Read the full judgment text of CACV 003104/2001 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 7 November 2001 before Rogers VP, Le Pichon JA.
Civil appeal – building management – interlocutory injunction – termination of manager's appointment – Building Management Ordinance (Cap 344) Schedule 7 paragraph 7 – adequacy of damages – balance of convenience – irretrievable breakdown of relationship – right to make representations – use of incorporated owners' funds for personal litigation – facts: 1st plaintiff appointed first manager of Beverly Garden, an estate in Tseung Kwan O comprising some 4,000 residential flats, by the 2nd defendant (the developer) in September 1998; 1st defendant (incorporated owners) incorporated in December 2000; defendants made complaints regarding alleged misuse of funds, illegal structures, lack of information as to whereabouts of reserve funds, and management fees said to be many times higher than those of comparable estates; meeting of 1st defendant on 12 August 2001 resolved to terminate 1st plaintiff's appointment under paragraph 7 of Schedule 7, Cap. 344; plaintiffs sued in HCA 3963/2001 seeking injunction to restrain termination and to restrain use of 1st defendant's funds for personal litigation – issues: whether to grant interlocutory injunction restraining termination of 1st plaintiff's management contract; whether 1st plaintiff had enforceable legal or contractual right to make representations before termination – holdings: injunction refused; although serious questions to be tried existed, 1st plaintiff's remedy most likely lay in damages and relationship between 1st plaintiff and incorporated owners had irretrievably broken down, and 1st plaintiff had no contractual or legal right enforceable at law to make representations before termination – outcome: appeal dismissed; undertaking accepted from 2nd to 18th defendants not to use funds of Beverly Garden for their personal defamation litigation until a new resolution of the 1st defendant approved the same; new manager to be appointed as of 15 November 2001; 1st plaintiff's potential loss of about $16 million in management fees over remaining contract period to be weighed against reserve fund held by 1st plaintiff on owners' behalf.
Legal issues: Whether to grant interlocutory injunction restraining termination of the 1st plaintiff's management contract · Whether 1st plaintiff had enforceable right to make representations before termination of management contract
Outcome: Appeal dismissed
Cited by 1 case