University surgery chief faces second writ in month

Chinese University's head of surgery abused his power by maliciously ordering a subordinate not to attend a research meeting in Shanghai, a writ claims.

The writ has been lodged in the High Court by Professor Edward To Wai-hei. He accuses Professor Charles Andrew van Hasselt of hindering the development of ideas and innovation and freedom of academic activities.

It is the second lawsuit Professor van Hasselt, who is also the chief of service in surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital, has faced in less than a month.

Professor To's writ says he suspected his co-operation with artificial-skin scientist Lam Ping-kuen had put him out of favour with Professor van Hasselt. Dr Lam, a former head of Prince of Wales Hospital's skin bank, has refused to divulge the secrets of a human skin substitute he co-invented with Dr Eric Chan Sun-yin.

In June, Professor To and Dr Lam made a joint application for a $1.5 million grant from the Shanghai Hong Kong Anson Research Foundation (SHARF) for a head-and-neck-cancer project.

According to Professor To's writ, he was scheduled to attend a two-day meeting in Shanghai on September 27 to work out a detailed research proposal for the project. But the night before, Professor van Hasselt allegedly summoned Professor To and ordered him not to attend the Shanghai meeting 'with a view to stopping the application for the grant from SHARF'.