In civil penalty proceedings under ss 180 and 181 of the Corporations Act, an officer's conduct must be assessed through the prism of the particular role they occupied at the relevant time, not by reference to the knowledge of more senior officials. The mere fact that an officer was copied into emails containing 'red flags' does not, without more, establish the knowledge necessary to found a breach of duty, particularly where the officer reasonably believed that regulatory approvals had been obtained. Jones v Dunkel cannot be used to fill gaps in the evidence or convert conjecture into inference, even in civil penalty proceedings where the respondent does not give evidence.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 15 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 15 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.