Defendant, a veterinarian, had signed a covenant not to compete with his former employer. He was, at the time, the sole shareholder, sole officer, and sole director of his employer, although the management of the company was controlled by an affiliated entity (VetCor). Defendant left the business and sold its stock, but before doing so
Avesair, Inc. v. Inphonic, Inc., 2007 NCBC 32 (N.C. Super. Oct. 16, 2007)(Tennille)
The Court interpreted an earnout provision in an asset purchase agreement, which called for the application of Delaware law. The Court granted relief to the plaintiff, which resulted in an award to the plaintiff of nearly $4 million in stock based upon defendant’s failure to comply with its contractual obligation to provide "outside financial information"
JDH Capital LLC v. Flowers, 2007 NCBC 31 (N.C. Super. Oct. 12, 2007)(Tennille)
This case addresses a minor, but significant point involving discovery. Rule 33(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure provides that "[i]nterrogatory parts and subparts shall be counted as separate interrogatories" for purposes of counting the number of interrogatories. The Court ruled that a subpart is counted separately only if it is requesting information
Lawrence v. UMLIC-Five Corp., 2007 NCBC 30 (N.C. Super. Ct. Sept. 14, 2007)(Diaz)
Plaintiff, who held a default judgment against a North Carolina corporation, sued its directors to collect from them personally. The claims included breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyance, failure to give notice of dissolution, and piercing the corporate veil.
The directors served discovery aimed at the validity of the amount of the judgment, which potentially
Schlieper v. Johnson, 2007 NCBC 29 (N.C. Super. Ct. Aug. 31, 2007)(Tennille)
The Court held that the plaintiffs could not state a claim for fraud because neither of them took advantage of their opportunity to investigate the facts presented to them or to seek clarification, and there was no allegation that they had been denied the opportunity to investigate.
Plaintiffs also had no claim for unfair and
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA, Inc. v. Agere Systems, Inc., 2007 NCBC 28 (N.C. Super. Aug. 27, 2007)(Jolly)
The Court enforced a forum selection cause calling for the matters in dispute between the parties to be litigated in New York. The parties agreed that the determination of the validity of the clause would be governed by New York law. The plaintiff argued that the defendant should be estopped from claiming the benefit of
State v. Phillip Morris USA, Inc., 2007 NCBC 27 (N.C. Super. Aug. 17, 2007)(Tennille)
The Court was, once again, called upon to interpret the obligations of the parties under the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust.
State ex re. Long v. Custard, 2007 NCBC 26 (N.C. Super. Ct. Aug. 8, 2007)(Tennille)
The North Carolina Insurance Commissioner sued the defendants, shareholders of insurance carriers in liquidation, for breach of fiduciary duty. Defendants moved to dismiss, claiming that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations at the time of the filing of the petition for liquidation. The Court found the statute of limitations for breach of
Perkins v. Healthmarkets, Inc., 2007 NCBC 25 (N.C. Super. Ct. July 30, 2007)(Diaz)
The Court held that plaintiff, an insurance agent who had given up two profitable territories based upon the representations of defendants that he would be given two new territories, stated a claim for fraud. The Court noted that allegations based upon information and belief do not satisfy Rule 9(b), but said there were sufficient facts
State ex rel. Cooper v. McClure, 2007 NCBC 24 (N.C. Super. July 19, 2007)(Tennille)
The Court granted Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment, ruling that the defendants had participated in a conspiracy in restraint of trade with regard to public contracts for the remediation of underground storage tanks. The Court found that the defendants had engaged in an orchestrated effort to submit artificially high bids in response to a solicitation