SK&S lawyers have obtained a precedential ruling of the Supreme Court in a case concerning a prohibition on a convicted member of the management board of a capital company from holding a function

Lawyers from the law firm Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak have obtained a precedential ruling of the Supreme Court in a case concerning a prohibition on a convicted member of the management board of a capital company from holding a function.

In its ruling of 3 April 2018 (case ref. IV CSK 320/17) the Supreme Court accepted that if a management board member was convicted with a conditional suspension of the sentence, then the prohibition on holding a function which follows from art. 18 of the Commercial Companies Code cannot end earlier than with the lapse of three years from the end of the trial period. The Supreme Court did not share the majority view of the commercial law doctrine which states that in the case of a suspension of the sentence, we are not dealing with a sentence at all in the meaning of art. 18 § 3 in fine of the Commercial Companies Code.

In the rulings of the Supreme Court to date, this issue had not been examined from this point of view. The Supreme Court’s ruling is of crucial importance for business practice as legal acts performed with a company represented by a management board member who is subject to a prohibition on holding a function are subject to a sanction of invalidity.

The client in this case was represented by an SK&S team composed of Jacek Siński (Partner), Jakub Urbanowicz (Senior Associate) and Adam Gąsiorowski (Associate).