5. If my claim exceeds the financial jurisdictional limit of the District Court, can I waive the excessive amount and start the action there?

5. If my claim exceeds the financial jurisdictional limit of the District Court, can I waive the excessive amount and start the action there? 

Yes, you are permitted to abandon the excess portion of your claim to bring it within the District Court’s jurisdiction. Under section 34(1) of the District Court Ordinance (Cap. 336), the District Court has the authority to hear and determine an action that originally exceeded its monetary limit if the plaintiff formally abandons the amount in excess. 

Illustrative example 

Suppose your claim is worth $3,600,000, but the District Court’s financial jurisdictional limit is $3,000,000. 

Because your claim exceeds the limit by $600,000, you cannot simply claim the full $3,600,000 in the District Court. However, you may choose to abandon the excess amount. 

Calculation: 

$3,600,000 − $600,000 = $3,000,000 

You would therefore limit your claim to $3,000,000 and give up the right to recover the remaining $600,000. 

How the amount of the plaintiff’s claim is calculated 

When calculating the amount of the plaintiff’s claim to determine if abandonment is necessary, the law considers the net amount after taking into account any set-off claimed by the defendant, any employees’ compensation already paid to the plaintiff, and any contributory negligence that the plaintiff admits in his statement of claim. 

Notably, any interest that may be ordered on the debt or damages is not taken into account when determining if the claim exceeds the jurisdictional limit. 

Illustrative example 

Suppose you wish to bring a personal injury action in the District Court. The calculation would proceed as follows: 

Gross value of damages 

Suppose your claim is worth $3,600,000. This initially exceeds the District Court limit of $3,000,000. 

Deduction 1: Admitted contributory negligence 

You admit in the Statement of Claim that you were 20% responsible for the accident. That means the defendant is liable for 80% of the total claim. 

Calculation: 

$3,600,000 x 80% = $2,880,000 

Deduction 2: Admitted set-off 

You owe $100,000 to the defendant in an unrelated matter, which you admit in the claim. 

Calculation: 

$2,880,000 − $100,000 = $2,780,000 

Deduction 3: Employees’ compensation paid 

You have already received $200,000 in employees’ compensation payments from your employer. 

Calculation: 

$2,780,000 − $200,000 = $2,580,000 

Exclusion of interest 

Even if you are also claiming $120,000 in pre-judgment interest, this is ignored for jurisdictional purposes. 

Result 

The amount of the plaintiff’s claim is $2,580,000. 

Since this is below the $3,000,000 threshold, the District Court has jurisdiction to hear the case without the plaintiff needing to formally “abandon” any part of the claim. 

Consequences of waiving the excess amount 

Under section 34(2) of the District Court Ordinance, the District Court is strictly prohibited from awarding any amount that exceeds its statutory monetary jurisdiction limit for that specific action. 

Under section 34(3) of the District Court Ordinance, a judgment delivered by the District Court in an action where the excess was abandoned operates as a full discharge of all demands in that cause of action. This means you cannot later sue for the waived amount in another court. This rule also applies to counterclaims where a defendant might abandon an excess to keep his claim within the District Court’s jurisdiction. 

Prohibition on splitting a claim 

You cannot split a single large claim into two or more separate smaller claims to stay within the District Court limit. 

Splitting a cause of action is strictly prohibited. According to section 45 of the District Court Ordinance, no cause of action or counterclaim may be divided for the purpose of making it the ground of two or more actions to fit within the jurisdictional limits.  

For example, if a defendant owes you $3,200,000, you cannot commence two separate actions for $1,600,000 each to stay under the $3,000,000 threshold. 

Small Claims Tribunal 

Similar to the District Court, you may abandon an excess to bring a claim within the $75,000 limit of the Small Claims Tribunal, and you cannot split a single large claim into two or more separate smaller claims to stay within the Small Claims Tribunal limit.