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Tom and Mary were married for 20 years. They co-owned a property (Property A). Toms friend, Peter, owned a company (Company Z) and Company Z

Tom and Mary were married for 20 years. They co-owned a property (Property A). Toms friend, Peter, owned a company (Company Z) and Company Z was in financial difficulty. Peter asked Tom to help, but Tom did not have any cash. Therefore, Peter asked Tom to create a legal charge over Property A to ABC Bank for a loan of HKD8 million. As Peter and Tom were good friends, Tom agreed. However, to create a legal charge, Tom had to sign the charge agreement with Mary together as they co-owned Property A. Therefore, Peter and Tom went to talk to Mary together. Peter told Mary that Tom was the director and majority shareholder of Company Z, so Tom would be liable to repay the debt of Company Z. (In fact, Peter was the only director and shareholder of Company Z, and Tom had no legal or equitable interest over Company Z) Mary said she would need some more time to consider. Tom shouted that he would divorce Mary if Mary did not agree to sign the charge agreement. Mary did not want the marriage to be affected, so she decided to sign the charge agreement. Tom, Mary and Peter went to ABC Bank together. The manager of ABC Bank, Paul, passed the charge agreement to Tom and Mary for signature. Mary asked Paul what the total amount of the loan for the charge agreement was. As the agreement was prepared by another staff of ABC Bank, Paul also did not remember the total amount of the loan. Paul recalled that three months ago, Peter told him that Company Z needed HKD4 million, so Paul told Mary that the total amount of the loan was HKD4 million. Both Tom and Mary signed on the charge agreement for a loan of HKD8 million. Later, Company Z went into liquidation, and Peter disappeared with the loan. ABC Bank told Mary that Property A would be sold for the repayment of HKD8 million. Advise Mary. You must support your advice with relevant Hong Kong case laws.

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