Families of Lamma ferry crash victims drop judicial review after legal aid denied

Withdrawal of review application marks end of 13-year battle for accountability over 39 victims who died in deadliest maritime accident in decades Victims’ relatives have long contended that the absence of a watertight door was the main reason for the ship’s rapid sinking and the loss of lives on October 1, 2012. Photo: SCMP Families of victims who died in Hong Kong’s Lamma ferry disaster 14 years ago have withdrawn their application for a judicial review over a coroner’s findings , marking the end of a long legal battle. High Court Judge Herbert Au-yeung Ho-wing said on Wednesday that the proceedings had ended after the plaintiffs informed the court two days ago they would not continue the legal challenge. The four plaintiffs – Alice Leung Shuk-ling, Leung Ka-yan, Philip Chiu Ping-chuen and Tsui Keung – lodged the application in April after the Coroner’s Court reached its verdict over the deaths of 39 people on October 1, 2012. The Lamma IV, which was carrying 124 HK Electric employees and their relatives to watch the National Day fireworks over Victoria Harbour, sank after it was hit by the catamaran Sea Smooth near Lamma Island. It was the city’s deadliest maritime accident in decades. The South China Morning Post learned that the victims’ relatives had to stop the proceedings because their application to the Legal Aid Department was rejected. Coroner Monica Chow Wai-choo ruled in March that the killing of the 39 people was unlawful, pointing to gross negligence by the ships’ two coxswains as one of the reasons for the crash. But on a contention over the absence of a watertight door on the underdeck of the sunken Lamma IV, Chow ruled that the omission was deliberate and complied with regulations when the vessel was being built in 1994 and 1995. The victims’ families cited marine experts’ unanimous opinion and had argued over the years that the ship would not have sunk within 118 seconds of the collision if a watertight door had been in place. The judicial review was meant to challenge the coroner’s findings. In an interview with the SCMP earlier this year, Philip Chiu, now aged 63, described his legal battle over the death of his sister Chiu Siu-king, 52. Chiu said that he had been struggling to put together what happened that day ever since a commission of inquiry on the collision released its report in 2013. Philip Chiu lost his sister in the 2012 Lamma ferry tragedy. Photo: Jonathan Wong He and other victims’ relatives banded together to gather evidence, but the Coroner’s Court determined that an inquest was unnecessary in 2020. Alice Leung, sister of victim Pieta Leung Ka-kit, told the SCMP that she had obtained a 2,000-page police investigation report and studied the details when the relatives were preparing to appeal against that decision. Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {"type":"inline-plus-widget"} In July 2023, the High Court finally ordered an inquest to be held after the relatives won a judicial review. However, Leung said the relatives were “extremely disappointed” in Coroner Chow’s verdict. She said that the relatives who had fought in court for years simply wanted to know who should be held accountable.