Herring Bancorp, Inc. v. Mikkelsen

529 S.W.3d 216
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 8, 2017
DocketNo. 07-15-00327-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 529 S.W.3d 216 (Herring Bancorp, Inc. v. Mikkelsen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herring Bancorp, Inc. v. Mikkelsen, 529 S.W.3d 216 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

Patrick A. Pirtle, Justice

By his motion for rehearing, Appellee, John Mikkelsen, acting-solely in his capacity as Trustee of the John Mikkelsen Trust, contends this court’s earlier, opinion1 and judgment are in error in four ways by: (1) improperly construing the Articles of Incorporation of Herring Bancorp, Inc., (2) mistakenly determining that the evidence supported a finding that preferred shareholders other than Mikkelsen had voluntarily exchanged their shares by the time his shares were redeemed in 2006, (3) failing to find' that Appellants, Herring Ban-corp, Inc., C.C. Burgess, and C. Campbell Burgess, admitted to a breach of the Articles of Incorporation by making a retender in 2013, and (4) rendering á judgment in favor of Appellants on the issue of attorney’s fees. Finding Appellee’s first three arguments to be nothing more than a restatement of his earlier arguments, but agreeing with him that the rendition of a judgment in favor of Appellants on the issue of attorney’s fees was improper, we grant his motion for rehearing, withdraw our original opinion and judgment dated June 2, 2017, and, in lieu thereof, 'we issue the following opinion.

This appeal’ arises from a minority shareholder claim contesting the validity of a stock redemption purportedly implemented in violation of the articles of incorporation of a closely-held corporation and the related claims of minority oppression and breach of fiduciary duties. Appellants contend the trial court erred by setting aside'Herring Bancorp’s redemption of 300 shares of preferred stock owned by Appel-lee because those shares were, properly redeemed as part of Herring Bancorp’s conversion from a Subchapter C corporation to a Subchapter S corporation.2 Appel[219]*219lants further contend the minority oppression and breach of fiduciary duty claims are inapposite to 'the facts of this case, and the trial court erred by awarding the recovery of damages and attorney’s fees to Appellee based on any alleged theory. Appellants further assert the trial court erred in failing to award attorney’s fees to them. By a cross-appeal, Appellee contends the trial court erred by denying discovery of certain net worth information and by excluding. evidence relevant to his claim for exemplary damages: We reverse and render, in part, and remand, in part.

Background

Herring National Bank became a chartered bank in 1903. From 1982 to 1997, Appellee served as Chairman of that bank. Appellee’s wife’s family has had ties to Herring National Bank since its founding. Around 1972, C.C. Burgess purchased stock in Herring National Bank and he was elected to its Board of Directors shortly thereafter.

In 1984, Herring Bancorp, Inc. was formed as a holding company for Herring National Bank. Appellee was a shareholder and he served as Chairman of Herring Bancorp from its inception until 1992. At all times relevant'to this matter, C.C. Burgess was also a shareholder and director of Herring Bancorp.

In 1992, control of Herring Bancorp shifted away from Appellee and in favor of C.C. Burgess and C. Campbell Burgess when a special shareholder’s meeting was called and a new Board of Directors was elected. In response to the change in control, certain shareholders (including Appellee) filed- a quo warranto lawsuit challenging the newly-elected board. Ap-pellee’s interest in the litigation was resolved when he and his family agreed to sell the Burgesses 10,000 shares, effectively, giving control of the corporation to them. In. return, Appellee was given a five-year contract to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer , of the bank until December 31, 1997.. In January .of 1998, Appellee sold his remaining 280 shares back to the corporation and was, at that time, completely disassociated with Herring Bancorp and Herring National Bank. Seven years later, in 2005, Appellee’s mother passed away and he and his brother, Mallory, each inherited 150 shares of Herring Bancorp preferred stock.

A year later, Appellee discovered that Herring Bancorp was exploring the possibility of converting from a Subchapter C corporation to a Subchapter S corporation. To comply with Internal Revenue Service requirements, a Subchapter S corporation can only have one. class of outstanding capital stock and no more than 100 shareholders, making it necessary for Herring Bancorp to eliminate the preferred class of shares.3 In order to accomplish the process of consolidating all nonvoting shares into one class, the Board of Directors of Her[220]*220ring Bancorp formed a committee to determine which preferred shares would be exchanged for common stock and which would be redeemed in accordance with the redemption provisions contained in paragraph 5 of the Articles of Incorporation.4

According to the criteria established by that committee, in order to exchange preferred shares for common shares (1) a banking relationship must have existed between the preferred stock shareholder and Herring National Bank and (2) as a result of the conversion, each exchanging shareholder would have to “own at least 50 shares of Common Stock upon the conversion.” Subject to these requirements, Herring Bancorp offered all preferred stock shareholders two choices, either (1) exchange their shares of preferred stock for common stock at an exchange rate of 1 share of common stock for every 7.8113 shares of preferred stock or (2) have their shares of preferred stock redeemed in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Articles of Incorporation, as amended. Based on the criteria set, neither Appellee nor his brother was eligible for an exchange of the shares of preferred stock for shares of common stock because, at the conversion rate set, neither would own at least 50 shares of common stock upon conversion.5 Although the shareholders of preferred stock were not offered any other alternatives, at least one shareholder of preferred stock converted a portion of her preferred shares for common shares, while allowing the remaining portion of her preferred shares to be redeemed. Either way, keeping shares of preferred stock was not an option.

On September 22, 2006, C.C. Burgess wrote Appellee and advised him that going forward with the elimination of the preferred stock class of shares in order to comply with requirements for Subchapter S status would require that his shares of preferred stock be redeemed. Burgess’s letter continued “since the conversion factor will result in you and Mallory having only 19 shares of common stock each, we will be sending you and Mallory a letter expressing the Bank’s intent to call your preferred stock. We will follow the rules set out in the Herring Bancorp organization papers for preferred stock redemption.”

A notice letter dated October 31, 2006, bearing the salutation “Dear Preferred Stock Shareholder,” was sent to Appellee advising him that as of 5:00 p.m. on November 20, 2006, his preferred stock would be redeemed and “you will cease to be a [221]*221holder of shares of Preferred Stock as of the Redemption Date and will only be entitled to the receipt of the Redemptive Price.” The notice instructed him that in order to receive the redemptive price, he was required to deliver to the designated transfer agent: (1) a duly executed Letter of Transmittal and (2) his preferred stock certificates. That same date, Appellee wrote C.C.

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