Blank Rome Wins Jury Verdict for Entrepreneur in Dispute with Former Business Partner
A Blank Rome team successfully represented an entrepreneur throughout a two-week jury trial in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court. Our client asserted claims against his former business partner (the “defendant”), derivatively on behalf of a now-defunct company the two founded together in 2009.
The defendant repeatedly converted company assets and breached his fiduciary duties to the company by siphoning more than a million dollars in company funds into his personal bank account and accounts of other businesses he wholly owned, using company funds to purchase millions of dollars’ worth of assets in his own name that he never assigned back to the company, filing false tax returns, and preparing false financial statements.
In May 2024, after approximately four hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict in favor of our client on both the conversion and breach of fiduciary duty claims, all defenses, and all counterclaims, awarding compensatory damages and punitive damages based on finding that the defendant had acted maliciously.
The Blank Rome trial team was led by partners David A. Moreno, Jr. and Lisa M. Coyle, with great assistance from associate Matthew J. Treiber.