Appeal on the menu as Hong Kong's famous Yung Kee roast goose restaurant back in court
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 05 February, 2015, 1:26am
UPDATED : Thursday, 05 February, 2015, 5:10am
Chris Lau [email protected]
The Yung Kee roast goose restaurant in Central. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
A legal battle between the brothers who own one of the city’s most iconic restaurants is heating up again after a top court ruling yesterday.
The fight over the Yung Kee roast goose restaurant in Central has laid bare details of the business valued at HK$1.5 billion, and the affairs of the family who built the 70-year-old company it from scratch.
The legal dispute started in 2010, when Kinsen Kam Kwan-sing applied to wind up the restaurant’s holding company while accusing his younger brother, Ronald Kam Kwan-lai, of pushing him out.
Brothers Hardy Kam and Kevin Kam from Yung Kee posing with their father Kinsen.
Court of final appeal judge Mr Justice Joseph Fok ruled yesterday that the court should consider to what extent the “subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries” of the British Virgin Islands-registered holding company operate in Hong Kong – including the restaurant on Wellington Street.
A High Court judge had previously ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to wind up a foreign-registered company. The case was adjourned until October 7.
High Court judge Mr Justice Jonathan Harris earlier ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to wind up a foreign-registered company, despite his finding that Ronald conducted his business in a way that was “unfairly prejudicial” to his brother, who died in 2012. Had that not been the case, Harris said, he would have ordered Ronald, who held 55 per cent of the shares, to buy the rest from Kinsen.
Kinsen’s widow, Leung Sui-kwan, took the case to the Court of Appeal, which rejected her claim and overturned the finding that Ronald had behaved unfairly.
John Bleach SC, for Ronald, yesterday told the three judges – Mr Justice Roberto Ribeiro, Mr Justice Robert Tang Ching and Fok – that Leung’s lawyer Linda Chan had failed to specify the concealments and evasions that allegedly gave rise to the unfair treatment.
But Fok also granted leave for Leung to appeal against the lower court’s ruling on Ronald’s alleged mistreatment of Kinsen.
The case was adjourned until October 7. That hearing will consider whether to wind up the company, order one side to buy all the shares or reject the appeal.
Earlier hearings revealed that the family business had amassed no less than HK$880 million in cash, a whole block in Central worth at least HK$1 billion, and HK$127 million in other net assets. Profits at Yung Kee averaged HK$50 million in 2008 and 2009.
Kinsen’s son Hardy Kam Shun-yuen has since opened the rival Kam’s Roast Goose, in Wan Chai. The new restaurant this year won a Michelin star, while Yung Kee missed out.
