GRAND LEGACY, LLP v. Gant

66 So. 3d 137, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 366, 2011 WL 3198266
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 28, 2011
Docket2010-CA-00446-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 66 So. 3d 137 (GRAND LEGACY, LLP v. Gant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
GRAND LEGACY, LLP v. Gant, 66 So. 3d 137, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 366, 2011 WL 3198266 (Mich. 2011).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This case involves the duties owed among members of partnerships and claims of fraud. Charles M. Gant possessed a letter of intent to purchase property. He offered to sell the property to Grand Legacy, LLP (“Grand-LLP”), once he completed the purchase. Grand-LLP responded to the offer by agreeing to purchase the property through an unnamed partnership entity with Gant that was to be formed at a later date. Gant & Shivers, LLC (as a limited partner) and Grand Legacy, LLP (as the general partner), signed a limited-partnership agreement on March 23, 2005, forming Grand Legacy of Mississippi, LP (“Grand-Miss LP”). After the purchase, Grand-Miss LP would develop the land. Grand-LLP and Grand-Miss LP (“Grand parties”) claim that Gant stated he would not profit from the purchase and resale. The Grand parties argue that a partnership was formed on that date, and that the Gant parties (including Gant, his partner, Stephen L. Shivers, and their company, Gant & Shivers, LLC (“Gant-Shivers”)) had a duty to disclose their intent to profit on the transaction, and that, in failing to disclose the intent to profit, the Gant parties committed fraud. The Gant parties counter that the sales contracts were integrated agreements that contain no clauses prohibiting different purchase and resale prices. Further, the Gant parties argue that an acknowledgment agreement, signed at closing by Grand-LLP, revealed that the price would be different and that the difference (profit) would be disbursed to Gant-Shivers. We affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the appellees.

FACTS

¶ 2. Orange Grove Utilities (“OGU”) owned approximately 104 acres of waterfront property in Gulfport. On October 25, 2004, OGU and Gant committed by letter of intent for the sale of the property by OGU to Gant for $100,000 per acre. The letter included a clause prohibiting disclosure of the purchase price. J. Scott Sanders, the managing partner of Grand-LLP, expressed an interest in the property. Sanders and Gant had been involved in another land transaction in the summer of 2004, after being introduced to each other by an attorney, Jay Jordan. Sanders had extensive real-estate experience. Grand-LLP is a Florida-based entity, claiming on its website to be one of that *140 state’s fastest-growing acquisition companies, with projects under development in eight states and “the strength to obtain favorable financing within weeks on land parcels valued at up to $100,000,000.”

¶ 3. After the OGU-Gant letter of intent had been signed, but before a sales contract was completed, Gant took Sanders and one of Sanders’s business partners, Dr. Duane Pankratz, on a boat ride to view the property. Shivers was not present, as he was out of the country at the time. While on the boat, Sanders agreed to purchase the property, if Gant would agree to become a member of a limited partnership with Grand-LLP to own and develop the property. They agreed on a sales price of approximately $15 million, with Gant to have a thirty-percent interest in the to-be-formed limited partnership. Sanders later stated that he believed, based on his expertise in local real estate, that $15 million was a fair price for the property. Sanders and Pankratz claim that Gant told them he had the property “locked in” and that Gant had agreed to buy it for approximately $15 million, but that he could not tell them the exact price because of a confidentiality agreement. They say Gant stated that he would not profit on the sale, but that he would profit only on the “back end,” as an equity partner in the to-be-formed unnamed limited partnership. Gant denies saying he would not make a profit and claims that Sanders and Pankratz never asked how much he would be paying OGU.

¶ 4. On November 10, 2004, Gant and OGU signed a sales contract (“11-10 Agreement”) with the sale price of $100,000 per acre. The agreement included the following confidentiality clause:

PURCHASER ... AGREE[S] NOT TO DISCLOSE TO ANY PARTY, THE PURCHASE PRICE PAYABLE HEREUNDER.... NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN ... PURCHASER MAY DISCLOSE THIS CONTRACT AND THE TERMS THEROF TO ... LENDERS AND INVESTORS IN CONNECTION WITH THE ACQUISITION OF THE PROPERTY.

(Capitals in original; italics added.)

¶ 5. Two days later, Gant and Grand-LLP signed a sales contract (“11-12 agreement”). The sales price was $144,231 per acre. Gant was the seller. The purchaser was “a Limited Partnership to be formed between Grand Legacy [LLP] and Charles M. Gant.” The contract was subject to two contingencies: (1) Gant’s acquisition of the property, and (2) formation of a limited partnership “MUTUALLY ACCEPTABLE TO BOTH SELLER AND PURCHASER.” (Emphasis in original.) The 11-12 agreement included a confidentiality clause identical to the one in the 11-10 agreement.

¶ 6. Other than the differences noted (price, identity of sellers and purchasers, and contingencies), the two contracts mirrored each other. Both were drafted by Jordan. Neither contract prohibited different sales prices or the making of a profit. The contracts included the following identical merger clauses:

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties hereto and, unless specified otherwise herein, no representation, inducement, promises, or prior agreements, oral or written, between the parties, or made by any agent on behalf of the parties or otherwise, shall be of any force and effect.

¶ 7. The 11-12 agreement was amended in February 2005 after being reviewed by Grand-LLP’s attorneys in Florida. Jordan applied to the Mississippi Secretary of State for certification of limited-partnership status for the newly formed entity *141 that would purchase the property, Grand-Miss LP. On March 22, 2005, the certifí-cate was granted. By this time, Shivers had returned to Gulfport. On March 23, 2005, Gant, Shivers, and Sanders (as managing partner of Grand-LLP) signed the limited-partnership agreement that had been drafted by Jordan. The partners were Grand-LLP as general partner and Gant-Shivers as limited partner.

¶ 8. Subsequently, the limited-partnership agreement was amended, making SOJ Properties, LLC (including Jordan and his law partners) a limited partner with a seven-percent interest. On April 1, 2005, the 11-12 agreement again was amended, making Gant-Shivers the seller, and Grand-Miss LP the purchaser. On April 12, 2005, Gant, Shivers, and Sanders signed an Acknowledgment and Waiver in which they recognized that Jordan and his firm, Schwartz, Orgler, and Jordan, PLLC (“SOJ Law”), had provided services and had attorney-client relationships with “Gant & Shivers, Sanders, and Grand Legacy.” The parties agreed that SOJ Properties’ share was fair and reasonable. They acknowledged that they had been advised by SOJ Law and its members “to seek independent counsel relative to this transaction and that the parties [had] sought such independent counsel or [had] waived the same.... ” The parties acknowledged that SOJ Law would continue to have attorney-client relationships with them (individually and collectively), and waived any conflicts inherent in having SOJ Properties own an interest while its members provided legal services for the partnership and its members. Simultaneous closings of the two sales were planned for April 15, 2005.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Greg Massey v. Oasis Health & Rehab of Yazoo City, LLC
269 So. 3d 1242 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2018)
The Commercial Bank v. Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC
270 So. 3d 136 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2018)
Monty Y. Brown v. George C. McKee
242 So. 3d 121 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2018)
Dr. Tontel Obene v. Jackson State University
233 So. 3d 872 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2017)
Arlan Dorman v. Artis Franklin Power
203 So. 3d 33 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2016)
Restaurant of Hattiesburg, LLC v. Hotel & Restaurant Supply, Inc.
84 So. 3d 32 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 So. 3d 137, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 366, 2011 WL 3198266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grand-legacy-llp-v-gant-miss-2011.