Boynton Beach Breach of Fiduciary Duty Attorney

A fiduciary duty claim in Palm Beach County is usually decided by what the money did and who controlled the records, not by who sounds more wronged. The Fifteenth Judicial Circuit hears these disputes when a partner, manager, majority member, or officer is accused of using a position of trust for personal gain. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in Boynton Beach breach of fiduciary duty disputes, along with the wider range of partnership, LLC, shareholder, and real estate conflicts across Palm Beach County and Broward County.

Breach of fiduciary duty is not the same as breach of contract, and the difference matters. A contract claim asks whether someone failed to do what an agreement required. A fiduciary claim asks whether someone with control over your money, your company, or your property put their own interests ahead of yours. The two often overlap in the same case, but they carry different proof, different remedies, and sometimes different deadlines.

Boynton Beach has plenty of closely held companies, family-run businesses, and shared investment properties, which is where these claims usually arise. One owner handles the books, another trusts them, and years later the numbers stop adding up.

What a Fiduciary Duty Claim Looks Like Between Business Owners

A fiduciary relationship exists where one person is entitled to rely on another to act for their benefit. In business ownership, that typically means a manager of an LLC toward its members, officers and directors toward a corporation and its shareholders, and partners toward one another. The duties generally include loyalty and care: no self-dealing, no secret competition, no quietly shifting company opportunities to a side venture, and no running the company in a way that enriches one owner at the others’ expense.

What separates this claim from a plain contract dispute is that the duty can exist even where the operating agreement or shareholder agreement says nothing about the conduct. A well-drafted agreement may define or limit certain duties, and the exact wording matters a great deal. That is why these cases begin with the governing documents and the history of how the owners actually dealt with one another.

It also differs from negligence. A manager who makes an honest bad call is in a different position from one who diverts funds, hides transactions, or approves payments to a company he owns on the side. Courts look at intent, disclosure, and benefit, and the difference often decides whether a claim is worth pursuing.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Fiduciary Duty Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida’s business and real estate disputes, serving Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and the rest of Palm Beach County and Broward County. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. His career has centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is the ground where fiduciary claims are fought. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989.

He is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in state and federal courts. That federal experience matters when a dispute crosses state lines or involves parties from outside Florida.

The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on your matter knows the file. Calls are answered, and there is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court. The firm is experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and it looks for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out.

Trial results are the best evidence of how a firm handles a contested case. After a 5-day bench trial, the Broward County Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment in May 2024 awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That outcome came from a dispute turning on the precise wording of an agreement and the parties’ history of dealings, the same kind of record work that fiduciary cases demand.

Common Fiduciary Breach Situations in Business and Real Estate

• Diverted Company Funds: A manager or partner moves money out of company accounts to personal accounts, related entities, or undisclosed expenses. These cases often involve commingled accounts and owners who cannot account for what happened to the cash.
• Self-Dealing Transactions: An officer or managing member causes the company to buy from, sell to, or pay a business he secretly owns, usually at terms that favor him over the company.
• Freeze-Outs of Minority Owners: Majority owners cut a minority member out of information, distributions, or decision-making while continuing to draw salary and benefits for themselves.
• Usurped Business Opportunities: A partner steers a deal, client, or property purchase that belonged to the company into a separate venture of his own.
• Unpaid Distributions and Disputed Capital Contributions: Profits are withheld, or contributions are denied or recharacterized as loans, leaving an owner with no clear picture of what he is owed.
• Family Business Betrayals: Siblings, parents and children, or in-laws who share ownership dispute control, compensation, or whether one relative has been treating the company as a personal account.
• Co-Owner Conflicts Over Shared Property: A co-owner or managing partner mishandles rents, sale proceeds, or title to jointly held real estate, sometimes leading to partition or quiet title claims alongside the fiduciary claim.
• Deadlocked Management Combined With Misconduct: Owners who cannot agree on direction also suspect one side of misappropriation, which can support dissolution grounds as well as damages.

What to Do If You Suspect a Partner or Manager Is Betraying Your Trust

Start with the documents, because everything else depends on them. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any amendments, tax returns, K-1s, bank statements you are entitled to see, financial reports, emails, and text messages about money or major decisions. Do not take or access records you have no right to reach. Improperly obtained evidence can create problems of its own. Request the books and records through the channels your agreement and Florida law allow, and keep a record of what you asked for and what you received.

Watch the deadlines. A claim founded on a written instrument carries a five-year limitations period, while a claim on an oral or implied agreement carries four years. Fraud is generally four years from discovery, with an outer cap of 12 years. Negligence and professional malpractice claims run two years for causes of action arising after the March 2023 amendments. Which period governs a fiduciary claim depends on how it is framed and what the underlying conduct was, so do not assume more time than you have. Delay also makes funds harder to trace.

If money is actively leaving the company, speed matters more than anything. Florida courts can issue temporary injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent while a case is pending, and in dissolution proceedings a court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. These remedies depend on a showing of real harm, so a clear paper trail helps.

