CHINACAST EDUCATION CORPORATION AND OTHERS v. CHAN TZE NGON AND OTHERS

CHINACAST EDUCATION CORPORATION AND OTHERS v. CHAN TZE NGON AND OTHERS

The plaintiffs failed to establish a prima facie basis that the defendants' personal email accounts contained relevant, necessary evidence of conspiracy and the proposed orders for wholesale e-disclosure were disproportionate and oppressive; accordingly orders for disclosure of personal emails of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants and the 2nd defendant's accounting documents were dismissed as fishing; however the 4th defendant was ordered to disclose bank statements and vouchers of personal accounts with transactions of $100,000 or above from 1 January 2009 to account closure within 28 days as a proportionate, necessary element of disclosure; costs ordered against plaintiffs for 2nd and 3rd...

Citation
CHINACAST EDUCATION CORPORATION AND OTHERS v. CHAN TZE NGON AND OTHERS
Parties
1st Plaintiff: CHINACAST EDUCATION CORPORATION; 2nd Plaintiff: CHINACAST TECHNOLOGY (BVI) LIMITED; 3rd Plaintiff: CHINACAST TECHNOLOGY (SHANGHAI) LIMITED 双巍信息技术(上海)有限公司; 4th Plaintiff: YUPEI TRAINING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED 语培信息科技(上海)有限公司; 5th Plaintiff: CHINACAST (BEIJING) EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED 盛世汉洋(北京)教育科技有限公司; 1st Defendant: CHAN TZE NGON (陳子昂); 2nd Defendant: ANTONIO SENA; 3rd Defendant: MA JIM LOK JIM (馬詹諾); 4th Defendant: JIANG XIANGYUAN (江洋源); 5th Defendant: FU WAI FAN (傅慧芬); 6th Defendant: WONG DORA WING MAY (黃詠薇); 7th Defendant: KWOK SHUK YIN (郭淑賢); 8th Defendant: CHIN SWE DEE; 9th Defendant: THRIVING BLUE LIMITED; 10th Defendant: BEST DESTINY LIMITED; 11th Defendant: ISTHOCH ASSETS LIMITED; 12th Defendant: CAST GREAT LIMITED; 13th Defendant: NEW SHANGHAI INVESTMENTS LIMITED
Court
Court of First Instance
Jurisdiction
Hong Kong
Judgment Date
15 August 2014
Case Number
HCA1062/2012
Procedural Posture
Civil Discovery Application Under Order 24 RHC Arising From Alleged Corporate Fraud and Conspiracy / Interlocutory Chambers Decision on Summons for Discovery (electronic and Bank Records)
Outcome
Application partly dismissed and partly allowed: wholesale orders for personal emails and certain accounting documents dismissed; limited bank record disclosure against 4th defendant permitted.
Legal Topics
Discovery, Electronic Disclosure, Proportionality, Privilege, Order 24 RHC, Practice Direction PDSL 1.2, Bank Account Disclosure, Case Management
Source Language
EN
Civil Procedure Evidence E Discovery Company Law Fraud and Conspiracy Costs Discovery Electronic Disclosure +6 more

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Parties

CHINACAST EDUCATION CORPORATION

1st Plaintiff

CHINACAST TECHNOLOGY (BVI) LIMITED

2nd Plaintiff

CHINACAST TECHNOLOGY (SHANGHAI) LIMITED 双巍信息技术(上海)有限公司

3rd Plaintiff

YUPEI TRAINING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED 语培信息科技(上海)有限公司

4th Plaintiff

CHINACAST (BEIJING) EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED 盛世汉洋(北京)教育科技有限公司

5th Plaintiff

CHAN TZE NGON (陳子昂)

1st Defendant

ANTONIO SENA

2nd Defendant

MA JIM LOK JIM (馬詹諾)

3rd Defendant

JIANG XIANGYUAN (江洋源)

4th Defendant

FU WAI FAN (傅慧芬)

5th Defendant

WONG DORA WING MAY (黃詠薇)

6th Defendant

KWOK SHUK YIN (郭淑賢)

7th Defendant

CHIN SWE DEE

8th Defendant

THRIVING BLUE LIMITED

9th Defendant

BEST DESTINY LIMITED

10th Defendant

ISTHOCH ASSETS LIMITED

11th Defendant

CAST GREAT LIMITED

12th Defendant

NEW SHANGHAI INVESTMENTS LIMITED

13th Defendant

Procedural Posture

Civil Discovery Application Under Order 24 RHC Arising From Alleged Corporate Fraud and Conspiracy / Interlocutory Chambers Decision on Summons for Discovery (electronic and Bank Records)

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether plaintiffs established a prima facie basis to order disclosure of personal electronic mail accounts of defendants
  2. 2 Scope and proportionality of e-discovery under Order 24 RHC and Practice Direction PDSL 1.2
  3. 3 Whether requested discovery is necessary for disposing fairly of the matter or for saving costs

Ratio Decidendi

The plaintiffs failed to establish a prima facie basis that the defendants' personal email accounts contained relevant, necessary evidence of conspiracy and the proposed orders for wholesale e-disclosure were disproportionate and oppressive; accordingly orders for disclosure of personal emails of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants and the 2nd defendant's accounting documents were dismissed as fishing; however the 4th defendant was ordered to disclose bank statements and vouchers of personal accounts with transactions of $100,000 or above from 1 January 2009 to account closure within 28 days as a proportionate, necessary element of disclosure; costs ordered against plaintiffs for 2nd and 3rd...

Court Disposition

Application partly dismissed and partly allowed: wholesale orders for personal emails and certain accounting documents dismissed; limited bank record disclosure against 4th defendant permitted.

Orders

  • The plaintiffs' summons for disclosure of all personal emails of the 2nd defendant is dismissed.
  • The plaintiffs' summons for disclosure of accounting vouchers, cheques and remittance advices from the 2nd defendant is dismissed.