Hansen v. Fields Company

The events giving rise to this lawsuit involved numerous individuals and corporate entities. Briefly: plaintiff Clifford Hansen was introduced to Robert Fields and through Fields engaged the services of Beechwood Advisory Group, Inc. to assist him in procuring capital in order to purchase a water bottling company in South Carolina. Fields and Hansen worked together toward this goal until Fields disavowed any obligation to Hansen and effectively cut him out of the deal. In doing so, Fields found investors, formed appellant Fields Company, LLC, and purchased the water bottling company. Hansen sued appellant for the actions of Fields and his various corporate entities, and following the denial of appellant's motion for a directed verdict, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Hansen. At its simplest, this appeal concerned whether a limited liability company (LLC) could be held liable for the actions of a promoter and whether any evidence to support such liability was presented in this case. The Supreme Court reversed and held the circuit court erred in denying the directed verdict on the issue of liability because there was no evidence on which a jury could hold appellant-defendant Beechwood Development Group of South Carolina, LLC liable. View "Hansen v. Fields Company" on Justia Law