the Japanese occupation were kept registers or records of houses and buildings and documents in relation thereto; "Japanese occupation" (日占时期) means the period from 25 December 1941, to 1 September 1945; "Japanese registers" (日占期注册纪录册) means the registers kept by the Japanese house registration office and now lodged in the Land Registry in which were recorded particulars of houses and buildings and transactions in connection therewith; (Amended 8 of 1993 s. 2) "Land Registry registers" (土地注册处注册纪录册) means the volumes kept in the Land Registry at Victoria, wherein are entered, under headings descriptive of the properties to which the same relate, particulars of transactions and matters affecting leased Government lands. (Amended 8 of 1993 s. 2; 29 of 1998 s. 105) Cap 256 s 3 Legalization of green ink entries and their effect as notice (1) The green ink entries shall be deemed to have been lawfully made. (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4 of the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap 128), a green ink entry, including any variation or addition made by virtue of this Ordinance, shall, save in so far as any such entry, variation or addition is lawfully deleted, constitute actual notice of the transaction particulars of which are recorded by the entry. (Amended 25 of 1956 s. 2) Cap 256 s 4 Construction of instrument registered in Japanese registers (1) A Japanese assignment shall be construed and take effect as a valid and subsisting agreement by the assignor to assign on demand without further consideration and (save in so far as such agreement or other instrument otherwise provides) at the cost of the assignee or other person lawfully requiring the same the property to which such assignment relates in the form which would have been directed by the court prior to the Japanese occupation in a successful action for the specific performance of such an agreement. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) unless the Japanese assignment otherwise provides or the context thereof or the true intention of the parties otherwise requires, a reference to a house or building in such an assignment shall be deemed to include the land enjoyed with such house or building at the date of the execution of such assignment, together with all rights, members, easements or appurtenances belonging or appertaining to such land, house or building. Cap 256 s 5 Provision in case of successive transactions (1) Where any property, or part thereof, has during the Japanese occupation been the subject matter of successive Japanese assignments, then, the assignee under the last of such assignments may at his own expense require the assignor on the last and any prior assignment to confirm unto the assignee under the last of such assignments, or as he may direct, the property or part thereof, as the case may be, the subject matter of the last of such assignments. (2) Where any property was assigned by way of mortgage before the Japanese occupation and the mortgage debt has been validly discharged, then if the property has been the subject matter of a Japanese assignment or of successive Japanese assignments, the assignee under such assignment or the last of such successive assignments, as the case may be, may require the mortgagee at the expense of such assignee to reassign the property to him or as he may direct. (3) Any requirement lawfully made under this section may be enforced by action commenced by writ of summons in the original jurisdiction of the court in like manner as if the liability to comply therewith had been included in a contract relating to the property in respect of which such requirement had lawfully been made under this section. |
