Defense of President of a Company Against Allegations of Breaching Fiduciary Duties

In this shareholder derivative action, we defended the chairman and president of a corporation that owned a large shopping center. A beneficiary of a trust that owned shares in the corporation brought this lawsuit on behalf of the shareholders, claiming that our clients had breached their fiduciary duties in causing the sale of the shopping center for less than its fair market value. The beneficiary sought $50 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages. We obtained a dismissal of the action in its entirety for our clients on multiple grounds, including that there was no evidence of misconduct by our clients. On appeal, the Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the case.