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Immoral Shareholders Resolution Not Entirely Immune from Challenge

09.02.2023

(updated on

07.04.2026

)

0

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If a shareholders resolution is obtained in an immoral manner and has become final and unchallengeable due to the passage of time, a claim for damages aimed at restoring the situation that existed before the shareholders resolution is not necessarily excluded.Facts:In 2011 the defendant filed an incorrect list of shareholders with the commercial register. In that list he was shown as holding all shares in the GmbH (share no. 1 with a nominal value of 20,000 euros and share no. 2 with a nominal value of 5,000 euros) although in fact he only held share no. 2. He then convened a shareholders meeting to which he did not invite the claimant, who was the holder of share no. 1. In this shareholders meeting he himself resolved that the convening shareholder would at the same time act as chair of the meeting and that 85 percent of all votes would be required in order to adopt a shareholders resolution, so that the claimant would no longer be able to take any decision without the defendant. The claimant did not learn of this until 2016, so that an action to contest the resolution had no prospect of success due to the lapse of time. The claimant therefore brought an action for damages aimed at restoration of the original situation by way of consent to an amendment of the articles of association. The regional court dismissed the action on the grounds that the resolution had become final and unchallengeable. The higher regional court allowed the claim. The defendant appealed this decision.Decision of the Federal Court of Justice:The Federal Court of Justice dismissed the appeal on the merits. It held that the finality and unchallengeability of a shareholders resolution does not exclude a claim for damages under section 826 of the German Civil Code and that a claim under section 852 of the Civil Code must also be regarded as given. The higher regional court had already found that the requirements of section 826 of the Civil Code were satisfied and that the claim could only be excluded on account of the resolution having become final and unchallengeable. However, immoral conduct can never be cured by a rule whose purpose is to create legal certainty. Furthermore, the resolution that has become final and unchallengeable is not set aside by section 826 of the Civil Code. Rather, consent must be given to a new resolution that restores the original situation. In addition, a claim to consent to a shareholders resolution also arises from section 852 of the Civil Code, because the defendant obtained a position of control in the GmbH without legal ground and the statute of limitations does not exclude a claim based on unjust enrichment. The appeal to the Federal Court of Justice was therefore unsuccessful.

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