North Carolina Business Litigation Report : North Carolina Business Litigation Lawyer & Attorney : Mack Sperling : Brooks Pierce Law Firm : Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Charlotte

There were nine new cases designated to the North Carolina Business Court during June 2009, down from eighteen in May and fourteen in April.  The June cases are as follows:

Anderson & Associates of Virginia, Inc. v. Tuscany Development Co. (Guilford)(Tennille): whether an individual can be personally liable for the obligations of an LLC when the entity was erroneously designated in the contract documents.

Berton v. Jacobson (Wake)(Jolly):alleged misrepresentations to induce plaintiffs to invest in limited liability companies, allegations of a Ponzi scheme.  Claims under the North Carolina Securities Act, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, N.C. RICO, and to pierce the corporate veil. Related to the Shareff case, below.

BB&T BOLI Plan Trust v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. (Forsyth)(Diaz): alleged mismanagement of $55 million securities investment by BB&T, which BB&T claims was to be reallocated into less risky investments if the value fell below a certain amount.   BB&T claims "despite knowing of the meltdown in the mortgage-backed securities market and that [the fund] was heavily investment in [mortgage backed securities] investments, [Defendant] failed to take timely steps to protect BB&T's premiums."

Engineering Services, P.A. v. Dail (Wake)(Jolly): claims for breach of fiduciary duty and conversion by corporate officer and shareholder, counterclaim seeking dissolution of the corporation or redemption of defendant's ownership interest.

Ferguson Fibers, Inc. v. Foster (Davidson)(Tennille): claims against former employee for unfair competition and misuse of proprietary information.

Kiser v. Shelby (Caldwell)(Diaz): claims for breach of operating agreement of LLC, breach of buy-sell agreement, breach of fiduciary duties, dissolution and misappropriation of intellectual property.

Oracle Flexible Packaging, Inc. v. Industrial Air Quality, Inc. (Forsyth)(Diaz): This is a Rule 2.1 case in which "Plaintiff seeks in excess of $31,000,000 for damages resulting from an explosion . . . at a manufacturing complex where it produced aluminum packaging materials" allegedly resulting from defendants' design and installation of an "oily foil trim collection system."

Rouen v. Smith (New Hanover)(Diaz): plaintiffs allege that the defendants formed a sand mining business that was intended to include the plaintiffs as members, but failed to include them.  Also claims for usurpation of corporation opportunities and wrongful sales of member interests in the venture.

Shareff v. Lakebound Fixed Return Fund, LLC (Wake)(Jolly): alleged misrepresentations to induce plaintiff to invest in limited liability companies, claims under North Carolina Securities Act and North Carolina Investment Adviser Act and for common law fraud.  Related to the Berton case, above. 

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The North Carolina courts are taking some serious strides towards the implementation of electronic filing in Superior Court.  The State has gone live with pilot e-filing programs in Chowan and Davidson Counties.  Wake County will be added shortly as a third pilot county.  The goal is full and mandatory implementation throughout the State within two years.

The State has selected a software program called E-Flex from Tybera to handle electronic filing.  If you want to bone up in advance on the filing procedures, there's an on-line manual available from Tybera, as well as some general information about the program, including training opportunities with CLE credit.

The Supreme Court has approved a new set of rules for e-filing, which are titled Supplemental Rules of Practice and Procedure for the North Carolina eFiling Pilot Project for Chowan and Davidson Counties Initially, and then also for Wake County.

At the end of recent report from the Technology Committee of the AOC about the e-filing project, the author says "Bottom Line: E-Filing and E-Pay is here.  The money is in hand.  The implementation will be gradual but the estimated time for mandatory use throughout the state, barring any major problems, is less than two years.  Hold on tight -- this will be quite a trip."

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The Fourth Circuit today affirmed the dismissal of a personal injury action based on a forum selection provision requiring that any claims would be resolved in the courts of Amsterdam.  The case is Baker v. Adidas America, Inc.

