Issues in Unfair Prejudice Petitions 4: Relief

In this series of posts, Anna Lintner analyses key issues that arise in unfair prejudice petitions pursuant to s.994 Companies Act 2006.

The court has an exceptionally wide jurisdiction to order relief pursuant to s.996 Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) where it has found that an unfair prejudice petition presented pursuant to s.994 is well founded. Pursuant to s.996(1) the court "may make such order as it thinks fit for giving relief in respect of the matters complained of"[1]. The orders the court may make include[2]:

• regulating the conduct of the company's affairs in the future;
• requiring the company to refrain from doing or continuing an act complained of, or to do an act that the petitioner has complained it has omitted to do;
• authorising civil proceedings to be brought in the name and on behalf of the company;
• requiring the company not to make alterations in its articles without the leave of the court; or
• providing for the purchase of the shares of any members of the company by other members or by the company itself.

The purpose of the relief granted under s.996 is to remedy the unfair prejudice suffered by the petitioner[3]. For that reason, the remedy should be proportionate to the unfair prejudice and should not be punitive in nature[4].

You can read the full post on our Commercial, Construction & International Arbitration Blog here.