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09 May 2019 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7839 / Categories: Features , Public , Company
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Trust me, I’m a company director. . .

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Nicholas Dobson reports on a clear & obvious breach of fiduciary duty in a company context
  • Two company directors breached their fiduciary duties by misapplying company monies and putting their own interests above those of the company.

What is trust? Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney once declared that: ‘Trust arrives on foot but leaves in a Ferrari’. According to OED, trust is ‘confidence in . . . some quality or attribute of a person or thing, or the truth of a statement’ (emphasis added). Despite its inherent fragility, trust may also be seen as the moral glue holding society and relationships together.

But in legal terms (through courts’ substantial and historic equitable jurisdiction), trust is also a cornerstone of the English legal system. For a trust is an equitable obligation requiring those holding property on behalf of others to do so properly, conscientiously and in line with various statutory and common law duties and principles. As Lord Ellesmere said in the Earl of Oxford’s Case

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