Plaintiff, who had sued in federal court in North Carolina, argued that she was a college student without the financial means to fund a lawsuit in Amsterdam, that contingency fee arrangements were not permitted in Amsterdam, and that she wouldn't be able to pursue her claim if the forum selection clause was enforced.

The Fourth Circuit, relying on the Supreme Court's decision in The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., 407 U.S. 1 (1972), held that the inconvenience of litigating in a foreign forum doesn't warrant setting aside a selection clause "where it can be said with reasonable assurance" that at the time the contract was made the parties contemplated the claimed inconvenience.  The party seeking to avoid a forum selection clause also must show that a trial in the specified forum "will be so gravely difficult and inconvenient that he will for all practical purposes be deprived of his day in court." 

The Fourth Circuit found the clause to be valid, ruling that the claimed burden of a trial in Amsterdam should have been foreseeable when Plaintiff accepted the benefits of the agreement, and that she had presumably been compensated for those burdens.

The North Carolina Business Court rejected an attack earlier this year on a forum selection clause specifying litigation in the Commercial Court of Paris, in Speedway Motorsports International Ltd. v. Bronwen Energy Trading, Ltd., 2009 NCBC 3 (N.C. Super. Ct., February 18, 2009).  The party objecting to the application of that clause said that litigation in France would deprive it "of the full scope of discovery that would otherwise be available in" the North Carolina Courts. 

In the Speedway case, Judge Diaz held that there was "no authority . . . for the proposition that merely requiring a party to litigate in a forum with substantially different discovery rules than those applied in a U.S. court is sufficient cause to override the parties' choice of forum."  He ruled that the party forced to fight its claim in France was neither "deprive[d] of its day in court" nor "without an adequate remedy."

Another issue in the Fourth Circuit decision today concerned whether Plaintiff, a professional tennis player who was a minor when the contract with Adidas was signed by her agent, had acted promptly enough to disaffirm the agreement after she attained the age of majority.  The Fourth Circuit said that she hadn't, because her agent had accepted payments from Adidas after she turned 18, and she didn't inform Adidas that she was voiding the contract until 32 months after her 18th birthday.

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An accountant who had prepared financial statements did not need to be designated as an expert witness in order to provide testimony regarding those financial statements, per the Business Court's ruling in A-1 Pavement Marking, LLC v. APMI Corporation, 2009 NCBC 15 (N.C. Super. Ct. June 26, 2009).  The opinion also discusses generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") relevant to financial statements of consolidated entities.

The issue in A-1 was Plaintiff's calculation of a bonus due one of the Defendants, which was to be based on Plaintiff's gross profits. The Plaintiff's consolidated financial statements had eliminated a significant receivable due from a subsidiary. The Defendant asserted that his bonus would have been substantially higher with the inclusion of that receivable in the gross profit calculation, and brought a claim under the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act.

The Plaintiff moved for summary judgment, relying on an affidavit from the accountant who had prepared the financial statements on which the calculation was based.  The Defendant objected to what it termed "improper opinion testimony," and argued that the accountant had never been designated as an expert witness.

Judge Diaz rejected the argument that the account was an undisclosed expert who shouldn't be allowed to testify, holding:  

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If you have privileged documents, you shouldn't share them with your wife and daughter.  You should also be careful with technology, which lets you do "dumb things".  Those are the lessons of Judge Tennille's very short opinion last week in Crockett Capital Corp. v. Inland American Winston Hotels, Inc.

An executive of the Defendant had sent his wife and daughter emails which included attorney-client communications.  The reason for sending the emails to his wife was to "vent frustration" about work-related matters.  The daughter was apparently asked for grammatical advice.

The Plaintiff said that the privilege had been waived by this intentional production.  Judge Tennille determined that the privilege had not been waived, emphasizing that his decision was based on the specific circumstances before him.  Here's what he said:

Technology multiplies the opportunities for man to do dumb things and increases the speed at which he can do them.

Venting one’s frustrations about work to a spouse is an everyday occurrence.  Attaching a string of emails containing attorney client information to an email to a person’s spouse venting one’s frustration at work is just not smart. The Court does not believe it constitutes a waiver of the attorney client privilege under these circumstances.

