Emry’s owner seeks transfer of cases

The shuttered Emry's office in World Wide House in Central (file photo).

ESTER Ylagan, the owner of the shuttered Emry’s Employment Agency, asked a Small Claims Tribunal judge to transfer her cases to the District Court.

However, Principal Adjudicator Anthony Chow Siu-wo said that before deciding about Ylagan’s plea, she would have to submit a letter from solicitors confirming that she had engaged their services.

Judge Chow said that unlike in the Small Claims Tribunal, parties in the District Court are represented by lawyers.

“There are close to 200 cases against the defendant, and the claims amount to anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000, and the majority of the claim is $10,000 so the total claims would be something like $2 million.

“If the defendant was asking for the transfer of the case because she wanted legal representation, then that is a legitimate reason,” said Judge Chow in a hearing on November 3.

As in the previous hearings at the Small Claims Tribunal against Ylagan, she was only represented by a “friend” and a “staff member” of Mike’s Secretarial Services.

However, when Judge Chow asked the representative if she was authorized to settle with the claimants or if she knew of bank records of the defendant, the representative said she was not.

She told Judge Chow that Ylagan was in the Philippines because she had an eye operation there and some “psychiatric treatment”.

Judge Chow said that if Ylagan was able to engage the services of a lawyer, she should also submit a letter from a firm of solicitors confirming that they would be representing her.

Ylagan was also directed to submit all her reasons for wanting to transfer the hearing of the cases to the District Court in a letter to the court.

Judge Chow said Ylagan should submit all these documents to the court on December 8, 2016.

Meanwhile, the court also allowed claimants to be represented by Edwina Antonio of the non-government organization Mission for Migrant Workers Ltd.

Judge Chow said that since the MFMW’s purpose is to protect the interests of the migrant workers, he would allow it to represent the claimants.

He added that it would also be better for the claimants to be represented in court as they might have work and unable to attend all the hearing dates of the case.

Among the 45 cases that were consolidated, only two claimants chose not to be represented by Antonio. Judge Chow set the hearing of the cases to February 2, 2017.

Emry’s is said to be the biggest provider of Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

Ylagan had insisted to officials of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office that she did not intend to dupe the jobseekers and promised that she would refund them.

She also complained about the POLO decision to stop the processing of contracts submitted by Emry’s, saying that this was done “without due process”.

Emry’s office in World Wide House in Central has been shuttered since June.