In Plus Group Ltd v Pyke [2002] EWCA Civ 370 is a UK company law case concerning the fiduciary duties of directors, and in particular the doctrine concerning corporate opportunities.

Sedley LJ referred to a submission by Pyke's counsel that Bell v. Lever Bros precluded any liability for holding a directorship which competed with the company.

In any case, Sedley LJ acknowledged that Pyke had poached a customer, but said that his... “...duty to the claimants had been reduced to vanishing point by the acts' of his fellow director and shareholder… For all the influence he had, he might as well have resigned.”Brooke LJ quoted Lord Upjohn's dissenting judgment in Boardman v. Phipps that the circumstances of... “...each case must be carefully examined to see whether a fiduciary relationship exists in relation to the matter of which complaint is made”.He stressed that Pyke had been effectively expelled from the company some six months prior to any of the events in question.

The Court of Appeal was thus intent on achieving a just result for Pyke and, on the particular facts, his effective exclusion from the company eliminated his fiduciary duties.

This is especially so in the light of the anxiety expressed by Sedley LJ in emphasising that the trial judge's finding that the customer had made it known that it would not deal with the claimant was immaterial.19 It is noteworthy that the court opted for this route as a means of exonerating the defendant rather than exercising its discretion to relieve him from liability under s.727 of the Companies Act 1985 had it first chosen to apply the inexorable rule forbidding conflict transactions.