Germany: Managing director as a witness

Company law

If a certain fact is disputed between the parties in a lawsuit, in some cases only the managing director of the party himself can testify to the disputed fact.

In principle, the managing director as an organ of the company is not a witness but a party. However, according to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, it is not immoral to recall the managing director even for the period of the court hearing (or to agree with him on a time-limited cancellation, BGH NJW- RR 2003, 1212) so that he can testify on behalf of his company. The BGH even considers a lawyer to be obliged to inform a GmbH that it can obtain this evidence by dismissal (quoted from Leuring/Rubner in NJW-Spezial 2004, p. 143 f.).

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