• Collecting debts - what not to do... Search for law notes: From today's Muncie Star-Press:BREAK-IN: A Muncie man was arrested Saturday afternoon, accused of dealing several thousand dollars worth of...
  • Blogging for business plans... Search for law notes: You want to start a business. You read everything you can about starting a business. You probably have read enough about needing a...
  • Starting a corporation... Search for law notes: The law require three things for starting a corporation:1. Corporate by-laws.2. Articles of Incorporation.3. An Employer Identification...
  • Best wishes to Marcia Oddi... Search for law notes: I have been remiss but Marcia Oddi of The Indiana Law Blog is ill. My best wishes go out to here. The Indiana Law Blog was the first...
  • Spatial Law and Policy Update (Augu... Search for law notes: PrivacyGoogle Street View in Germany - a non-issueSpain joins countries Probing Street ViewFacebook Location and PrivacyFacebook Enters...
  • Update on Spatial Law and Policy... Search for law notes: California has revised its proposed "Pay As You Drive" insurance regulations. A full copy of the regulations can be found here.Vector One...
  • Indiana Blog: Indiana Commercial Fo... Search for law notes: I ran across this blog in the past week and with more time I would have mentioned it earlier. The writer is John Waller from Indianapolis'...

Can your spouse get you sued over business information?

I debated this post about a Fox News article Insider Trading: Pillow Talk Reveals Couples’ Dirty Little Secrets.After all, what readers I have do not come here for SEC matters. This paragraph changed my mind:

The second theory, “misappropriation,” applies to someone who is not a corporate insider, but rather someone who owes a fiduciary duty to the source of the material non-public information for some reason. Misappropriating confidential information for securities trading purposes, in breach of a duty owed to the source of that information, gives rise to a duty to either disclose or abstain. In plain English, the outsider (aka the misappropriator) who has no ties to the corporation can be liable for insider trading if they fail to abstain from using the information or disclose the secret to the public. It’s under this theory that courts construe a duty of trust and confidence when the communicator of the information was a spouse, sibling, parent or child of the recipient, unless the recipient can show there was no reasonable expectation of confidentiality. So, you can be on the hook and have no direct connection to the corporation.

Fiduciary duty applies to more than securities fraud. The duty applies to the personal administrators of estates, trustees of all sorts, members of a limited liability company, and directors/officers of a corporation. I have not seen an Indiana case applying a duty on a spouse, but it may be possible.

0 comments:

Post a comment on: Can your spouse get you sued over business information?

Info recommended by: Law and Law blogger online Sponsored by: Law daily
  • The Cluetrain Manifesto... Search for law notes: I got to admit I have read bits and pieces and a lot about The Cluetrain Manifesto and I am still not sure how to put it all into effect...
  • Franchising - reading around... Search for law notes: Today, I found a new franchising resource: FranchiseBrief.com. I have not examined the site in any depth but it seems fairly sober in its...
  • Recent Spatial Law Links... Search for law notes: Privacy - in all it forms - continues to be a hot Spatial Law issue. An article in the Washington Post discusses how the Department of...
  • State v. Jay C. Fisher... Search for law notes: 08-14-07 A-3026-05T3Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-5.1, a driver involved in amotor vehicle accident that results in the death of...
  • OECD Report published... Search for law notes: Earlier this months, the OECD published its communication outlook which presents the most recent comparable data on the performance of the...
  • Dying without a Will in Indiana ver... Search for law notes: I will take Indiana. This story from the Times of London, Wills injustice: fit for Dickens?, is worth reading if only to make us...
  • Follow up on powers of attorney and... Search for law notes: Just a few passing thoughts on the previous article Powers of Attorney - uses and problems and Times of London article I was commenting on...
  • Powers of Attorney - uses and probl... Search for law notes: I sum up a power of attorney as creating an alter ego for the person making the power of attorney. Let me throw in a couple of terms here....
  • Spatial Law and Policy Update (Augu... Search for law notes: Licensing/Intellectual Property rightsPirating of Sat Nav Maps in ChinaViacom to Appeal YouTube DecisionBing Adds OpenStreetMapDoes your...
  • Spatial Law and Policy Update (Augu... Search for law notes: PrivacyPrivacy pirates: Self-regulation is a sinking ship (IT World)Facial recognition App enables next-level web-stalking (Good...
  • Recent Developments in Spatial Law... Search for law notes: Rick Crowsey, of Crowsey Incorporated, forwarded me this article from the Washington Post on the increased use of GPS devices by law...
  • Commission comments on margin squee... Search for law notes: The European Commission has issued interesting comments to the Italian telecoms regulator Agcom over its proposed guidelines for ex-ante...