Biotrack, Inc. v. Muni

12 Mass. L. Rptr. 244
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedJune 23, 2000
DocketNo. 991267C
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 244 (Biotrack, Inc. v. Muni) 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
Biotrack, Inc. v. Muni, 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 244 (Mass. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Botsford, J.

This action concerns 250,000 shares of common stock in the plaintiff company, BioTrack, Inc. (BioTrack). BioTrack asserts that the shares in question currently belong to it as treasury stock, the defendant Indu Muni (Muni) having forfeited his right to them by failing to pay the subscription price. Muni contends the shares are rightfully his. BioTrack brings claims for declaratory and injunctive relief, replevin, breach of contract and conversion, and seeks to compel return of the stock certificate for the 250,000 shares which were issued to Muni. Muni brings counterclaims alleging conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and deceit.

The case was tried before me without a jury in December 1999. Set forth below are my findings of fact and a discussion of the legal claims and issues raised. [245]*245For the reasons stated there, I conclude that BioTrack is entitled to a return of the stock certificate, and Muni’s counterclaims should be dismissed.

FINDINGS OF FACT

BioTrack is a medical device company in the business of developing tumor tracing technology for improving, inter alia, breast biopsy procedures. BioTrack was formed in 1997 as a subsidiary of DynaGen, Inc. (DynaGen), a publicly traded company in the medical and pharmaceutical business. DynaGen was established in 1988 by Muni and Dhananjay G. Wadekar (Wadekar).

In 1996, before BioTrack as a corporation was on the horizon, DynaGen acquired the exclusive, worldwide rights to a new technology for tracing and locating tumors in the breast, and by early 1997, DynaGen was beginning to fund the further development of that technology. With the financial assistance of DynaGen, the scientists who had invented the technology were working on developing software and Wadekar in particular worked with these scientists on patent applications. Muni also worked with the inventors on these matters. Both Wadekar and Muni performed this work in their capacities as officers and employees of DynaGen, since the technology was a corporate opportunity of DynaGen’s. At all relevant times until November 5, 1998, Muni was president and chief executive officer of DynaGen; there is no dispute that he was fully compensated for his services performed for DynaGen. At all relevant times, Wadekar was and remains DynaGen’s executive vice president.

By the summer of 1997, DynaGen’s financial condition was becoming precarious at best, for reasons unrelated to the tumor tracing technology. DynaGen decided to form a separate company to develop that technology, and did so in July of 1997; the separate company was the corporation now known as BioTrack. It was organized as a Delaware corporation on July 23, 1997, and originally had the name of DynaGen of Massachusetts, Inc. Muni was its president, and Wadekar was the vice president; the two were also the only directors.1

BioTrack began its existence as a wholly owned subsidiary of DynaGen. BioTrack occupied the same offices as DynaGen and it had the same officers, viz., Muni and Wadekar. As a practical matter, BioTrack at the outset was a part of DynaGen with little separate existence except on paper.

By early 1998, DynaGen’s financial troubles were making it impossible for DynaGen to raise money for BioTrack. Accordingly, the suggestion was made for DynaGen to reduce its equity interest in BioTrack, so that BioTrack might independently seek the funding it needed to move forward.

On April 29, 1998, there was a meeting of the BioTrack board of directors. The purpose of the April 29 meeting was to finalize a plan for the reduction of DynaGen’s ownership interest in BioTrack and for the future structure of BioTrack. Present were the directors, Wadekar and Muni, and two other men very involved in BioTrack’s operations, Thomas O’Brien (O’Brien) and Steven Georgiev (Georgiev). For the two months preceding the April 29 meeting, in March and April of 1998, O’Brien has been working as a consultant to BioTrack, and specifically was engaged in evaluating the tumor tracing technology from a business standpoint and the potential market for such a technology. Georgiev at that time was a member of the board of DynaGen. He had known Wadekar for many years, and had a background in business as well as science.- He had served as a business consultant to many companies in the medical technology field. Since the end of 1997, he occupied an office at DynaGen, and was working with Wadekar and O’Brien on the business development of BioTrack’s technology.

Wadekar, Muni, Georgiev and O’Brien agreed at the April 29 meeting that DynaGen would offer or sell 80 percent of its shares in BioTrack back to the company, in exchange for a $1 million promissory note. They further agreed that Muni and Wadekar would resign as BioTrack officers and directors, and Georgiev and O’Brien would be appointed as the new directors; that O’Brien would become the president of BioTrack and its chief executive officer; and that Georgiev would serve as chair of its board of directors. The men also discussed at the meeting the need for the four to work as a team and to keep both DynaGen and BioTrack viable as businesses; with respect to DynaGen, they recognized that if it were to file for bankruptcy in the near future — before twelve months passed following the separation of BioTrack from DynaGen — there was a significant chance that BioTrack would be drawn into (“sucked into,” in Georgiev’s words) the bankruptcy proceedings.

Finally, there was a discussion about offering shares of BioTrack original issue common stock to each of the four men.2 It was agreed that each be given the opportunity to acquire a designated number of shares: 500,000 shares for Georgiev, 300,000 shares for O’Brien, 250,000 shares for Wadekar and 250,000 shares for Muni. The men also agreed that these shares would be offered to each at the subscription or strike price of $.05 per share.3 They further discussed that the shares were to serve as an incentive for the four men to continue working for — providing services to — BioTrack and DynaGen in the future. With respect to Georgiev and O’Brien, the shares were offered in recognition that they would be playing a critical future role in the structuring and operation, respectively, of BioTrack; in the case of Wadekar and Muni, there was an understanding that the offering of stock to each was conditioned on his remaining actively engaged in work for DynaGen for at least six months.

How the four men would pay for the shares also came up as a topic at the meeting. As of the end of [246]*246April 1998, three of the four men (all but Muni) were creditors of BioTrack: Wadekar had loaned the company approximately $53,000 between October 1997 and February 1998, and the loan(s) remained unpaid; Georgiev had loaned BioTrack something in the vicinity of $35,000 which had not been repaid to him; and O’Brien was owed $20,000 for the consulting work he had performed in March and April 1998.4 The men reached an understanding that Wadekar, Georgiev and O’Brien would each pay for their shares of stock by partially forgiving BioTrack’s debt in the appropriate amount ($12,500, $25,000, and $15,000, respectively), and Muni, who was not a creditor of BioTrack, would have six months in which to come up with the money ($12,500) to pay for his shares.5

On April 30, 1998, the day after the BioTrack directors’ meeting, there was a meeting of the DynaGen directors.

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12 Mass. L. Rptr. 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/biotrack-inc-v-muni-masssuperct-2000.