Question

The Suds Corporation has just suffered significant losses of revenue for three quarters in a row, and the shareholders are furious. Much of the loss can be attributed to the board's decision to change from their traditional lager beer to a lighter and smoother brew. Unfortunately, the new recipe alienated current customers and failed to bring in new customers. Although Suds has announced that it will return to its original product, the shareholders are claiming the board violated its fiduciary duty of care, and they are suing the directors personally for their significant losses. What must the shareholders prove to win their lawsuit

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The fiduciary duty of care also called duty of care is the fudicaiary responsibility that requires board directors of a company to act and make decisions in good faith, having the best interest of the company in mind. This duty(whether written or implied) makes board directors responsible in ensuring that decisions made for the company are sound, ethical and legal.

In the above example, board directors of the suds corporation may have not performed this duty as required but this would depend on thorough investigation to ascertain the method and process by which the decision was arrived on. For instance, we are sure the decision was legal and also ethical(as they were only out to improve on company products and increase revenue likewise), we are not sure however of the soundness of this decision. This leads us to investigate the processes and results obtained from enquiring/researching on this new product decided on by the board. Therefore was it sound according to these results and processes. This is where evidence of a breach of duty by the board may be found