Breach of Fiduciary Duty

A fiduciary duty typically arises in cases in which one party has an obligation to act in the best interest of another party, such as a corporate board member’s duty to company shareholders. A breach of fiduciary duty occurs when a party fails to fulfill its fiduciary duty to another party. A breach of fiduciary duty can be affirmative (through an act) or through omission (through a failure to perform).

The standard for proving a breach of fiduciary duty varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Typically, a claim for breach of fiduciary duty includes four elements: 1) the existence of a fiduciary duty; 2) a breach of that duty (through an act or omission); 3) damages; and 4) causation.

The standard for whether a party has standing to sue for breach of fiduciary duty varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Typically, a party has standing to sue for breach of a duty when that party is owed a fiduciary duty and the party has been harmed in some way by the breach of that duty. For example, in certain jurisdictions, a minority shareholder may sue if he have been harmed by the actions of majority shareholders