Cases are filed in the circuit court of the county where the dispute sits. For Boynton Beach, that is the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, with the main courthouse in West Palm Beach. Claims above the county court limit go to circuit court, and fiduciary disputes between business owners almost always exceed it. If the dispute involves Broward County parties or property, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Fort Lauderdale may be the proper forum, and its complex business division handles certain business entity dissolutions and large business litigation. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida sits in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale when federal jurisdiction applies.

Avoid the common mistakes. Do not confront the other owner before you understand the numbers, because that invites document destruction and asset movement. Do not sign a buyout, release, or amended agreement under pressure before a lawyer has reviewed it. And do not keep funding a company you believe is being drained.

Remedies When Owners Cannot Stay in the Same Company

Proving a breach is only half the case. The other half is deciding what outcome you want. Remedies can include damages, an accounting of company money, recovery of diverted funds, and injunctive relief. When the relationship has collapsed, the answer may be a separation instead.

Florida’s LLC statute lets a court dissolve a company at the request of a member or manager on specified grounds, including that assets are being misappropriated or wasted and causing injury, that controlling members have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, or that the owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened. In those proceedings the court may appoint a receiver or custodian or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. If an operating agreement already contains a deadlock sale provision that is properly triggered before the court finds deadlock grounds, that provision can take priority over a judicial dissolution order.

For corporations, a circuit court may dissolve a company in a shareholder’s proceeding on enumerated grounds. Once a shareholder files on certain of those grounds, the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order on those terms. An election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it.

In practice, many fiduciary disputes end in a negotiated buyout, a structured wind-down, or a mediated settlement reached after the other side sees the documents. The firm prepares each case for trial while keeping those paths open, because the right result is the one that serves your goals and budget.

Questions About Fiduciary Duty Claims in Boynton Beach

What is a breach of fiduciary duty?

It is a claim that someone entrusted to act for your benefit, such as a manager, partner, officer, or director, instead served their own interests. Typical examples are self-dealing, hiding financial information, and diverting company funds.

How is a fiduciary duty claim different from breach of contract?

A contract claim turns on whether someone failed to perform what an agreement required. A fiduciary claim turns on whether someone in a position of trust betrayed it. The two are often pleaded together, but they carry different proof and may support different remedies.

Who owes fiduciary duties in a Florida business?

Managers and managing members of LLCs, officers and directors of corporations, and partners generally owe duties to the company and its owners. The specific scope can depend on the entity type and on what the governing agreement says.

Can I sue a business partner who is taking money from the company?

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. Where money is actively being moved, a court can order injunctive relief to stop it while the case proceeds.

How long do I have to file?

It depends on how the claim is framed. Claims on a written instrument have five years, oral or implied contract claims four years, and fraud four years from discovery with a 12-year outer limit. Negligence-based claims are two years. Because the correct period depends on the facts, get a deadline assessment early.

Can I force a partner out of my LLC?

It depends on your operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides court remedies for serious misconduct or when the company cannot function.

Does my operating agreement limit fiduciary duties?

It can shape them. Agreements may define certain duties or set procedures for conflicts of interest, but the wording and the circumstances matter. A lawyer should read the actual document before you assume a claim is barred or available.

What if the partner who took the money is a family member?

The legal claim is the same, but the handling is different. These cases call for discretion, and the practical goal is often a negotiated separation or buyout that protects your finances without scorching the family. The firm handles family business disputes with that in mind.

Can I bring a claim if I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from those states who own businesses or property in South Florida. The firm handles the local court appearances and keeps you informed, so you do not need to travel for every hearing.

How long does a business fiduciary case take in Palm Beach County?

There is no fixed timeline. Cases that settle after document exchange or mediation can resolve in months, while cases that go to a bench or jury trial take considerably longer. Emergency injunction requests are heard on a faster track than the main case.

Is it worth pursuing if the amount is small?

That depends on the amount at stake, the strength of the records, and the cost of litigating. A candid early conversation about cost against realistic recovery is part of how the firm evaluates a case, and mediation or a demand can sometimes resolve smaller disputes efficiently.

Do I need a lawyer before I ask for the company’s books?

You can make a records request on your own, but how it is worded and what rights you cite can affect what you receive. Talking to a lawyer first helps you avoid tipping off the other side without a plan.

Serving Fiduciary Duty Clients From Boynton Beach Across South Florida

The firm’s fiduciary and business dispute work starts in Boynton Beach and extends throughout Palm Beach County, including Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Lantana, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Greenacres, Highland Beach, Boca West, and Riviera Beach. To the south, the firm serves clients across Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Hollywood, Plantation, and Davie.

Many of the firm’s clients live elsewhere, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, while their business partners or co-owned property are here in South Florida. Whether the dispute involves a Boynton Beach company, an investment property, or a family business with owners in several states, the firm handles the Florida proceedings from start to finish.

Speak With a Boynton Beach Fiduciary Duty Attorney

If a partner, manager, or co-owner has betrayed your trust and your money or your company is at risk, talk with a Boynton Beach fiduciary duty attorney before the paper trail goes cold. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team will review your agreements, assess your claims and deadlines, and explain whether the better path is a demand, an injunction, a negotiated separation, or litigation. Call today to schedule a consultation.