Mr. S was a small business owner in Los Angeles who was born and raised in Hong Kong. A friend still living in Hong Kong asked if Mr. S might be able to assist in navigating the myriad of U.S. and international regulations which would allow a Japanese automobile to be sold in China which, because of import restrictions at that time, had to be done via the United States. When Mr. S was successful in exporting that one automobile to China, others in China quickly took note and sought to acquire other cars through him.

In only a matter of years, what began as a favor for a friend turned into a major business where Mr. S had become the largest independent exporter of automobiles in the western United States.

Mr. S’s landlord was in the process of re-roofing the large commercial building housing Mr. S’s production facilities. As part of his business, it would install leather seats, sunroofs, and other upgrades before shipping the cars. The roofer left the building exposed over the Christmas weekend and an unexpected rainstorm damaged all of the leather goods being stored at the facility.

This unfortunately began a worst-case-scenario domino effect where the automobile shipments which were scheduled to arrive in January as employee bonuses for the Chinese New Year were all delayed.

All of Mr. S’s shipments went through one intermediary in China, and when that intermediary could not deliver these automobiles for intended end of the year bonuses, the intermediary terminated its business with Mr. S and his monthly exports instantly went from 200 cars per month to nothing.

Mr. S sued his landlord and the roofer for his damages. However, his business books showed no profits for this young business because every penny had been reinvested back into the business to expand and keep up with the quickly increasing demand.

At trial, expert testimony was used to explain to the jury the value of Mr. S’s business despite the fact that his books showed no profit.

After a three week trial, the Los Angeles jury awarded a verdict of $2.5 million for Mr. S’s lost profits.