Miles v Sydney Meat-Preserving Co Ltd was a 1912 decision of the High Court of Australia regarding directors' duties and shareholder primacy.

Businessman William John Miles sued the company, of which he was a major shareholder, for its failure to pay out dividends.

The Sydney Meat-Preserving Company (Limited) was established in 1871 by a private act of the parliament of New South Wales, for the purposes of "carrying on the business of meat preserving and disposing of and exporting the products".

He observed that:[1] The law does not require the members of a company to divest themselves, in its management, of all altruistic motives, or to maintain the character of the company as a soulless and bowelless thing, or to exact the last farthing in its commercial dealings, or forbid them to carry on its operations in a way which they think conducive to the best interests of the community as a whole.Justice Isaac Isaacs, in dissent, held that the board had adopted a consistent policy of withholding dividends and accumulating retained earnings, but that the policy which was no longer linked with the industry as a whole and was thus against the deed of settlement.

However, 20th-century Australian corporate law did not continue in this direction, but instead held that a company's interests were largely identical with those of its shareholders.