Breaches of Duties in Australian Securities and Investment Commission v Mariner Corporation Limited Case

b. The duties/responsibilities breached (ex. CA sections 181 or 588G) and explain why
the duties were breached.
Australian securities and Investment commission v Mariner Corporation Limited was a case
that was fought in Federal court of Australia. The case is the announcement of takeover that
was done by the corporation was in violation of the Corporation act 2001. The violation was
claimed to be in different accounts or subsections like lack of funds to make the bid,
misleading or deceptive conduct by the parties involved and breach of the duty of the
director.
The section 180 (I) of the Corporation act 2001 states that the directors of an organisation
should work with care and diligence which was violated by the directors of the Mariners
corporation limited. The violation of the section has been identified in the takeover bid of the
company of Austock group limited.
Firstly violation has been because of the public proposal that has been made by the
organisation which is the violation of 631 (2) (b) which states that a public proposal should
not be made in certain conditions. These conditions involve inability to actually proceed if
the bid is accepted.
Second is the announcement that was made by Mariner to ASX which violated section 1041H
of corporation act 2001 which makes it illegal to do a misleading or deceptive conduct
especially in regards to a financial service.
Thirdly mariner also made a bid of 10.5 cents per share which was a violation of the
corporation act 2001 section 621 (3) which states that in case of takeover bid the sum offer
for the securities should be equal or more than the maximum consideration that was provided
in the agreement of the purchase during the period of 4 month prior to the date of bid.
Fourth violation is the inability to consider the regulatory constraint for the several
percentages of shares of Austock (Jade 2018).
In the case of Australian securities and Investment commission v Mariner Corporation
Limited the section 180(1) which state that the director should act with diligence and care.
This was reflected in their decision to take over Austock. The decision was taken by the
director was because of the fact that they believed that the Austock which is a small cap
company is not reflecting its true value. They believed the true value can be unlocked in case
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