Partners Ryan Baker and Teresa Huggins convinced the California Court of Appeals to reverse a trial court ruling that had prematurely terminated a case by Waymaker’s client over the value and profits from several businesses the client had formed and operated with his former partner, the defendant.
Since the 1970s, Waymaker’s client had operated several business ventures with a business partner. Ultimately, certain of the assets and goodwill were sold for several million dollars. Although this sale represented the sum of the client’s life’s work, he did not receive any proceeds. He subsequently filed suit for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, constructive trust, and accounting. The defendant demurred to the operative complaint, which was partially sustained; the trial court concluded that certain causes of action were time-barred, and that the existence of a fiduciary duty was not properly alleged.
Ryan and Teresa challenged the decision in California’s Second Appellate District, and the court agreed, ruling that the trial court had erred in “determining defendant owed no fiduciary duty to a longtime business partner with whom he agreed to launch a new business” and that the discovery rule and continuous accrual doctrine tolled the statute of limitations. The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court ruling and remanded the case accordingly. The client was also awarded costs on appeal. He can now proceed to collect the value of the business he spent his life building.
