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Niloy Rohan LLC v. Sechler

The trial court erred in finding that, although the defendant breached his contractual and fiduciary duties to the plaintiff, the plaintiff failed to prove it actually suffered damages.

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Niloy Rohan, LLC NR and Chuck Sechler were equal members of a limited liability company that purchased land and built and sold condominium units. After a dispute arose as to the distribution of revenue, NR sued Sechler, and following a bench trial, the trial court held that Sechler had breached both his contract with and fiduciary duty to NR by improperly and prematurely distributing company funds to himself and his brokerage firm without first paying the company’s creditors. The trial court nonetheless held that NR was not entitled to recover monetary damages because NR failed to prove that it, as opposed to other creditors not party to the lawsuit, actually suffered damages from Sechler’s contractual and fiduciary breaches and, alternatively, that any damage recovery was barred by the parties’ modification through conduct of the contractual terms under which they operated. NR appeals, arguing that the trial court erred by holding that it did not prove that it suffered actual damages and by holding that a mutual departure from the contract precluded its damage recovery. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and reverse in part the trial court’s judgment and remand the case to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

In the appellate review of a bench trial, this Court will not set aside the trial court’s factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous, and this Court properly gives due deference to the opportunity of the trial court to judge the credibility of the witnesses. The standard by which findings of fact are reviewed is the any evidence rule, under which a finding by the trial court supported by any evidence must be upheld. However, we apply a de novo standard of review to any questions of law decided by the trial court.1

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