UK: England and Wales: fiduciary duties in the group context

Judgment was given last week in Bank of Ireland v Jaffery [2012] EWHC 1377 (Ch). One of the issues considered by the judge was the existence of fiduciary obligations owed by a senior employee to a subsidiary company where the parent company was the employer. With reference to Shepherds Investments Limited v Walters [2006] EWHC 836 (Ch) the trial judge observed: "It seems to me to be obvious that if the employee of a parent is required by that parent to work for one of its subsidiaries as a banker handling loans and dealing with its financial affairs, the employee must owe fiduciary duties as much to the subsidiary in connection with the financial affairs that the employee is required to handle, as he would to the parent employer in connection with its own financial affairs" (para. [299]).