Diligently reading and reporting on lawsuits helps journalists draw back the veil on family firms, because their disputes may end up in court where many of the proceedings and documents are public.

That was the case with a tabloid-worthy family feud that erupted in 2008 at Hong Kong’s biggest property developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (SHKP), owned by one of the richest families in Hong Kong.

The drama was triggered when the company’s chairman and CEO reportedly wanted to bring his lover onto the SHKP board. That prompted the CEO’s two younger brothers to stage a boardroom coup, ousting him and replacing him with their 79-year-old mother. The raft of subsequent lawsuits included a defamation suit that the ousted CEO filed against his brothers, who had accused him in letters of suffering from manic depression and of being a “liar.”

The consequences of these family struggles can be serious for shareholders.

“What happens when family loyalty turns to family feud? In the case of SHKP, the company’s market value dropped $4.6 billion over a seven-day period,” reporters wrote in Asia Times Online in a story at the time.

Read the story at: http://bit.ly/ILNhdw

(The younger brothers became co-chairmen of SHKP in 2011, replacing their mother. Their older brother remained a nonexecutive director.)