Five years ago Bolus plc, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company bought premises in Smallville, as part of the town’s regeneration program. Bolus currently employs two thousand local people, many of them in lower paid semi skilled jobs, and its business has thrived. It has a good reputation in the locality as a responsible employer and it sponsors the local football team. The factory is adjacent to farmland on the edge of the town. Apply UK law, discuss the legal issues concerning the directors’ and company secretary’s duties arising from the following scenarios: a) Bolus’ premises are rapidly becoming too small to accommodate anticipated growth in the next five years. At the last general meeting, the shareholders authorized the directors to “decide, after further research, whether to expand the existing site, or re-locate to Oldcastle” (an industrial city 100 miles away).
b) The board has commissioned a feasibility study for the new development from Make-It-Happen Ltd, a small company owned by Arthur Tansy, stepson to Basil Pepper who is one of the directors of Bolus. This cost Bolus £10,000.
c) Cedric Smeek, Bolus’ company secretary, ordered a computer from Crash Ltd costing £1000 in Bolus name. He then sold it on to his daughter in law for £1,300. The transaction was discovered by Prudence Hope, the head of Bolus accounts department, and she has refused to issue payment to Crash Ltd.