In this minority shareholder action brought by a wife against her husband as the majority shareholder and presiding officer of their family business corporation, the wife Mary Katherine Rosenfeld also sought to recover for damages she suffered as an alleged partner to her husband William Spencer Rosenfeld in a family business partnership. Finding there was no partnership, the jury awarded the wife damages only for her husband’s actions respecting the family corporation. In Case No. A07A0959, the wife appeals the trial court’s denial of her motion for new trial on the partnership issue, claiming that the undisputed evidence demanded a finding that there was a partnership. As some evidence showed there was no partnership, we affirm this judgment. In Case No. A07A1133, the husband seeks a new trial on the corporation claim, asserting various errors. Discerning no error, we affirm this judgment also. Construed in favor of the verdict, the evidence shows that the husband owned 75 percent of the stock in and served as chief executive officer of Arborguard, Inc., while the wife who served as chief financial officer owned the remaining 25 percent. They also served as directors in the corporation. They later individually and jointly purchased various pieces of equipment that were leased to the corporation, with all lease proceeds going into a business account in both of their names and with any funds remaining after paying expenses and loans on the equipment being transferred to a family checking account, which net funds amounted to over $30,000 a month and which they used to pay family and personal expenses.
After 30 years of marriage, the husband filed for a divorce and terminated the wife’s access to the corporation and to the lease proceeds. Although both had been using corporate funds to fund personal and family expenses, now only the husband continued to do such, over the wife’s objection. The husband agreed to pay the wife $11,000 a month $4,000 through corporate salaries to her and a son and $7,000 from lease proceeds as temporary support pending the divorce trial.
