Peso Silver Mines Ltd. (N.P.L.) v. Cropper

Peso Silver Mines Ltd. (N.P.L.) v. Cropper, [1966] S.C.R. 673, is a leading Canadian case decided by the Supreme Court of Canada on the fiduciary duty of corporate directors.

The owner of a mineral claim offered to sell their claim to Peso Silver Mines Ltd. The board of directors of Peso rejected the offer. Mr. Cropper, a member of the board, purchased the claim for himself. Learning of this, Peso sued Cropper for breach of his fiduciary duty towards the company for "seizing the corporate opportunity".

The Court found that Cropper was not in breach of his fiduciary duty to Peso. The directors had acted in good faith and in the best interests of the company in rejecting the offer. The information that Cropper received as a board member was in no way confidential that was unavailable to any prospective purchaser. The company received offers to sell on a regular basis and the offer at issue was not different from any other. The offer was made to Cropper as a private individual and was entirely separate from his role as a director. Consequently, for all these reasons there was no breach found.

See also

• List of Supreme Court of Canada cases
• Aero Service Ltd. v. O'Malley, [1974] S.C.R. 592
• Boardman v Phipps, [1967] 2 AC 46