Kevin Schlosser Wins Multi-Million Dollar Jury Verdict in Shareholder Suit

Kevin Schlosser, member and chair of the Litigation Department of Meyer Suozzi, successfully represented two Long Island residents in an action filed in the Supreme Court of New York, Nassau County. The lawsuit involved a major defense contractor that supplies generator sets and trailers to the US military for bases used by our ground forces stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 9-11. The action arose from the majority shareholder’s acquisition of the stock of the two minority shareholders back in July of 2004. After buying the minority one-third interest in the defense contractor for a total of $3.4 million, the majority owner sold the entire company for an approximate value of $40 million. The majority owner and the company had given representations and warranties to the minority shareholders in the stock purchase agreement as to activities and discussions they participated in about the company prior to the purchase. The minority shareholders subsequently brought suit against the majority owner and the company alleging, among other things, that the defendants had misrepresented information they had received about the value of the company, the prospects for selling the company and the best time to do so. After a month-long jury trial in June 2011, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants on the breach of representations and warranties claim. The case was bifurcated and the issue of damages was tried during the first three weeks of September 2012.

On September 24, 2012, after approximately one hour of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict awarding plaintiffs the entire amount they requested -- $7.2 million, which will result in a total award with interest of well over $12 million. Mr. Schlosser represented plaintiffs throughout the entirety of the action, including in two separate appeals, both of which he won, and at both jury trials.