Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Fixed trust

Legal area

Court

31 Jan 2018

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2018] HKCFI 195
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA2191/2014

Applying PRC and Hong Kong law to the facts, the court found that under the ESO scheme the employees were the actual contributors and owners of the economic interests; when 1,000,000 CSI shares were transferred to management on 11 April 2005 the equitable interests in 617,669 shares (523,668 held by Zhang; 94,001 held by Li) vested in the participating employees and a fixed trust relationship (or equivalent proprietary equitable interest) arose in their favour; the November 2005 BVI discretionary trust deeds could not validly resettle or defeat those pre‑existing fixed equitable interests as…
31 Jan 2018

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2018] HKCFI 195
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA1766/2014

The court held that participating employees were the actual beneficial owners of the relevant CSI shares and that, from the transfer on 11 April 2005, those aliquot shares were held on fixed trusts for each employee; the BVI discretionary trust deeds executed on 28 November 2005 could not validly resettle assets already subject to those fixed trusts and were ineffective as against the beneficiaries; the 2008 Confirmation did not constitute informed ratification of a discretionary BVI trust.
31 Jan 2018

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2018] HKCFI 195
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA1661/2014

The court found that under the ESO scheme and relevant Mainland law the participating employees were the actual beneficial owners of the relevant interests and that when CSI shares were transferred on 11 April 2005 those shares were held by Zhang and Li as trustees on fixed trusts for the individual participating employees in proportion to their entitlements; the November 2005 BVI discretionary trust deeds could not validly resettle assets already subject to fixed equitable trusts and were ineffective as against the plaintiffs; the 2008 Confirmation did not amount to informed ratification of…
31 Jan 2018

LI MING AND OTHERS v. ZHANG CAIKUI AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2018] HKCFI 195
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA1282/2017

On the evidence and applicable law the participating employees were the actual beneficial owners of specific aliquot CSI shares derived from the ESO scheme; from 11 April 2005 those aliquot interests were held on fixed equitable trusts for the employees and could not be validly resettled by the defendants on full discretionary BVI trusts in November 2005 without informed consent; accordingly the court declares 456,325 CSI shares are held on trust for the plaintiffs and orders transfer and related relief.

Hong Kong Case Law

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

張才奎所託管中國山水投資有限公司股份相關員工 AND OTHERS v. 張才奎 AND ANOTHER

LI MING AND OTHERS v. ZHANG CAIKUI AND ANOTHER