THE INCHCAPE CASE

The big question" Is a Director of a Company a workman within the definition of the IRA 1967? This question was answered in the case of Inchcape(M) Holding Bhd v RB Gray & Anor [1985] 2 CLJ 305-

" A Company Director has been said to be the directing mind and will of the Company,
the very ego and personality of the company ( Lennard's Carrying Co.Ltd v Asia
Petroleum Co.Ltd[1915]AC 705 and Hl Bolton ( Engineering) Ltd v TJ Graham & Sons
Ltd[1956]3 All ER 624 Denning LJ."

A Company Director may not be regarded as a "servant" of the Company (Re TN Farrer Ltd [1937] 2 All ER 505 per Simmons J: & Re Le Behrens & Co.Ltd.[1932] 2 Ch 46 per Eve J.

If a Company Director is to be treated as the mind and the will of the Company and may not be regarded as a servant of the Company, it would be strangely out of date nowadays to urge the Industrial Court to construe a Company Director in the more complex conditions of modern companies, to include a workman. Such a construction would place the Company Director , in conflcit with his duties and loyalty towards his employer and the Company whom he represents.