Nantong Court Case: Jiang Mou professional-assisted voucher inspection

Reference Case: Jiang Mou v. a Real Estate Company

Where the company cannot prove that inspection of books and accounting vouchers serves an improper purpose or threatens commercial secrecy or security, the court may permit the shareholder and professionally retained accounting personnel to inspect both the books and the vouchers. Otherwise, inspection rights would become ineffective in practice for shareholders lacking technical expertise.

Holding

Where the company cannot prove that inspection of books and accounting vouchers serves an improper purpose or threatens commercial secrecy or security, the court may permit the shareholder and professionally retained accounting personnel to inspect both the books and the vouchers. Otherwise, inspection rights would become ineffective in practice for shareholders lacking technical expertise.

Issues

inspection of accounting vouchersinspection assisted by professionalscommercial-secrecy defense