Asia Disputes Notes

The Hong Kong Court reiterates that a company remains only a nominal party in unfair prejudice petitions fought between its shareholders

Unfair prejudice petitions are a means for minority shareholders to seek redress against a shareholder said to be in control of the company, on the basis …

English High Court reaffirms decision not to allow activists to proceed with derivative action against Shell

In our recent blog post, we discussed the English High Court's decision to block the shareholder derivative action commenced by an activist shareholder, …

Lessons from the Hong Kong Court on the fixed and floating charge distinction

Valuable lessons can be learnt from the Hong Kong Court of First Instance’s ("CFI") recent decision in Bei Ni Ltd v Cornwell (Hong Kong) Limited [2023] …

Companies Court holds register of members is not conclusive evidence of share ownership and rectification is not an automatic right

Section 633(1) of the Companies Ordinance allows a person or a member of the company to apply to the Court to request a rectification of the register of …

UK Supreme Court clarifies the scope of Quincecare duty for financial institutions executing customer payments

Earlier this month, the UK Supreme Court in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK plc [2023] UKSC 25 addressed the scope of the Quincecare duty in the context of an …

The Hong Kong Court affirms that victims of fraud's concerns over dissipation of assets in Mareva injunction is justified notwithstanding LNCs in place

Following the Hong Kong Court of Appeal's decision in Tam Sze Leung & Ors v Commissioner of Police [2023] HKCA 537 (discussed in our previous blog …

Keeping the door open: Hong Kong Court reaffirms commitment to mutual recognition of insolvency proceedings with Mainland China

Two recent cases, Re Guangdong Overseas Construction Corporation [2023] HKCFI 1340 (the "GOCC Case") and Re Trinity International Brands Limited [2023] …

Hong Kong Companies Court clarifies the applicability of Re Guy Kwok Hung Lam to cases involving an arbitration clause

In Simplicity & Vogue Retailing (HK) Co., Limited [2023] HKCFI 1443, the Hong Kong Companies Court (the "Court") made a winding up order against the …

ENGLISH HIGH COURT BLOCKS DERIVATIVE ACTION AGAINST SHELL'S DIRECTORS FROM CLIMATE-CHANGE ACTIVIST SHAREHOLDER

Recently, we see a significant uptick in ESG litigations in different parts of the world. Together with this trend came activists' attempts to make use …

HONG KONG COURT OF APPEAL PROVIDES CERTAINTY ON BAR AGAINST REFLECTIVE LOSS

On 21 April 2023, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal (CA) released its judgment Power Securities Co Ltd v Sin Kwok Lam [2023] HKCA 594, which provided …

Clearing up the cloud? Perhaps partly, as the Court of Final Appeal affirms the approach to dismissing bankruptcy proceedings in favour of the parties' agreed forum

If a debt arises from a contract that contains an exclusive jurisdiction clause (EJC) in favour of a foreign court, how will the Hong Kong court deal …

Business as Usual: Hong Kong Court of Appeal endorses the use of letters of no consent