Monitor Prawniczy

no. 21/2021

The right to challenge resolutions of the shareholders’ meetings in case of the disposal of shares

Kacper Wosiak
Autor jest adiunktem w Zakładzie Prawa Gospodarczego i Handlowego Wydziału Prawa, Administracji i Ekonomii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego oraz radcą prawnym; ORCID: 0000-0001-9428-0629.
Abstract

The commented judgement concerns the important issue of how the disposal of shares affects the right to challenge resolutions of the shareholders’ meetings. The Court of Appeal in Łódź held in its judgement that the disposal of shares led to the irreversible loss of a shareholder’s right to challenge resolutions and that even the subsequent reacquisition thereof could not restore this right to successful challenging of the resolutions in question.The article analyses the legal status of the right to challenge resolutions and in this respect holds that the discussed right is an inherent part of a share. This view offers a basis for the subsequent conclusion that the discussed right shall be transferred to the acquirer of shares in the same condition as when it was conferred upon the seller. This in turn means that if the prerequisites for challenging resolutions have arisen with regard to the seller of shares, and the disposal of shares has been effected prior to the expiration of relevant time limits, the acquirer of shares should have the right to challenge resolutions. The article also suggests that this legal view is useful also in assessing the consequences of discrepancies between the actual entitlement under shares and so-called formal legitimacy, that is the situation whereby the right attached to shares is exercised by a person who – under the relevant provisions of law (Art. 187 § 1 and Art. 343 § 1 of the Commercial Companies Code) – is treated by the company as its shareholder despite the absence of the actual entitlement.