The law imposes high duties, referred to as fiduciary duties, on parties in certain relationships such as officers and directors of corporations, trustees, partners, members of joint ventures, professionals and their clients, and agents. These fiduciary duties include duties not to compete, not to engage in self-dealing, to inform the person or entity to which the duty is owed about information relevant to the relationship and, generally, to exercise the highest level of honesty and fairness in dealing with the person or entity to which the duty is owed. The finding that a person stands in the role of a fiduciary has significant consequences in that it shifts the burden to the fiduciary to prove that he or she dealt fairly. Whether a fiduciary duty exists in a particular situation may depend on the particular facts.
Lawyers at Hurwitz, Sagarin, Slossberg & Knuff, LLC, have both asserted breach of fiduciary duty claims and defended against the assertion of such claims. Matters involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty in which attorneys at HSSK have been involved include:
- Represented defendant general partner in real estate limited partnership in action by limited partners alleging mismanagement of $12 million apartment complex.
- Represented plaintiff limited partner in a convertible securities investment management and hedge fund firm in action alleging that general partner and others had sold the business of the partnership to insider and third parties at less than fair market value.
- Represented general partner of Hedge Fund against claims of fraud and mismanagement of fund assets.
- Represented named defendant in federal court action brought by Resolution Trust Corporation as receiver for a savings and loan association against associate’s former directors alleging negligence, gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. See Resolution Trust Corp. v. Camhi, 864 F.Supp. 1121 (D.Conn. 1994).
- Represented defendant general partner of hedge fund in case alleging breach of fiduciary duties in management of fund assets.
- Represented trustee in matter in which trustee was accused of breach of duty of loyalty and mismanagement of trust assets.
