Bodenstein v. Richard Aloisio Trucking, Inc.

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 3761

Syllabus

Plaintiff, trustee of trust holding shares in closely-held corporations, appeals from trial court decision denying trustee's request for damages and attorney fees against majority shareholders on claims of breach of fiduciary duty and accounting. Court found that majority shareholders improperly refused to provide trustee with corporate records. However, trial court did not abuse its discretion in declining to award attorney fees where majority shareholders had not acted in bad faith because their reluctance to share records was justified where the trustee wrongfully locked a majority shareholder out of the corporate bank accounts. The court found that the majority shareholders had engaged in acts of self-dealing and breached their fiduciary duty to the trust, the court did not err in awarding no damages where trustee failed to submit evidence demonstrating how acts of self-dealing had diminished the value of the trust's interests in the corporations.