Corporate Litigation/Officer & Director Liability

Travis & Inman has extensive experience in litigation where corporate control, piercing the corporate veil, and successor liability issues play prominently. The firm has also represented numerous clients in cases involving allegations of breach of fiduciary duties, usurpation of corporate opportunities, and conversion or misappropriation of corporate assets by officers and directors.

In one case, the firm persuaded the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a district court decision refusing to pierce the corporate veil of a publicly traded company in a class action suit brought by the employees of its subsidiaries. Lusk v. FoxMeyer Health Corp., 129 F.3d 773 (5th Cir. 1997). This case is now a landmark decision on the subjects of federal civil procedure and vicarious liability of a public company for the acts of its subsidiaries.

The firm has both prosecuted and defended shareholder derivative actions against corporations. The firm has also brought claims against a stock transfer agent of a public company for failure to perform its statutory duties and obtained an order requiring the transfer agent to recognize the disposition of stock urged by its clients.

Often, at the conclusion of litigation against a corporation where individual officers or directors were named as defendants, the question arises as to who should pay for portions of the defense of the lawsuit. The firm has been successful in recovering the fees and expenses incurred in connection with the defense of the officers and directors from insurance carriers. The firm has also successfully defended corporations against claims brought by officers and directors attempting to recover the costs they incurred in litigation.