Chancery Court Denies Motion to Dismiss in Case Seeking Removal of Trustees for Misconduct
By Eric Feldman and Patrick Jamieson
In response to demands by trust beneficiaries seeking removal of two trustees pursuant to Delaware law governing fiduciary relationships generally as well as a declaratory judgment that one trustee acted with gross negligence or willful misconduct, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied the trustees’ motion to dismiss, finding it was reasonably conceivable that both trustees were unfit to serve and that the one trustee could have acted with willful misconduct.
Petitioners in United Brotherhood of Carpenters Pension Plan v. Fellner, C.A. No. 9475-VCN (Del. Ch. February 26, 2015) (Noble, V.C.) are trust beneficiaries who collectively hold a 78.61% beneficial interest in three trusts (the “Trusts”). Their interests stem from their 2008 purchase of limited partnership interests in a Delaware limited partnership whose general partner, BSF-TDC GP, LLC (“BSF-TSC”), was controlled by Michael Baumann. In 2012, Baumann converted the limited partnership into a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (“REIT”). The limited partnership exchanged its ownership interests in various entities for 2,904,910 REIT common shares, then valued at $18. Following the conversion, the limited partnership held only the REIT shares and two adjoining parcels of land and consequently determined to transfer its assets into a liquidating trust (the “Master Trust”) pursuant to a Plan of Liquidation and Liquidating Trust Agreement. BSF-TDC was named as trustee of the Master Trust and the limited partners were designated as beneficiaries.