Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation v. Frazier Healthcare V, L.P.

847 F. Supp. 2d 952, 2012 WL 851609, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27454
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 13, 2012
DocketCase No. A-11-CA-807-SS
StatusPublished

This text of 847 F. Supp. 2d 952 (Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation v. Frazier Healthcare V, L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation v. Frazier Healthcare V, L.P., 847 F. Supp. 2d 952, 2012 WL 851609, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27454 (W.D. Tex. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

SAM SPARKS, District Judge.

BE IT REMEMBERED on this day the Court reviewed the file in the above-styled cause, and specifically Defendants Nathan Every, Alan Frazier, Guy Mayer, Trevor Moody, Jeffrey Nugent, and Steven Tail-man (collectively, Director Defendants)’s Motion to Dismiss [# 19], Defendants Frazier Affiliates III, L.P., Frazier Healthcare III, L.P., and Frazier Healthcare V, L.P. (collectively, Frazier Entities)’s Motion to Dismiss [# 20], Plaintiffs Chambers Medical Foundation, and Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation’s response to both motions [#28], and the Defendants’ respective replies [## 31, 32] thereto. Having considered the documents, the arguments of counsel at a hearing held on February 3, 2012, the file as a whole, and the relevant law, the Court issues the following opinion and orders, granting the motions to dismiss.

Background

The plaintiffs were investors in Ascension Orthopedics, Inc.1 They are suing three other former shareholder entities (Frazier Affiliates III, L.P., Frazier Healthcare III, L.P., and Frazier Healthcare V, L.P.), and six former directors, for breach of fiduciary duty. The Directors and Frazier Entities are alleged to all be interrelated. The pleadings are confusing on this point, but apparently five of the Directors are alleged to employees of the Frazier Entities, and all six were allegedly nominated by those Entities.

Over the course of two years, one of the Frazier Entities2 made a series of loans to Ascension. These loans had a term requiring a 300% return if Ascension merged with another company, and 10% annual interest, Ascension exchanged the loans for a Class E series of preferred stock, which likewise had a 300% return clause in the event of a merger or acquisition,3 and a 10% annual dividend. In all, the Frazier Entities loaned or invested some $15.5 mil[955]*955lion on these terms, and apparently collectively held 85% of the Class E stock, as well as 80% of the next priority stock, the Class D preferred.

Allegedly, these loans damaged Ascension’s viability as a company, requiring further outside investment, or sale. At least one potential outside investor, Paul Capital, was apparently refused by the Defendant Directors. Instead, Ascension was sold or merged into another company, Integra Lifesciences. The purchase price paid by Integra sufficed to cover, in whole or in part, the 300% return guaranteed to the Class E shareholder (Frazier Healthcare V, L.P.) (which had first priority) but did not extend to any other classes of stock, including those shares held by the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs allege there was no “assent of the disinterested stockholders,” regarding any conflict of interest between the Defendant Directors and the Frazier entities, and no stockholder meeting. Pis.’ Am. Compl. [# 14] at 7-8. Plaintiffs assert the value of their own-apparently significant — investment in Ascension was destroyed as a result Plaintiffs raise four claims arising out of these facts: (1) the Defendant Directors breached their fiduciary duties of “due care, good faith, and loyalty” to the Plaintiffs, (2) the Frazier entities breached a so-called “fiduciary duty of good faith and fair dealing,” (3) all defendants conspired with each other to breach the fiduciary duties of the others, and (4) unjust enrichment. All Defendants have moved for dismissal of these claims under Rule 12(b)(6).

Analysis

I. Legal Standard

A. Motion to Dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6)

In deciding whether to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(bX6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “the Court must take the factual allegations as true, resolving any ambiguities or doubts regarding the sufficiency of the claim in favor of the plaintiff.” Fernandez-Montes v. Allied Pilots Ass’n, 987 F.2d 278, 284 (5th Cir.1993). Mere legal conclusions, however, are not entitled of the presumption of truth — they must be supported by factual allegations. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1950, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 1949 (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. Id. The plausibility standard is not akin to a “probability requirement,” but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully. Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Where a complaint pleads facts that are “merely consistent with” á defendant’s liability, it “stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of ‘entitlement to relief.’ ” Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955). “While, a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiffs obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (2007) (internal citations omitted).

B. Derivative versus Direct Causes of Action Under Delaware Law

Ascension was a Delaware corporation, and the parties appear to agree that Delaware law thus governs the substance of this suit. Under Delaware law, [956]*956whether a stockholder’s claim is direct or derivative in nature- turns on a two-part test: “(1) who suffered the alleged harm (the corporation or the suing stockholders, individually); and (2) who would receive the benefit of any recovery or other remedy (the corporation or the stockholders, individually)?” Tooley v. Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette, Inc., 845 A.2d 1031, 1033 (Del.2004). Under the first part, in order to assert a direct claim, a plaintiff-shareholder must allege harm “separate and distinct from that suffered by other shareholders ... which exists independently of any right of the corporation.” Id. at 1035. Under the second part, the plaintiff-shareholder must demonstrate that he, not the corporation, would receive the benefit of any recovery or remedy. Id. at 1033.

Corporate merger generally eliminates a plaintiff-shareholder’s standing to bring a derivative suit. Lewis v. Anderson, 477 A.2d 1040, 1049 (Del.1984). This is because the derivative claim is a property right of the original corporation, and the right shifts to the acquiring corporation once a merger is consummated. Id. at 1044.

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Related

Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Feldman v. Cutaia
951 A.2d 727 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 2008)
Lewis v. Anderson
477 A.2d 1040 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1984)
Tooley v. Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette, Inc.
845 A.2d 1031 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 2004)
Gentile v. Rossette
906 A.2d 91 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
847 F. Supp. 2d 952, 2012 WL 851609, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joe-w-dorothy-dorsett-brown-foundation-v-frazier-healthcare-v-lp-txwd-2012.