A federal judge in Kentucky has again ruled in favor of Lane’s End Stallions in a dispute with a Lemon Drop Kid shareholder over access to syndicate/shareholder records.
In a Feb. 9 ruling, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman rejected a motion filed on behalf KNC Investments and its principal, Jerry Jamgotchian, requesting the court to reconsider a ruling made last Nov. 10. In the initial ruling, Coffman said Lane’s End Stallions, as syndicate manager for the stallion Lemon Drop Kid, had acted within its fiduciary duty to other shareholders and within its rights under the syndicate agreement in its handling of records requests from shareholder KNC Investments.
KNC Investments purchased a share in Lemon Drop Kid, who stands at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., for $350,000.
Immediately after the share purchase cleared the syndicate in early 2011, Jamgotchian began seeking records from the syndicate manager, including a list of all syndicate members (by name, address, and pertinent information) and a general ledger of the syndicate’s books. Jamgotchian eventually filed suit, asserting that the syndicate manager had not provided all the records to which he was entitled and/or had redacted information from some of the records.
In the Nov. 10 opinion (related story), among other points, Coffman said Lane’s End Stallions was correct in rejecting Jamgotchian’s request for the names and addresses of all syndicate members (or their principals), citing a 39-1 vote of syndicate members against providing the information to Jamgotchian.
After Coffman’s Nov. 10 ruling, KNC requested the judge reconsider the decision, claiming the court made an error of law and that the judgment should be amended based on newly discovered evidence.
On Feb. 9, Coffman ruled that “KNC’s arguments that the court made an error of law, however, are merely the same arguments it offered in favor of its interpretation of the (Syndicate) Agreement in its prior briefs, and the newly discovered evidence it offers was not unavailable to it at the time of the original briefings; therefore, the court will deny the motion.”
Coffman also noted that Jamgotchian had scheduled an appointment in March 2011 to inspect the syndicate records but canceled the meeting of his own volition prior to filing his suit against Lane’s End Stallions.
“Evidence which was previously available to a party, but which it chose not to investigate, cannot constitute ‘newly discovered evidence’ in support of a motion to alter or amend…and the court will therefore also deny this aspect of the motion," Coffman said.
Richard Getty, an attorney representing Jamgotchian, had previously said his client would file an appeal with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals if Coffman ruled against him on the latest motion.
