Wellington Breach of Fiduciary Duty Attorney

The goal in a fiduciary case is usually concrete: get the money back, stop the person in control from doing more damage, and either repair the business relationship or exit it on fair terms. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm that represents business owners, investors, and families in disputes where a partner, manager, or co-owner has put personal interests ahead of the company. For clients in Wellington and across Palm Beach County, we handle these claims in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit and in federal court when the case belongs there.

If you are looking for a Wellington breach of fiduciary duty attorney, the first thing worth knowing is how this claim differs from the ones people often confuse it with. A breach of contract claim asks whether someone failed to do what a written agreement required. A fiduciary claim asks whether someone who held a position of trust, such as a managing member, general partner, officer, or director, abused it. The two often overlap, but they do not rise or fall together, and the remedies available can be quite different.

Wellington is home to many closely held companies, investment property partnerships, and family-run operations tied to the equestrian economy and the wider Palm Beach County market. Disputes in those settings tend to involve a small number of owners, little formal oversight, and one person who controls the books. That arrangement is exactly where fiduciary problems grow.

Fiduciary Duty Versus Contract Breach: Why the Distinction Matters

A fiduciary owes duties that exist independent of what the paperwork says. Loyalty means the person in control cannot self-deal, divert opportunities that belong to the company, or favor one owner over the others without disclosure and fair terms. Care means making decisions with reasonable diligence rather than recklessly. Candor means being honest about material facts, including where company money went.

The distinction has practical consequences. Because a fiduciary claim rests on a relationship of trust, the remedies tend to be equitable in nature: an accounting of company funds, disgorgement of profits the fiduciary made through disloyalty, removal of a manager, or injunctive relief to freeze assets. A plain contract claim is usually limited to the damages flowing from the breach. When an owner has been quietly moving money into a side entity, the equitable tools often matter more than a damages award, since a damages award is only worth what can be collected.

It also affects who can sue. Sometimes the injury belongs to the company itself, and the claim is brought on the company’s behalf. In other cases, the harm falls on one owner individually, such as being squeezed out of distributions that others received. Identifying which category your claim falls into is one of the first judgment calls in the case, and it shapes the pleadings, the discovery, and the settlement posture.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents clients throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County, including Wellington, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, along with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests in South Florida. Firm founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. His career has been built around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is the terrain where most fiduciary claims arise.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in state and federal courts. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on a matter knows the file and can respond when a client calls. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when we are in court or otherwise unavailable.

Recent results reflect the kind of document-heavy, trial-ready work these disputes demand. After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the firm obtained a 32-page final judgment awarding its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Our attorneys are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and we look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. Clients who live out of state can rely on us to handle local court appearances so they are not traveling for every hearing, and a significant part of our practice comes from referrals by other attorneys.

Situations That Give Rise to Fiduciary Claims

• Diverted or Missing Company Funds: A manager or partner pays personal expenses from company accounts, routes revenue to a separate entity, or cannot explain where distributions went. Claims typically include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the money.
• Self-Dealing Transactions: A controlling member sells company property to himself or a relative, awards contracts to an affiliated business, or leases space from an entity he owns, all at terms that favor him over the company.
• Squeeze-Outs of Minority Owners: Majority owners cut off distributions, remove a minority member from management, issue new interests to dilute existing owners, or freeze someone out of information while continuing to profit.
• Usurped Business Opportunities: A partner takes a deal, client, or property that belonged to the company and pursues it through a personal vehicle or a competing business.
• Family Business Betrayals: Siblings who inherited a company, or parents and children who run one together, disagree over compensation and control, and one side uses management authority to tilt the economics.
• Commingled Accounts and Poor Records: Personal and company money are mixed, books are not kept, or capital contributions are disputed. These facts often support both a fiduciary claim and a request for a court-ordered accounting.
• Real Estate Partnerships: Co-investors in a property find that the managing partner has refinanced without consent, taken fees not authorized by the agreement, or neglected obligations that put the asset at risk.
• Waste and Mismanagement of Assets: Company assets are being wasted or misappropriated to the point of injury, which is also one recognized ground for judicial dissolution of an LLC under Florida law.

What to Do if You Suspect a Partner or Manager Is Breaching Their Duty

Start by securing information while you still have access to it. Owners often have contractual or statutory rights to inspect company books and records, and exercising them early, in writing, creates a record and sometimes surfaces the problem before it grows. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, financial statements, tax returns, bank statements you are entitled to see, capital contribution records, and any emails or messages discussing money, distributions, or major decisions. Do not take documents you are not entitled to access, and do not retaliate by moving company funds yourself; both can hand the other side a counterclaim.

Pay attention to deadlines. Florida sets different limitations periods depending on the claim. An action founded on a written instrument carries a five-year period, while a contract claim not founded on a written instrument has four years. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, subject to an outer cap of twelve years. A claim styled as professional malpractice carries two years from discovery. Which period governs a given fiduciary claim depends on how it is pleaded and what facts support it, so do not assume you have the longer window. Waiting also hurts in practical ways: funds get moved, records disappear, and courts look less kindly on owners who sat on obvious red flags.

