Whether the standarts of directors' fiduciary duties differ in a non profit orgnization and private legal entity? Cover Image

Ar skiriasi ne pelno organizacijos ir privataus juridinio asmens vadovų fiduciarinių pareigų standartai?
Whether the standarts of directors' fiduciary duties differ in a non profit orgnization and private legal entity?

Author(s): Stasys Urbonavicius
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Florida Coastal School of Law and Vytautas Magnus University School of Law
Keywords: standarts; director; fiduciary; duties; non profit; orgnization; private; legal entity

Summary/Abstract: Non profit organizations are significant part of democracy and the important factor in the formation of civil society. It is notable that inefficient governance and breaches of directors’ duties have impact on the confidence in the whole non profit sector. This is vital for Lithuanian nonprofits because they do not have strong support in society and there are no profound voluntary traditions. Therefore it is necessary to determine liabilities of directors and secure proper fulfillment of their duties for the growing and expanding nonprofit sector. Thus the object of this thesis is the directors’ fiduciary duties in non profit organizations. It tests the following hypothesis: The standards of directors fiduciary duties do not differ in a non profit organization and private legal entity. The paper supports the aforementioned hypothesis, for the same standards of duty of care and loyalty is applied to the directors of both non profit organizations and corporations. In order to reach the goals of the thesis subsequent structure of three main parts is chosen. In the first part, the main features of non profit organizations and requirements of fiduciary duties are briefly discussed. In the second part, the standards of nonprofits directors’ fiduciary duties and proposals of jurisprudence in the US are analyzed. The third part is dedicated to the standards applied in Lithuania and proposals for the change as well as the implementation of these standards. Answering the hypothesis the statutes, case law, jurisprudence of Lithuania and the US are explored. Nonprofit sector, compared with corporations, lacks comparable market mechanisms (stock price, competition in product markets) therefore statutory standard and judicial review are the principle means to secure proper fulfillment of fiduciary duties. The corporate standard of duty of care is applied for the nonprofit’s directors in Lithuania and in the US. It establishes the ordinary negligence standard of conduct and gross negligence standard of judicial review. The business judgment rule that is the standard of judicial review presuppose liability of directors only in the case of gross negligence, and is applied for nonprofit directors as well. The lack of market mechanisms, effective monitoring and enforcement are the main obstacles for the proper implementation of nonprofit governance. Therefore, the jurisprudence suggests to stiffen the standard of duty of care by, first, diversifying standard according to the directors functions or according to the differences between operation of nonprofits; second, not applying business judgment rule to the directors of nonprofits and aligning the ordinary negligence as a standard of judicial review. The standards of duty of loyalty in non profit organizations and corporations are the same in the U.S. as well as in Lithuania because the directors of nonprofits can make interested transactions. However Lithuanian law, contrary to that of the US, does not requ

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 101-117
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Lithuanian