• 12
  • January
    2012

Commercial and business lawsuits often involve disputes between two separate businesses. Alleged business torts or breaches of contracts can pit one company against another in court. But it is also not uncommon for a dispute to arise within a single company. It seems that whenever there is more than a single person who has a financial interest in a company, there is a distinct possibility of a disagreement within the company.

An Atlanta man was recently granted a temporary restraining order against his business partner in order to stop an emergency meeting of the holding company's board. The underlying lawsuit in this matter involves allegations by the Atlanta partner that his business partner had misused funds their business had borrowed to renovate a boutique hotel.

The suspected purpose of the board meeting that was stopped by the temporary restraining order was to give the business partner authority to satisfy the unpaid bills related to the renovation by transferring the deed for the hotel. The temporary restraining order did more than simply block the board meeting; it also barred the business partner from attempting to restructure the company, or negotiating and amending its existing business contract.

The business had obtained a $13 million loan in order to fund renovation to a hotel property. But the Atlanta man asserts that the business partner diverted approximately $2 million of that loan for his own purposes. These are alleged to include payroll for a business that the partner owns separately and attorney's fees for unrelated lawsuits.

Source: The Tennessean, "Hotel Indigo owners' battle leads to suit," Anita Wadwani, Jan. 12, 2012