Thursday, March 22, 2018

Eng v. Brown (Cal. Ct. App. - March 22, 2018)

Complicated civil business disputes are a huge hassle to actually take to trial.  And this one was an even bigger mess than usual.  Check it out.

It's about the ownership of the Tin Fish restaurant in San Diego.  Which is right by the ballpark.  To summarize the underlying dispute, it appears that the minority shareholder thought that the majority owners were totally diverting profits from the restaurant to themselves.  Hence the lawsuit.

But, unfortunately, the thing was a disaster.  No one could really figure out what the right legal theory (or jury instructions) should be.  So ultimately the defendants prevail at trial, and the Court of Appeal affirms.

Seems to me that this was -- or at least should have been -- a shareholder derivative suit.  But what do I know.