Using a child as a grammarian with the result that attorney client privileged information is included in emails to her is just not smart. The Court does not believe it constitutes a waiver of the attorney client privilege under these circumstances.

There isn't much discussion in the opinion, so if you are looking for some law on the issue of privilege waiver, you might want to look at the briefs.  The principal brief was filed under seal, but the brief on why privilege hadn't been waived and the reply brief in support of the waiver argument are available.

I don't think Bart Simpson would carelessly share privileged documents.  Homer?  Probably.

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Today, in TAI Sports, Inc. v. Hall, the Business Court denied Plaintiff's' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction freezing Defendants' assets and appointing a receiver to manage the business of the Defendants.

The claim made by Plaintiff was that one of the Defendants had used his position as an officer of one of the Plaintiff's companies to misappropriate over $1 million in cash and inventory.  The Defendants had disputed the allegations.

Judge Diaz observed that the bulk of the damages sought by Plaintiff were lost profits, and that Plaintiff had not shown that it would be able to prove those with the required "reasonable certainty."  He held:

the Court notes that TAI is a relatively new enterprise, having been formed in 2005, and the record is silent on Plaintiff’s history of profitability, if any. And while North Carolina law has no per se rule precluding an award of damages for lost profits here a business has no recent record of profitability, such businesses, like established businesses, must prove such damages with reasonable certainty. . . .  Plaintiff’s evidence here falls short of proving its lost revenue or profits with reasonable certainty, and thus, Plaintiff has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of a substantial portion of its claim.  

The Court concluded, in denying the Motion::

At bottom, this is a case where Plaintiff seeks money damages. Plaintiff is asking the Court to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the Hall Defendants from rendering a monetary judgment against them unenforceable. Plaintiff, however, has not sustained its burden to show that it will suffer irreparable injury should the injunction not issue. Specifically, there is no evidence in this record that the Hall Defendants have fraudulently transferred assets (whether those purportedly belonging to Plaintiff or their own) to a third party or taken any other action to thwart Plaintiff’s ability to recover damages should it prevail on the claims.

Brief in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction

Brief in Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction

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The Fourth Circuit ruled yesterday in Huttenstine v. Mast on the Defendants' effort to back out of a class action settlement to which they had agreed, and affirmed an entry of judgment against the Defendants for the full amount of the settlement.

The Defendants, who apparently had second thoughts about their deal, refused to make the $425,000 payment called for by the agreement.  They took the position that their payment was a condition precedent to the effectiveness of the settlement agreement, and that their failure to comply with the condition precedent resulted in the entire agreement being void.

The Fourth Circuit rejected that argument in an unpublished opinion, finding it to be "incomprehensible."  The Court drew a distinction between promises and conditions precedent, ruling that the obligation to make the settlement payment was a binding promise on behalf of the Defendants, not a condition precedent.  When the Defendants failed to pay, they breached their promise, and the District Court had properly entered judgment against them in the full amount of the settlement, plus interest.

The Court further observed that the Defendants were not entitled to refuse to make the payment and to then benefit from their own failure to satisfy the condition.  It held, relying on a line of North Carolina cases, that "one who prevents the performance of a condition, or makes it impossible by his own act, will not be permitted to take advantage of the nonperformance."

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There were three North Carolina Supreme Court decisions today which are worth a mention, involving personal jurisdiction, depositions, and the North Carolina Whistleblower Act:

In the personal jurisdiction case, the Court reversed the Court of Appeals in an alienation of affections case, Brown v. Ellis.  The Court ruled that there was jurisdiction over the out-of-state defendant in North Carolina even though the defendant had "never set foot in the State of North Carolina."  The Supreme Court based jurisdiction on defendant's daily phone calls and emails to the plaintiff's wife.  The Supreme Court didn't accept defendant's protestations that these extensive communications were "the normal pleasantries associated with a friendly working relationship."

