Bensetler v. Data Plus, Inc.

20 Mass. L. Rptr. 463
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 2006
DocketNo. 20012109B
StatusPublished

This text of 20 Mass. L. Rptr. 463 (Bensetler v. Data Plus, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bensetler v. Data Plus, Inc., 20 Mass. L. Rptr. 463 (Mass. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

Fecteau, Francis R., J.

INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the court on the motion of the defendants, Kenneth J. Vacovec and John G. Ganick, for summary judgment on the plaintiffs complaint. In her complaint, plaintiff Patricia G. Bensetler alleges unlawful termination (Count I), breach of contract (Count II), breach of fiduciary duty (Count III), conspiracy to defraud (Count IV), violation of statute (Count V), ultra vires acts (Count VI), and accounting (Count VII). For the reasons set forth below, the defendants’ motion is ALLOWED.

[476]*476BACKGROUND

The facts viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party as established by the summary judgment record are as follows.

Patricia G. Bensetler (Mrs. Bensetler) and defendant A. Bruce Bensetler (Mr. Bensetler) were married, and both served as officers for Data Plus, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation. Mr. Bensetler served as the corporation’s President, and Mrs. Bensetler served as Treasurer, Clerk, and was an employee managing the corporations’ finances. Mrs. Bensetler alleges that she and Mr. Bensetler each held 44.5% of Data Plus, Inc’s stock, while the defendants maintain that each held 47.5% of the corporate stock. At all relevant times, defendants Kenneth J. Vacovec (Attorney Vacovec) and John G. Ganick (Attorney Ganick) served as counsel for Data Plus, Inc., commencing in June 2000. Mr. Bensetler moved out of the marital home in December of 1999, and both Mr. and Mrs. Bensetler subsequently retained divorce attorneys. Attorney Marion Lili and her associate, Jeffrey Swartz, represented Mrs. Bensetler, and Attorney John Moos represented Mr. Bensetler. Both Attorney Vacovec and Attorney Ganick were aware that both Mr. and Mrs. Bensetler were represented by counsel, and they had been in contact with the Bensetlers’ respective attorneys. There is no evidence that either attorney had represented Mr. Bensetler personally at any relevant time.

In August of 2000, Attorney Ganick drafted the notice of a Data Plus, Inc. special meeting to be held on August 10, 2000 (August 10th meeting) and provided the notice to Mr. Bensetler. Mr. Bensetler alleges that he sent the notice to Mrs. Bensetler’s home address on August 1, 2000. While Mrs. Bensetler states that she did not receive the written notice until after the August 10th meeting, the Bensetlers’ daughter, also a Data Plus, Inc. employee, informed Mrs. Bensetler about the meeting on August 8, 2000. On that same date, Mrs. Bensetler sent an email to Mr. Bensetler stating that their daughter had told her that there was a shareholders’ meeting. Mrs. Bensetler’s email stated that she had “not been notified of the meeting nor the items on the agenda,” and “(a]s such [Mr. Bensetler] [could not] have the meeting.” Later that day, Mrs. Bensetler sent another email to Mr. Bensetler that stated that “[n]otice of meetings should be sent to my attorney as well as a copy to me in advance of the meeting,” and that Mrs. Bensetler would “have Marion notify [Mr. Bensetler’s] attorney as well.”

On August 9, 2000, Mr. Bensetler and Attorney Vacovec had a conversation about Mrs. Bensetler’s involvement in Data Plus, Inc. and determined the agenda for the special meeting. Mr. Bensetler informed Attorney Vacovec that he was going to request that Mrs. Bensetler be terminated from her positions within the corporation and a formal agenda was written up. Prior to the August 10th meeting, Mrs. Bensetler had never met or spoke to either Attorney Vacovec or Attorney Ganick and had never heard Attorney Vacovec’s name.

On August 10, 2000, Attorney Vacovec presided over the special meeting of shareholders that included Mr. Bensetler, Attorney Ganick, and a third shareholder, John Dacey (Mr. Dacey). The defendants assert that Mr. Bensetler and Mr. Dacey held a majority of the shares ofDataPlus, Inc.; Mr. Bensetler with 47.5% and Mr. Dacey with 5% of the company’s shares. Mrs. Bensetler maintains that Mr. Bensetler only held 44.5% of the shares, and therefore, he and Mr. Dacey’s shares totaled only 49.5% of the corporation’s shares. At the August 10th meeting, Mr. Bensetler and Mr. Dacey elected Mr. Dacey as the third director of Data Plus, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Bensetler and Mr. Dacey voted to indemnify Mr. Dacey upon a motion that Attorney Ganick drafted. Mr. Bensetler then moved that from that point forward the meeting be a joint meeting of the shareholders and the directors, and Mr. Bensetler and Mr. Dacey subsequently waived notice of the directors’ meeting. At the meeting, upon Attorney Vacovec’s invitation, Mr. Bensetler described numerous problems with Mrs. Bensetler’s job performance. Based on Mr. Bensetler’s report of Mrs. Bensetler’s job performance, Mr. Bensetler and Mr. Dacey voted to remove Mrs. Bensetler as an officer, signatory, and employee of the corporation.

Following the meeting, Mr. Bensetler, as President of Data Plus, Inc., informed Mrs. Bensetler in a letter dated August 10, 2000, that the directors had voted to relieve Mrs. Bensetler of all her “duties and offices within the company.” On September 8, 2000 (September 8th meeting), the corporation held its annual shareholders’ meeting where Mrs. Bensetler was removed as director. Mrs. Bensetler received notice of the September 8th meeting and informed the corporation, through her attorney, that she would not attend.

Approximately one year later, in a letter dated September 5, 2001, Attorney Ganick provided Mrs. Bensetler notice of Data Plus, Inc.’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Mrs. Bensetler has never met Attorney Ganick, but after he sent this notice she had one or two telephone conversations with him regarding whether she received notice of the meeting and on what date the meeting should take place so that all parties could be present. On September 19,2001, Mrs. Bensetler, who was still a shareholder, attended Data Plus, Inc.’s annual shareholders’ meeting with her then-attorney, Douglas Rowe, at Attorney Vacovec’s office. While Attorney Ganick was not present at the meeting, Attorney Vacovec was present and Mrs. Bensetler met him for the first time. Mr. and Mrs. Bensetler divorced in 2002, and Mrs. Bensetler conveyed her shares of Data Plus, Inc. stock to Mr. Bensetler as part of the divorce agreement.

[477]*477DISCUSSION

This court grants summary judgment where there are no genuine issues of material fact and where the summary judgment record entitles the moving party to judgment as a matter of law. See Mass.RCiv.P. 56(c); Cassesso v. Commissioner of Corr., 390 Mass. 419, 422 (1983); Community Nat’l Bank v. Dawes, 369 Mass. 550, 553 (1976). In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the court views the facts “in the light most favorable to [the non-moving party], taking all the facts set forth in its supporting affidavits as true.” G.S. Enters., Inc. v. Falmouth Marine, Inc., 410 Mass. 262, 263 (1991). The moving party bears the burden of affirmatively demonstrating that there is no genuine issue of material fact on every relevant issue. Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 711 (1991). Once the moving party establishes the absence of a triable issue, the party opposing the motion must respond and allege specific facts establishing the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Mass.RCiv.P. 56(e); see Madsen v. Erwin, 395 Mass. 715, 719 (1985); Godbout v. Cousens, 396 Mass. 254, 261 (1985).

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the court may consider pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits. Mass.RCiv.P. 56(c);

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Bluebook (online)
20 Mass. L. Rptr. 463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bensetler-v-data-plus-inc-masssuperct-2006.