In Ebert v. Dejoria (In re Latitude Sols., Inc.), a bankruptcy trustee sued a company’s former officers for breach of fiduciary duty. No. 18-10382, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 13060 (5th Cir. April 30, 2019). The trustee asserted that LSI was a sham company set up to fail from the outset and a vehicle for the officers to participate in a securities-fraud scheme known as “pump-and-dump,” while the officers claimed LSI was legitimately founded to develop and commercialize technology capable of remediating contaminated water. LSI was a publicly traded company that began operating in 2009 and developed patented technology for treatment of wastewater in the oil and gas industry. LSI was a speculative venture that eventually filed for bankruptcy in November 2012. After a jury trial, the jury found that an officer, Cowan, breached his fiduciary duties to the company, and awarded damages. Cowan appealed.

The Fifth Circuit held that the trustee had to prove: 1) that a fiduciary relationship existed; 2) that Cohen breached his fiduciary duty to LSI; and 3) that Cohen’s breach resulted in injury to LSI or benefitted him. The first element was not in dispute, and Cohen’s fiduciary duty required a duty of loyalty and duty of care to LSI.

The trustee’s case began by alleging an elaborate pump-and-dump scheme of LSI’s stock and wide scale fraud, but by the time the case was submitted to the jury, her argument was based entirely on alleged improper conduct related to a contract, the Jabil contract. The court quoted from the trustee:

[T]he fraud, the improper conduct, was entering into the Jabil contract in May 2011. That’s what inevitably caused this company to collapse, that’s what caused the damages, and that was the impetus of why or purpose of this fraudulent scheme was to enter into that Jabil contract, make a big splash, make it seem like this was a legitimate business when it had no hope for survival.

Id. The court noted the following evidence to support the trustee’s claim:

Cohen took on Appel as an advisor and spoke to him daily; Cohen sent Appel non-public information, including lists of shareholders and stock sales on a weekly basis; Cohen dealt personally with Jabil; prior to the Jabil contract, Cohen had not told anyone at Jabil about Appel’s conviction for securities fraud manipulation; LSI had no idea whether the machinery from the Jabil contract would work; LSI had no business plan, or leads to monetize the equipment from the contract, but Cohen and Appel drafted LSI press releases together to generate good news and publicize it; and while still a director, Cohen sold his stock in LSI for $400,000 because he “needed to have some money in the bank.”

Id. The court noted that the officer contended that his conduct was protected by the business judgment rule:

In Texas, the “rule . . . protects corporate officers and directors, who owe fiduciary duties to [a] corporation[] from liability for acts that are within the honest exercise of their business judgment and decision.” Sneed v. Webre, 465 S.W.3d 169, 173 (Tex. 2015) (citation omitted). Negligent, unwise, inexpedient, or imprudent actions are protected so long as “the actions [are] ‘within the exercise of their discretion and judgment in the development or prosecution of the enterprise in which their interests are involved.’” Id. at 178 (quoting Cates v. Sparkman, 73 Tex. 619, 11 S.W. 846, 849 (Tex. 1889)) (footnote omitted). The jury charge, however, instructed the jury on both what is required to show a breach of fiduciary duty, along with the parameters of the business judgment rule. Given Cohen’s actions, a reasonable jury could weigh the evidence, consider the business judgment rule, but conclude that Cohen breached his fiduciary duty to LSI.

Id. The court then disagreed with an argument that the trustee had to have expert testimony regarding the alleged pump-and-dump securities fraud scheme. The court also found that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s damages findings. “Considering the jury found Cohen liable for a breach of fiduciary duty based on an alleged pump-and-dump scheme and improperly propping up LSI by entering the Jabil contract for nefarious purposes, there is legally sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to award $400,000 in damages.” Id.

Photo of David Fowler Johnson David Fowler Johnson

dfjohnson@winstead.com
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary…

dfjohnson@winstead.com
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary field in Texas. Read More

David’s financial institution experience includes (but is not limited to): breach of contract, foreclosure litigation, lender liability, receivership and injunction remedies upon default, non-recourse and other real estate lending, class action, RICO actions, usury, various tort causes of action, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and preference and other related claims raised by receivers.

David also has experience in estate and trust disputes including will contests, mental competency issues, undue influence, trust modification/clarification, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims, and accountings. David’s recent trial experience includes:

  • Representing a bank in federal class action suit where trust beneficiaries challenged whether the bank was the authorized trustee of over 220 trusts;
  • Representing a bank in state court regarding claims that it mismanaged oil and gas assets;
  • Representing a bank who filed suit in probate court to modify three trusts to remove a charitable beneficiary that had substantially changed operations;
  • Represented an individual executor of an estate against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty and an accounting; and
  • Represented an individual trustee against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty, mental competence of the settlor, and undue influence.

David is one of twenty attorneys in the state (of the 84,000 licensed) that has the triple Board Certification in Civil Trial Law, Civil Appellate and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Additionally, David is a member of the Civil Trial Law Commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. This commission writes and grades the exam for new applicants for civil trial law certification.

David maintains an active appellate practice, which includes:

  • Appeals from final judgments after pre-trial orders such as summary judgments or after jury trials;
  • Interlocutory appeals dealing with temporary injunctions, arbitration, special appearances, sealing the record, and receiverships;
  • Original proceedings such as seeking and defending against mandamus relief; and
  • Seeking emergency relief staying trial court’s orders pending appeal or mandamus.

For example, David was the lead appellate lawyer in the Texas Supreme Court in In re Weekley Homes, LP, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2009). The Court issued a ground-breaking opinion in favor of David’s client regarding the standards that a trial court should follow in ordering the production of computers in discovery.

David previously taught Appellate Advocacy at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law located in Fort Worth. David is licensed and has practiced in the U.S. Supreme Court; the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Federal Circuits; the Federal District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas; the Texas Supreme Court and various Texas intermediate appellate courts. David also served as an adjunct professor at Baylor University Law School, where he taught products liability and portions of health law. He has authored many legal articles and spoken at numerous legal education courses on both trial and appellate issues. His articles have been cited as authority by the Texas Supreme Court (twice) and the Texas Courts of Appeals located in Waco, Texarkana, Beaumont, Tyler and Houston (Fourteenth District), and a federal district court in Pennsylvania. David’s articles also have been cited by McDonald and Carlson in their Texas Civil Practice treatise, William v. Dorsaneo in the Texas Litigation Guide, and various authors in the Baylor Law ReviewSt. Mary’s Law JournalSouth Texas Law Review and Tennessee Law Review.

Representative Experience

  • Civil Litigation and Appellate Law