Heller v. Tuttle & Taylor
Defendant law firm, Tuttle & Taylor (hereinafter, the Law Corporation), appeals following a court trial and judgment in favor of plaintiffs, four attorneys and former shareholders in the Law Corporation (J. Dean Heller, C. Stephen Howard, A. James Roberts III, and Mark Schaffer; hereinafter, the complaining shareholders). The lawsuit alleged breach of written employment agreements, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and related causes of action. The essence of the suit involved the interpretation of written employment agreements and the correct method of allocating deferred compensation distributions to former shareholders after the Law Corporation ceased practicing law in 2000. Court find that the trial court correctly interpreted the written employment agreements and properly increased the distributions to the complaining shareholders. The provisions in the employment agreements indicate that the Law Corporation improperly divided its assets by including 40 former shareholders who had accepted a discounted lump sum payment, instead of the deferred compensation, when it calculated the deferred compensation for the remaining attorneys who did not accept the buyout offer.
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