Misled Directors Earn Rights in Company

A one-armed businessman, who went to war with his former friends over control of a successful talent agency for amputee stuntmen, has been criticised by a judge for his determination to ‘jealously and selfishly’ guard his own financial interests.



The businessman and two of his ex-colleagues, also amputees, had performed roles in an impressive list of Hollywood blockbusters. The pair accused him of excluding them from the company which they had set up together. However, he painted them as mere managers and insisted that the venture was entirely his own brainchild.



In upholding the pair’s claim, the judge described the businessman as an evasive witness and an inaccurate and unreliable historian. He had untruthfully told his then friends that the only reason why they had not been registered as directors and shareholders in the business was because it would cost too much.



Despite much prompting, he had persistently failed to register their interests in the company. Noting that all three men had invested time and money in the business, the judge found that, at a crucial meeting, they had orally agreed to form a company in which each of them would be a director and have an equal share. Further issues in the case were left over for argument on another day.