directors

Case Update: Company Constitution Does Not Extend Indemnity for Directors

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The Court of Appeal in Perdana Petroleum Berhad v Tengku Dato’ Ibrahim Petra and others (grounds of judgment dated 15 October 2021) has ruled on a significant company law issue. Whether the company’s constitution alone can give rise to an indemnity by the company in favour of directors or former directors.

This decision will have an impact on company directors, auditors, company secretaries and other officers of the company attempting to rely on the indemnity clause contained in the constitution.

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Case Update: Company Cannot Suspend Its Directors

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The High Court in Dato’ Shun Leong Kwong & Anor v Menang Corporation (M) Bhd & Ors [2021] MLJU 870 (grounds of judgment dated 21 May 2021) dealt with, among others, the issue of whether the company could suspend its directors.  The Court also addressed issues relating to Board meetings and the requisition of the members’ meeting.

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Case Update: Director’s Breach of Fiduciary Duty Through Inaction

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The Privy Council’s decision in Byers v Chen Ningning [2021] UKPC 4 reiterates certain key points of law on the director’s fiduciary duty to the company. A director who knows that a fellow director is acting in breach of duty or that an employee is misapplying the assets of the company must take reasonable steps to prevent that from happening.

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Delivering a Talk on Resolving Boardroom and Shareholders Disputes

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I will be delivering a webinar on Wednesday 10 February 2021 for the Companies Commission of Malaysia. It will be on Resolving Boardroom and Shareholders Disputes. I will also be incorporating the latest company law decisions.

The webinar will include the following topics: Continue reading →

Top 5 Company Law Cases in Malaysia for 2020

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This article kickstarts the series of the Top 5 cases for the year 2020. This follows last year’s Top 5 Company Law Cases in Malaysia for 2019, restructuring and insolvency cases, and arbitration cases. This year’s series will cover five areas: company law, tax, construction, restructuring and insolvency, and arbitration cases in Malaysia.

We start with this year’s top company law cases in Malaysia. I will do things a bit differently as there were a number of interesting company law decisions. So I group the cases (which are more than five) into five areas of company law issues. Continue reading →

Case Update: Fraudulent Trading Rebooted

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The High Court in the Sulaiman & Taye decision (see the grounds of judgment dated 8 July 2020 of Ong Chee Kwan JC) deals with very significant issues in relation to fraudulent trading. Fraudulent trading is where directors of a company have to bear personal liability for the debts of a company in winding up. This is because the directors carried on the business of the company with the intent to defraud its creditors. In particular, whether the delinquent directors bearing personal liability then has to pay directly to the aggrieved applicant or to pay into the wound up company’s assets for the general benefit of all the creditors. Continue reading →