RK Nathan JC:

[1] The plaintiff deals in very specialised equipments and instruments which are imported from overseas principal/supplier, to be sold to various hospitals, research centres, universities and industries throughout Malaysia. The plaintiff had signed exclusive distributorship agreement for the sale of testing equipments (the Tabai products) with the overseas principal/supplier, Tabai Espec Corporation, but the agreement was made non-exclusive when the 5th defendant was appointed as a distributor in April 1994. The sale of other testing equipments (Suga products) were made through Yamato Scientific Co Ltd (Yamato). It was an understanding that Yamato will only sell Suga products to the plaintiff in Malaysia.

[2] The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants were at all material times employees of the plaintiff. The 1st defendant was employed in 1979 and he was a director when he left the plaintiff at the end of December 1992. The 2nd 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 3rd defendant was employed in 1967 and was holding the post of project ma