Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Hong Kong Case Law

Maturing business opportunity

  • 1 Mar 2007

    GREENWIN INTERNATIONAL GROUP LTD v. JIM YEUK CHAU

    Citation
    GREENWIN INTERNATIONAL GROUP LTD v. JIM YEUK CHAU
    Court
    District Court
    Case number
    DCCJ1284/2005

    The Court found the written agreement terms were incorporated into the Employment Contract; the six‑month restraint (Clause 5) was reasonable and enforceable; the Defendant breached Clause 5 and Clause 10 but quantified loss for those contractual breaches was nominal except where fiduciary breach produced identifiable profits; the Defendant, as a senior officer, breached fiduciary duties in relation to replicated Sonal/MaryJane orders and must account to the Plaintiff for all profits made by An‑Gelo from those replicated orders; the Defendant was summarily dismissed for cause and most of her…

    • Breach of employment contract
    • Misuse of confidential information
    • Restraint of trade enforceability
    • Maturing business opportunity
    • Account of profits
    • Damages

  • 2 Apr 2003

    KAO LEE & YIP (a firm) v. DONALD KOO HOI YAN AND OTHERS

    Citation
    KAO LEE & YIP (a firm) v. DONALD KOO HOI YAN AND OTHERS
    Court
    Court of First Instance
    Case number
    HCA8847/1993

    The 1st Defendant (Koo) breached fiduciary duties by failing to disclose and by diverting a tangible business opportunity presented by BOC to himself and his new firm K&P; K&P must account for profits arising from BOC and BOC Group work attributable to that diversion for one year from 1 October 1993; the 2nd–6th Defendants breached fiduciary duties by taking preparatory steps while still at KLY but plaintiff only entitled to nominal damages on those heads; claims for neglect and for failure to inform employees (2–6) dismissed.

    • Account of profits
    • Maturing business opportunity
    • Breach of fiduciary duty
    • Confidentiality
    • Conversion (removal of documents)

  • 6 Sept 1996

    KISHIMOTO SANGYO CO LTD AND ANOTHER v. AKIHIRO OBA AND OTHERS

    Citation
    KISHIMOTO SANGYO CO LTD AND ANOTHER v. AKIHIRO OBA AND OTHERS
    Court
    Court of Appeal
    Case number
    CACV211/1995

    The injunction granted in the court below was wrongly made because the plaintiffs failed to prove that the defendants had diverted a maturing business opportunity meriting equitable relief; the plaintiffs succeeded only to the extent of nominal damages for breach of contractual duties as employees; accordingly the claim against D3 is dismissed, the defendants are granted leave to apply to the High Court for an inquiry as to damages arising from the injunction, and specific costs orders follow; the plaintiffs' motion for leave to appeal to the Privy Council under Rule 2(b) is dismissed.

    • Fiduciary duty
    • Maturing business opportunity
    • Injunction
    • Damages inquiry
    • Costs allocation
    • Leave to appeal to privy council