En otras entradas hemos indicado que una visión más completa de las funciones de los administradores sociales debería calificarlos no sólo como gestores de la empresa social y representantes de la persona jurídica sino también como gestores del contrato social que une a los accionistas. Y que esta distinción se refleja también en el régimen de la responsabilidad, de modo que el administrador que, en la gestión del contrato social (p. ej., al pagar los dividendos) daña a un accionista determinado, ha de responder frente a éste en el marco de la llamada acción individual de responsabilidad.
Un caso británico reciente que refleja estos supuestos es el Park’s of Hamilton porque no se trataba de una actuación de gestión de la empresa social por el administrador, sino de su participación en el proceso de venta de las acciones que componían su capital a un tercero. Cuando el administrador interviene en la venta de la compañía (negocia con el adquirente en interés de los accionistas), el deber de lealtad del administrador lo es hacia cada uno de los accionistas individualmente. De ahí que, en la Sentencia, se haga referencia a que el administrador “owed fiduciary duties under the law of agency to the shareholders of the company”. Es decir, se trata de un caso enmarcable en la llamada acción individual de responsabilidad. La conducta desleal del administrador consistió en que
“he sent a letter to each of the shareholders indicating that a third party had made an offer for the entire share capital of the company and asked them to sign a power of attorney in his favour enabling him to sign the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) on their behalf. Since the director was an agent of the shareholders, he owed them fiduciary duties under the common law (not sections 171 to 177 of the Companies Act 2006) and the main issue in the case was whether the director had breached the fiduciary duty not to make a personal profit out of his agency. The shareholders contended that the terms of a consultancy agreement to be entered into between the director and the company post-completion relating to his remuneration had been concealed from them. The director's defence was that there had been disclosure of the personal profit under the consultancy agreement to the shareholders and that the latter had provided informed consent. The director based these assertions on the fact that the solicitors of the company were aware of the terms of the share purchase agreement and consultancy agreement and that that their knowledge could be imputed to each of the individual shareholders since the terms of engagement of the solicitors expressly provided that they were acting as agents of the shareholders in respect of the sale of their shares in the company”.