Articles Tagged with employment disputes

shutterstock_188995727As reported, the law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP successfully represented TapImmune Inc. (TapImmune) in a contentious commercial litigation proceeding before the American Arbitration Association. TapImmune is a publically traded company that develops innovative vaccine technologies for the treatment of cancer and infectious disease including breast cancer.

The complaint TapImmune filed against Michael Gardner alleged that Gardner induced TapImmune to enter a very lucrative agreement where Gardner would receive a significant amount of stock in TapImmune in exchange for raising funds for the company. Thereafter, Gardner denied that he had agreed to raise funds for TapImmune.

The arbitrator found that Gardner made false representations to TapImmune in order to induce the company into the agreement and did not fully provide the services he was hired to perform. Moreover, the arbitrator concluded that Gardner did not intend to perform the stated services at the time he was hired. Further, the arbitrator found that Gardner knew that TapImmune would be hindered in its business efforts through his compensation arrangement.

Recently, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel rendered a decision concerning Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC’s (Wells Fargo) claims against its former broker Steven Grundstedt (Grundstedt) for breach of three promissory notes. FINRA Arbitration Case No. 11-02245. The FINRA arbitration panel held that Grundstedt was entitled to an offset against the outstanding balance of the first promissory note dated July 30, 2008 because Wells Fargo, then Wachovia at the time, breached an implied contract and/or the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the contracts Grundstedt signed, causing him substantial economic damage.

shutterstock_187735889Wells Fargo claimed that Grundstedt failed to repay three separate forgivable promissory notes. Note 1 was in the principal amount of $320,000 and constituted a “transitional bonus” Grundstedt was rewarded with for moving his book of business from his former employer, Citigroup. Like the other notes in the litigation, the principal portion of Note 1 could be received in a lump sum or could be taken in monthly installments. In either case, the monthly re-payment of principal and interest was to be offset by the forgiveness of an equivalent amount conditioned upon Grundstedt’s continued employment with Wachovia’s.

According to the order, at the time Grundstedt accepted employment with Wachovia, he signed multiple agreements. One of these agreements promised Grundstedt that he would receive “support” from Wachovia including “re-assignment of accounts, walk-ins, prospective customer leads…” among other forms of company support. The panel found that Wachovia initially lived up to its promises but that the situation changed after Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo. In the fall of 2009, Wells Fargo consolidated operations, closed branches, and changed payouts and various other things designed with the intent to make the overall business more efficient and profitable.

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