監査役の責任に関する裁判例の検討

For company auditors to effectively fulfill their management oversight function, the liabilities imposed on them must be appropriate. If it is not clear under what circumstances a company auditor will be held liable, the person who will become a company auditor will not be able to predict the possibility of being held liable, which may discourage them from becoming a company auditor, especially an outside company auditor. It is necessary to consider when a company auditor shall be liable on a case-by-case basis. In this paper, we will review judicial precedents on the liability of company auditors and summarize them. Specifically, we will examine the cases in which negligence and gross negligence are recognized, and consider the differences depending on whether the company auditor is a full-time auditor or not, the differences when the auditor’s duties are limited to accounting audit, issues concerning an auditor who is a specialist, and issues concerning a nominal auditor.