Facts

The plaintiff deals in very specialized equipment and instruments which are imported from an overseas principal/supplier to be sold to various hospitals, research centres, universities and industries throughout Malaysia. The plaintiff had signed an exclusive distributorship agreement for the sale of testing equipment (the Tabai products) with the overseas principal/supplier, Tabai Espec Corp but the agreement was made non-exclusive when the fifth defendant was appointed as a distributor in April 1994. The sale of other testing equipment (Suga products) was made through Yamato Scientific Co Ltd (Yamato). It was an understanding that Yamato would only sell Suga products to the plaintiff in Malaysia.

The first, second, third and fourth defendants were at all material times employees of the plaintiff. The first defendant was employed in 1979 and he was a director when he left the plaintiff at the end of December 1992. The second defendant was employed in April 1989 and he was the Manager of the Technical Instrumentation Division when he left the employment of the plaintiff on 5 December 1993. The third defendant was employed in 1967 and was h