Michael R. Harris v. Charles Kennebrew, Sr. and Elite Protective Services, LLC

425 S.W.3d 588, 2014 WL 848918, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 2418
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 4, 2014
Docket14-12-01015-CV, 14-12-01044-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 425 S.W.3d 588 (Michael R. Harris v. Charles Kennebrew, Sr. and Elite Protective Services, LLC) 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
Michael R. Harris v. Charles Kennebrew, Sr. and Elite Protective Services, LLC, 425 S.W.3d 588, 2014 WL 848918, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 2418 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

TRACY CHRISTOPHER, Justice.

In this appeal, we consider the claims of a withdrawing member of a limited-liability company against the company and its remaining member. The withdrawing member sued for the value of his membership interest and to recover funds he advanced on the company’s behalf. After a nonjury trial, the trial court rescinded the parties’ written agreement and ordered the withdrawing member’s capital contribution returned, but determined that the failure to repay the funds advanced to the company breached an oral loan agreement. All of the parties have appealed.

We conclude that the trial court erred in (a) finding that the parties had an oral agreement, (b) rescinding and failing to enforce the parties’ written agreement, and (c) holding the company’s remaining member jointly and severally liable for the judgment. We accordingly modify the judgment to hold the company solely liable to the withdrawing member for the value of his membership interest, repayment of funds he advanced for the company’s benefit, attorney’s fees, costs, and post-judgment interest. We affirm the judgment as modified.

I. Factual and Procedural History

When Charles Kennebrew Sr. founded private security company Elite Protective Services, LLC, he signed a Company Agreement showing him to be the sole manager and member. In March 2009, Kennebrew and Michael Harris executed a Management Agreement under which Harris obtained a forty-percent interest in the company in exchange for his promise to make an initial capital contribution of $10,000.00. The parties further agreed that Kennebrew would be Elite’s president and chief executive manager, and Harris would be the company’s chief executive of sales.

The business relationship lasted less than a year. Among other things, Harris was dissatisfied with Kennebrew’s financial reporting. As the company’s manager, Kennebrew was required to provide Harris with monthly accounting reports reflecting Elite’s income and expenses, but he failed to do so. Elite also failed to reimburse Hams for payments he made on Elite’s behalf. Under the terms of the Management Agreement, any money that a member loaned to the company or advanced on its behalf was not to be treated as a capital contribution, but was a debt of the company. Harris loaned Elite money to meet its payroll obligations and paid for goods and services for Elite’s use, and although Elite repaid Hams for the money that he loaned to the company directly, it did not repay him for all of the amounts that he expended on Elite’s behalf.

Kennebrew also was unhappy with the relationship. He maintains that Harris was required to become licensed or registered under the Private Security Act. When they entered the Management Agreement, Kennebrew knew that Harris had no such license or registration and did not intend to immediately apply for it, but Kennebrew asserts that Harris verbally agreed to apply at a later time. It is undisputed, however, that Harris never did so.

In January 2010, Harris notified Kenne-brew in writing of his intent to withdraw from the company, and Elite acknowledged its acceptance of Harris’s withdraw *593 al a few days later. Less than two weeks after his withdrawal was accepted, Harris sued Kennebrew and Elite. In his live pleading at the time of trial, Harris asserted a claim for breach of the statutory duty to pay a withdrawing member of a limited-liability company the fair value of his membership interest. See Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ann. § 101.205 (West 2012). He also asserted claims of shareholder oppression and breach of contract. In the alternative to his contract claims, Harris sought to recover under theories of quantum meruit or unjust enrichment. Kennebrew and Elite pleaded the affirmative defense of failure of conditions precedent; Kenne-brew additionally asserted that he was not hable in the capacity in which he was sued. Kennebrew and Elite asserted counterclaims for negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract, and asked the trial court to declare that the Management Agreement is unenforceable.

By the agreement of the parties, a court-appointed accountant reviewed Elite’s records and determined the value of Elite’s assets, liabilities, and member equity. The accountant also determined the amount of each member’s contributed capital, the additional amounts that Harris expended on the company, and the amount that had been repaid. According to the accountant, Harris put $45,396.00 into the company, and had been repaid $23,100.00, so that the total of Harris’s loans and capital contributions was $22,296.00. The accountant further determined that of this amount, $10,000.00 was a capital contribution; thus, if the Management Agreement’s loan provisions are applied to the accountant’s calculations, the remaining $12,296.00 would be considered loans to Harris. Finally, the accountant found that the total of the members’ equity (determined by subtracting the company’s total liabilities from its total assets) was $112,122.00. Harris’s evidence at trial differed from the accountant’s in only one respect: he produced evidence that he had been repaid only $16,100.00, leaving an outstanding loan balance of $19,295.95 — an amount that is $7,000.00 less than the outstanding loan amount using the accountant’s figures. Kennebrew’s only controverting evidence about these amounts was his testimony that a $7,000.00 cashier’s check from Harris was returned for insufficient funds.

After a one-day nonjury trial, the trial court announced judgment rescinding the written Management Agreement, concluding that there was an oral loan agreement between the parties, and holding Kenne-brew and Elite jointly and severally liable to Harris for $29,295.95 in damages and $50,023.00 in attorney’s fees, together with costs and post-judgment interest. The trial court held that Kennebrew and Elite were not entitled to recover on their counterclaims.

As requested by Kennebrew and Elite, the trial court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law; none of the parties requested additional findings. The trial court’s factual findings show that it resolved the conflicting testimony about the amounts that Harris had paid or received, and found that, as Harris testified, he had not been repaid for $19,295.29 that he expended on Elite’s behalf. The trial court found that Kennebrew and Elite’s failure to repay this amount breached an oral loan agreement; thus, the trial court awarded Harris this sum for the breach. The trial court also found that when Harris withdrew from Elite, his forty-percent interest in the company had a value of $44,849.00. Because the trial court rescinded the Management Agreement, it did not include this amount in the damage award, but instead ordered Harris’s original $10,000.00 capital contribution returned.

Both sides appealed.

*594 II.Issues Presented

In their first issue, Kennebrew and Elite contend that the trial court erred in ruling that an oral agreement existed between the parties. They argue in their second issue that the trial court erred in awarding Harris attorney’s fees because after the Management Agreement was rescinded, there was no written contract to support the award. In their third issue, they argue that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the imposition of liability against Kennebrew in his individual capacity.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
425 S.W.3d 588, 2014 WL 848918, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 2418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-r-harris-v-charles-kennebrew-sr-and-elite-protective-services-texapp-2014.