SBI Investments, LLC, 2014-1 And L2 Capital LLC v. Quantum Materials Corp.

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 8, 2018·No. 03-17-00863-CV·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-17-00863-CV

SBI Investments, LLC, 2014-1; and L2 Capital LLC, Appellants

v.

Quantum Materials Corp., Appellee

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF HAYS COUNTY, 428TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. 17-2033, HONORABLE GARY L. STEEL, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This accelerated, interlocutory appeal is from the trial court’s order granting

temporary injunction that enjoins Empire Stock Transfer, Inc., from conveying any shares that it

holds on behalf of appellee Quantum Materials Corporation to appellants SBI Investments, LLC,

2014-1, and/or L2 Capital LLC. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 51.014(a)(4) (authorizing

“person” to appeal from interlocutory order that grants temporary injunction). Because we cannot

conclude that the trial court abused its discretion, we affirm the trial court’s order granting temporary

injunction.

Background

Quantum is a publicly traded company located in San Marcos, Texas. In March 2017,

Quantum borrowed money from and issued promissory notes to appellants and agreed that

appellants could convert this debt into equity in the event that Quantum defaulted under the terms of the notes. At the same time, Quantum delivered “irrevocable transfer agent instructions” to

Empire, the holder/transfer agent for the parties’ agreements, authorizing and instructing Empire to

“reserve a sufficient number of shares of common stock (“Common Stock”) of the Company

[Quantum] (initially [a set amount of] shares of Common Stock which should be held in reserve for

the Investor[s] [appellants] pursuant to the Note[s] and Warrant[s]) for issuance upon conversion of

the Note[s] and/or exercise of the Warrant[s], in accordance with the terms thereof.”

After disputes arose between Quantum and appellants over payments on the notes and

other obligations of Quantum under the terms of the parties’ agreements, Quantum filed the

underlying suit against Empire at the end of September 2017 asserting the cause of action of

conversion. Quantum alleged that: (i) the notes were “not convertible unless there [was] an event

of default as defined in the notes”; (ii) in the event of a default, appellants “[could] convert their debt

into equity at a disproportionately favorable exchange rate in favor of the appellants”; and

(iii) appellants “[were] threatening to hold Quantum in default so that they [could] take these

disproportionately more valuable equity stakes.” Based on these factual assertions, Quantum sought

to temporarily enjoin Empire from transferring shares to appellants “to prevent conversion of

Quantum’s stock in this way.”

The trial court entered a temporary restraining order on October 2, 2017, restraining

Empire from conveying any shares that it held on behalf of Quantum to appellants. In the order, the

trial court found that, “without the temporary restraining order, Plaintiff’s equity will be arrogated

by two of its lenders under a unilaterally declared default with no mechanism to return the equity to

Plaintiff and/or to instantiate the debt obligation that the lenders are trying to convert into equity.”

2 The trial court also set bond and October 12, 2017, as the date for the temporary injunction hearing.

Empire was served a few days later with a copy of the original petition and application for temporary

restraining order and temporary injunction and the trial court’s temporary restraining order, but it did

not answer or otherwise make an appearance in the underlying proceeding.

On October 16, 2017, the trial court entered a subsequent order extending the

temporary restraining order and resetting the hearing for October 26, 2017. By the time of the reset

hearing, appellants had intervened in the proceeding, asserted affirmative claims for monetary

damages against Quantum, and opposed Quantum’s request for temporary injunctive relief. Shortly

after the beginning of the reset hearing, the trial court took judicial notice that Empire was in

compliance with the temporary restraining order. Quantum’s witnesses at the hearing were an expert

who was a forensic economist and the founder and CEO of Quantum. Appellants’ witness was a

principal of L2 Capital.

The parties provided contrary evidence about whether Quantum was in default under

the parties’ agreements, including the notes, and the effect on Quantum in the event that the trial

court denied its request for a temporary injunction against Empire. The principal of L2 Capital

testified about Quantum’s alleged defaults, including making untimely and incorrect payments on

the notes, failing to file a registration statement as contractually required, and replacing its auditor

without seeking or obtaining appellants’ consent. It was his position that the notes had been

accelerated and were due in full because of Quantum’s defaults, explaining, “When a default occurs

in the agreement, the whole note is accelerated. So it’s due and payable at the time of the default,

which was ultimately in June.” The founder and CEO of Quantum, however, testified that Quantum

3 had made the required payments under the terms of the notes and that it was his understanding that

there were no other defaults under the parties’ agreements. Quantum’s expert testified that without

the temporary injunction to enjoin Empire from conveying the shares at issue to appellants,

Quantum’s damages would be irreparable. He explained about the economic situation of a “death

spiral” in these types of financial arrangements when the lender converts debt for stock.1

The exhibits at the hearing included copies of the notes; the irrevocable transfer agent

instructions to Empire; a registration rights agreement and an equity purchase agreement between

1 When asked about his conclusions about this case, the expert testified:

This case is like the grandson of many other cases that have come into being since the advent of mortgage-backed securities and other specialized security instruments in the late 1980s. If you sign the note where the lender has the rights to convert, under certain circumstances, the stock and they can obtain large amounts of stock instead of cash, they can sell that stock and depress the price thereby getting more shares; creating more defaults; and getting more shares; creating more defaults and so on. And the nickname of that type of arrangement in the generally accepted literature has come to be known as a death spiral. The more shares you get, the more you can sell; the more you can control at a lower price; create more defaults; get more shares. And eventually shares have been known to trade at one thousandths of a cent in other cases—not this one. And the literature has nicknamed that the death spiral. In this case based upon the notes of what is being asked of Quantum to issue additional shares—Quantum or Empire—for some party to issue large amounts of shares instead of cash or to issue shares because they didn’t get the cash on time or there’s some sort of default which might not be a real default—since I’m not a judge or an attorney, I don’t know if it’s a real default or if it’s an alleged default. And if all these shares are issued and the price falls and the death spiral comes into being, then Quantum will suffer irreparable damages for something that might not be. Since I’m not a judge, an attorney or a jury, I don’t know what it would be.

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SBI Investments, LLC, 2014-1 And L2 Capital LLC v. Quantum Materials Corp., (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

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