The trustee of a York County estate breached her fiduciary duties by not distributing proceeds to her stepfather and his company, as required by the trust, the South Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled. Judge D. Garrison Hill, writing ...

Tagged with: Fiduciary Duty

Tatum v. RJR Pension Investment Committee (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-101-17, 37 pp.) (Motz, J.) No. 16-1293, April 28, 2017; USDC at Greensboro, N.C. (Tilley, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: In this ERISA case which is before the 4th Circuit for the ...

Tagged with: Fiduciary Duty

Turpin v. Lowther Even though the defendant-personal representative distributed the decedent’s real property to the estate beneficiaries before defendant bought the same real property back from the beneficiaries and re-sold it at a higher price, defendant breached his fiduciary duty when he learned the value of the land in his capacity as personal representative but did not relay this information to the beneficiaries

Tagged with: Fiduciary Duty

Menezes v. WL Ross & Co Under Delaware law, plaintiff’s breach of fiduciary duty claim arose when the terms of a merger between his former employer and another company were approved by the employer’s board of directors, not when the merger was officially closed by vote of the shareholders.

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Belheimer v. Federal Express Corp. Long Term Disability Plan The defendant-plan did not give Federal Express the authority to delegate its fiduciary duties. Although the plan gave Federal Express the authority to appoint an appeals committee, the plan did not allow Federal Express to outsource the entire process to its third-party administrator.

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RFT Management Co. v. Tinsley & Adams L.L.P. Since the parties agreed at trial that plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim involved questions of fact that required submission of the claim to a jury, plaintiff may not now complain that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on its legal malpractice claim.

Tagged with: Attorneys Fiduciary Duty Legal Malpractice Claim Real Property Securities Tort/Negligence Unfair Trade Practices

A bank has no extra fiduciary duty to a customer if the relationship between them is an ordinary lender-borrower arrangement, a North Carolina Business Court judge has ruled. Judge James L. Gale, in Wells Fargo v. VanDorn, decided that the buyers of mountain real estate did not ask for, nor receive, advice about their purchase from Wells Fargo, and therefore could not later claim the bank had breached a fiduciary duty. In VanDorn, the defendants purchased a lot in a gated-resort community in Watauga County called Laurelmor, using Wells Fargo – the preferred lender for the development – for their financing.

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Spence v. Wingate Although the existence of a fiduciary duty is a question of law for the court, our Court of Appeals was correct that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the defendant-attorney breached his fiduciary duty to his former client. We modify and affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision, which reversed the circuit court’s grant of partial summary judgment for the defendant-attorney.

Tagged with: Attorneys Breach Fiduciary Duty life insurance Trusts & Estates