摘要
在当前对独立董事行政处罚、行政和民事诉讼中,监管部门和法院通常是从“过错推定”原则出发认定独董责任,实践中“签字等于责任”等归责模式将举证责任几乎完全推给独董,独董免责情形极为有限,胜诉率极低。这与美国诉讼中的过错责任原则和独董的较高胜诉率形成鲜明对比。因此,首先应区分执行董事和独立董事的责任,独董之间的责任也宜有所区分;尽管独董对公司也负有谨慎义务、勤勉义务和一定程度的监督义务,但独董责任仍然应当以是否丧失独立性作为首要考量标准;其次对独董履行监督义务中的“尽职免责”要求也应合理考量独董获取公司内幕信息的有限性,并适度扩大独董的尽职免责范围;同时应强化独董签字与投资者损失之间的因果关系证明。独董并非“全能”,亦非公司“间谍”,对独董的身份认知和职责定位应符合客观实际。
In the current administrative punishment,administrative and civil litigation against independent directors,regulatory authorities and courts usually start from the principle of“presumption of fault”to determine the responsibility of independent directors.In practice,“signature equals liability”and other imputation modes put the burden of proof almost entirely on the independent directors,and the exemption of liability for independent directors is very limited,and the winning rate is very low.This is in sharp contrast to the fault liability principle and the high winning rate of independent directors in American litigation.Firstly,the responsibilities of executive directors and independent directors should be distinguished,and the responsibilities of different independent directors should also be distinguished.Although the independent directors also shoulder the duty of care,diligence and a certain degree of supervision to the company,the independent directors’responsibility should still take whether the independence is lost as the primary consideration standard.Secondly,the limited access of the independent directors to the inside information of the company should be reasonably considered and the scope of the independent directors’due diligence exemption should be moderately expanded.At the same time,proof of causality between the signature of independent directors and the loss of investors should be weighted.Independent directors are not“omnipotent”,nor are they“spies”of the company.The identity and responsibility of independent directors should conform to the objective reality.
出处
《经贸法律评论》
2022年第6期87-109,共23页
Business and Economic Law Review
关键词
独立董事
归责原则
过错推定
免责事由
裁判标准
Independent Director
Principle of Imputation
Presumption of Fault
Cause of Exemption
Judgment Standard
作者简介
吴越,法学博士,西南财经大学法学院教授;寇晓,西南财经大学法学院民商法学硕士研究生。