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English translation: decisions in writing that diverge [...] shall prevail
16:23 Apr 28, 2023
French to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Law (general) / Articles of Association (S.A.)
French term or phrase:les décisions écrites [...] sont réservées.
En cas de décision par voie électronique, aucune signature n’est nécessaire ; les décisions écrites divergentes du conseil d’administration sont réservées.
Explanation: The Swiss themselves appear to have issues with this turn of phrase.
"La teneur en eau des produits de la minoterie ne doit pas dépasser 16 % masse. L'al. 3 est réservé. Formule plus élégante : La teneur en eau des produits de la minoterie ne doit pas dépasser 16 % masse, sous réserve de l'al. 3." https://www.bk.admin.ch/bk/fr/home/documentation/langues/aid...
I don't think it's about the board's decision re. the validity of electronic voting without signature, as some answers and indeed the English translation on the Swiss site suggest, but rather about the (non-)validity of such a decision if the board has a written decision that differs from the electronic decision.
People more familiar with legal lingo than I will be able to turn my sow's ear below into a silk purse.
No signature is necessary in the case of a decision being made by electronic means; decisions by the board in writing that diverge therefrom shall take precedence and shall prevail.
I haven't read all the entries here, so i don't know if somebody else spotted this, but surely "specify" in
"unless the board of directors specify"
should be "specifies", since the board is an entity and thus singular.
In the UK they've started doing something weird where a Board would be considered to be a group of people or parties and not an entity and thus "they", terrible, but anyway...
Per the comment that “resolution” applies to shareholders rather than the board, this is not the case in my experience. In corporate law, we speak of board “resolutions” pretty much universally. They are the manifestation of the board’s “decisions”, and so IMO is the correct translation of “décision” as used in the excerpt, at least the earlier instances (the solution selected leads to two different usages of “décision” in the excerpt in my view, which is contrary to the presumption of consistent expression, but doesn’t necessarily make it wrong, especially not in a French document).
yes, written decisions by the directors, which is why I think Phil's suggestion risked being understood wrongly and the other suggestions were closer to what is meant
Bearing in mind what i said this morning, and based on your interpretation
""without prejudice to any decisions of the Board of Directors that diverge from decisions reached by means of the aforementioned provisions"
Do you see what I'm trying to get at? The Board are not going to oppose the electronic means (the provisions) but may well oppose decisions reached by such a system
I've disagreed with Phil's popular answer and if I'm wrong, I can retract but I believe that if appended to the phrase before, it will give a wrong result, namely
En cas de décision par voie électronique, aucune signature n’est nécessaire, unless the board of directors decides otherwise in writing
which is not what the French text means. All the other suggestions have a sense closer to the French.
"La teneur en eau des produits de la minoterie ne doit pas dépasser 16 % masse. L'al. 3 est réservé. Formule plus élégante : La teneur en eau des produits de la minoterie ne doit pas dépasser 16 % masse, sous réserve de l'al. 3." https://www.bk.admin.ch/bk/fr/home/documentation/langues/aid...
Yes my bad, i should have mentioned this bit anyway feel free to do what you want with this piece of information, it was just to shed some light or confirm what colleagues might have thought, i'm not gonna post as there are far more competent and qualified people here in this domain to post an appriopate answer or tweak this formulation as it needs be ;) !
Not my field but might be helpful, translated as this on the site, Art. 713 "[...], aucune signature n’est nécessaire; les décisions écrites divergentes du conseil d’administration sont réservées."
"[...], no signature is required, unless the board of directors specify a different requirement in writing"
No, this is different from a réserve légale, which is funds (also a reserve in English). This is “réservé” in the sense of creating an exception. Here is an explanation of this acception:
DR. Clause restrictive ajoutée à un acte pour se soustraire à une éventuelle obligation. Émettre, faire des réserves. Dans ce contrat, il a fait plusieurs réserves (Ac.).Le créancier qui a déchargé le débiteur par qui a été faite la délégation, n'a point de recours contre ce débiteur, si le délégué devient insolvable, à moins que l'acte n'en contienne une réserve expresse (Code civil, 1804, art. 1276, p. 230).La Convention eut beau voter une réserve et dire qu'elle ne préjugeait pas si elle jugeait Louis XIV ou si elle prononçait une mesure de sûreté (Camus,Homme rév., 1951, p. 152).
Quite sure it’s an exception but I would render it using one of the formulations I suggested, which are common to introduce exceptions. Let me pull up what Ken Adams recommends as exception-introducing language in a Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Give me a few minutes.
Conor raised this, so here is the paragraph preceding and including this:
Le conseil d’administration peut prendre ses décisions: - dans le cadre d’une séance avec lieu de réunion; - sous une forme électronique par analogie avec les art. 701c à 701e du Code des obligations; - par écrit sur papier ou sous forme électronique, à moins qu’une discussion ne soit requise par l’un des membres du conseil d’administration. En cas de décision par voie électronique, aucune signature n’est nécessaire ; les décisions écrites divergentes du conseil d’administration sont réservées.
I believe the second clause is a derogation from the first, such that board resolutions that are not unanimous must be signed. You could render it with any of the expressions introducing an exception. “Without limiting A, B”, “Despite/notwithstanding A, then B”, etc.
Does this make sense in the broader context of the Articles?
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
17 mins confidence:
the written decisions [...] are unaffected
Explanation: See FHS Bridge, réservé => unaffected
I'm not quite as sure as usual, though.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 20 mins (2023-04-28 16:44:24 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Yes, I'm a little unsure, but at any rate, you should take a look at "réservé" and "réserver" in Bridge, you should find something that fits the context, which seems a little complex, on reflection – there's something going on with "divergentes".
Diverging from what, is the key question, I think.
Conor McAuley France Local time: 06:08 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 210
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Conor I think this is the basic meaning