If money is actively leaving the company, the question is whether emergency relief is warranted. A court can issue temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending, and in an LLC dissolution proceeding a court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. These cases are generally filed in the circuit court for Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in West Palm Beach with branch locations around the county. Amounts in controversy above the county court ceiling belong in circuit court, and a case with a federal question or diversity of citizenship between owners in different states may belong in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Review what your own agreement says before you act. Many operating agreements contain buyout, expulsion, dissociation, and deadlock provisions, along with notice requirements and dispute resolution clauses that may send the fight to mediation or arbitration first. Missing a required notice step can complicate an otherwise strong case. Then speak with counsel before confronting the other owner. A premature confrontation tends to prompt document destruction and asset shuffling, and it hands the other side time to build a narrative.

How Fiduciary Claims Connect to Dissolution and Buyouts

A fiduciary breach is often the reason an owner wants out, and Florida law offers a path when it happens. Under the Florida Revised LLC Act, a member or manager may seek judicial dissolution when controlling members or managers have acted, are acting, or are reasonably expected to act illegally or fraudulently, or when company assets are being misappropriated or wasted in a way that causes injury. Deadlock that threatens irreparable injury is a separate ground. In that proceeding the court may appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest.

For corporations, a shareholder can petition for judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders may elect to purchase 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 directing the purchase. Those electing to buy should understand that the election is generally irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. An agreement’s own deadlock sale mechanism can also come into play and, if properly initiated, may displace a judicial remedy.

In practice, many fiduciary cases settle through a negotiated buyout, a structured wind-down, or a sale of the business, with the litigation pressure driving the numbers. Valuation becomes the central fight: what is the company worth, what discount if any applies to a minority interest, and what adjustments should be made for money the fiduciary diverted. A well-built accounting often moves valuation more than any other piece of evidence.

Wellington Breach of Fiduciary Duty Questions Answered

What exactly is a fiduciary duty in a business?

It is a legal obligation to act in the interest of the company and its owners rather than your own, arising from a position of trust or control. Managers, managing members, general partners, officers, and directors commonly owe duties of loyalty and care. The precise scope depends on the type of entity and what the governing documents say.

Do all business partners owe each other fiduciary duties?

Not automatically in every setting. Partners and those who manage or control an entity generally owe duties, while a passive minority owner in a corporation may owe none to the others. Whether a duty exists, and how far it extends, is often the first thing contested in litigation.

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

A contract claim turns on whether a party failed to perform a promise in an agreement. A fiduciary claim turns on whether someone in a position of trust misused it, regardless of whether the agreement addressed the conduct. Equitable remedies such as an accounting or disgorgement are more naturally tied to the fiduciary claim.

What can I recover if a partner took company money?

Potential remedies include recovery of the diverted funds, an accounting, disgorgement of profits the fiduciary earned through the breach, and in appropriate cases removal from management. Courts can also grant injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending.

How long do I have to file?

It depends on the claim. A written-instrument claim has five years, an unwritten contract claim four years, fraud four years from discovery with a twelve-year outer limit, and professional malpractice two years from discovery. Because the label attached to your claim affects the clock, have counsel evaluate it promptly rather than assuming the longest period applies.

Can I get emergency relief if money is leaving the company right now?

Yes, in appropriate cases. A court can issue a temporary injunction to preserve assets while the dispute is decided, and in dissolution proceedings it can appoint a receiver or custodian after giving notice and holding a hearing. Moving fast and documenting the risk are what make these requests persuasive.

Can I sue on behalf of the company rather than for myself?

Often, yes. When the harm falls on the entity itself, such as stolen company funds, the claim may belong to the company and be brought derivatively by an owner. When the harm falls on you personally, such as being denied distributions others received, the claim may be direct. Sorting out which applies shapes the strategy and who benefits from any recovery.

Does my operating agreement limit my ability to sue?

It can. Agreements may require mediation or arbitration first, set notice procedures, or define the duties owed. Some provisions limit or modify duties, though they cannot generally excuse bad-faith or fraudulent conduct. Read the dispute resolution and management provisions before taking any step.

I live in New York or New Jersey but own a stake in a Wellington company. Can you handle it?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida. We handle the local court appearances and keep you informed at each stage so you do not need to travel for every hearing.

Will my case have to go to trial?

Not necessarily. Many fiduciary disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, particularly once an accounting makes the numbers hard to dispute. We prepare every case as if it may be tried, which tends to improve settlement terms, but the aim is the outcome that serves your goals and budget.

What if the fiduciary is a family member?

These cases are common and carry added weight because the relationship is at stake alongside the company. We handle them with discretion while still protecting your financial interests, and sometimes a structured buyout lets family members separate without a public trial.

Serving Fiduciary Dispute Clients Across Wellington and Palm Beach County

We represent clients in Wellington and the surrounding western communities of Palm Beach County, including Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee Groves, and The Acreage, as well as neighboring Lake Worth and Greenacres. Our work extends through the county’s coastal and central areas, from West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and Juno Beach down through Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, and Boca Raton. Business owners and investors in Riviera Beach, Lantana, Palm Springs, and Belle Glade also turn to us when a co-owner or manager breaks faith.

In neighboring Broward County, we serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Plantation, Hollywood, and the surrounding communities. Many of our clients live elsewhere, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, while holding business interests or property in South Florida, and we handle the Florida proceedings on their behalf.

Speak With a Wellington Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyer

When a partner, manager, or co-owner has misused a position of trust, the evidence is often easiest to preserve and the remedies easiest to obtain early. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreement, assess what claims you have, and tell you plainly what a realistic outcome looks like. If you are searching for a Wellington breach of fiduciary duty lawyer, call our team to schedule a consultation and discuss how to protect your company, your investment, or your property.