The deposition case, Rodriguez-Carias v. Nelson's Auto Salvage & Towing Service, Inc., resulted in an unfortunate 3-3 split.  Rodriguez-Carias involved the practical issue whether the court reporter for a telephone deposition needs to be in the physical presence of the deponent.  The Court of Appeals decision ruled that it was sufficient for the court reporter to be in the "vocal and aural presence" of the deponent, not his or her physical presence.  The effect of a 3-3 decision is that the Court of Appeals ruling stands, but without precedential effect.  The fact that there were three members of the Court willing to reverse this decision makes it risky to take depositions without having the court reporter at the other end of the phone line, with the deponent.

The Whistleblower decision, Helm v. Appalachian State University, reversed the Court of Appeals. Plaintiff was a Vice Chancellor at Appalachian who claimed she was fired for objecting to the issuance of a $10,000 check from the University Endowment to obtain an option to buy property for $475,000.  Plaintiff complained that there weren't funds available in her budget to exercise the option and she had blown the whistle about a "misappropriation of funds." The Court of Appeals majority affirmed the dismissal of her case, saying that the option had an "inherent, intrinsic value," and thus there had been no misappropriation to report.  The Supreme Court adopted Judge Calabria's dissent in the Court of Appeals, in which she said "while the enforceable right to purchase does have theoretical value, its value under the facts as alleged by the plaintiff does not justify the expenditure of $10,000 from the public funds."

You can find the rest of today's decisions from the Supreme Court here.

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Plaintiff's bribes to an employee of the Defendant didn't bar the Plaintiff's unfair and deceptive practices claim, per the Court of Appeals decision today in Media Network, Inc. v. Long Haymes Carr, Inc., The ruling upheld a $1.3 million jury verdict in favor of the Plaintiff, trebled by the Business Court to $3,776,085.

The bribes -- determined to be such by the jury -- included cash payments, use of a BMW, and tickets to all manner of entertainment and sporting events.  Those included everything from tickets to the circus, tickets for Broadway shows, and World Series tickets (2004, Cardinals vs. the Red Sox).

The payments were made to induce the Defendant to hire Plaintiff to participate in a lucrative advertising program for Defendant's client.  The client learned of the bribes, and conducted a confidential attorneys' eyes only investigation which confirmed the payments.  The employee was then fired by the Defendant.  Shortly after that, the Defendant terminated its contract with the Plaintiff, which Plaintiff contended had been represented to be non-cancelable.

The Plaintiff sued, making a variety of claims.  All of its claims were dismissed in pretrial rulings by the Business Court except for an unfair and deceptive practices claim.  The jury found for the Plaintiff.  It also found that the Plaintiff had bribed the employee, but that the employer had known about the bribes.  The Business Court entered judgment on the jury's verdict of more than a million dollars.  On appeal, the Defendant contended that the Plaintiff's "commercial bribery" barred its claim.  It said "since every transaction that [the Plaintiff] performed for [the Defendant] was spawned from commercial bribery, [Plaintiff] cannot recover."

The Court of Appeals disagreed.  It held that "commercial bribery has not been recognized as a defense, complete or otherwise, to unfair and deceptive trade practices in North Carolina."  It distinguished a New Jersey decision, Jaclyn, Inc. v. Edison Bros. Stores, Inc., 406 A.2d 474 (N.J. Super. 1979), in which the Court had dismissed a contract claim based on the plaintiff's bribery of an agent of the defendant who had entered into the contract in question.

The Court held that unfair and deceptive practice claims "are not subject to the same defenses as traditional contract and tort claims."  Judge Elmore ruled that "not only is the defendant's intent irrelevant when evaluating a UDTP claim, the plaintiff's intent and conduct is also irrelevant."  He that it had been error even to charge the jury on whether commercial bribery had occurred, but that the error had not affected the outcome.

This case spawned four rulings by the Business Court: an opinion on the discoverability of a settlement agreement, an opinion refusing leave to the defendant to amend its counterclaim because of undue delay (which was also affirmed by the Court of Appeals), an opinion dismissing Plaintiff's claim for damages based on diminution in value of its business (also affirmed by the Court of Appeals), and an opinion denying the successful Plaintiff's motion for attorneys' fees (also affirmed).

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