Lindland v. United Business Investments, Inc.

Plaintiffs brought an action to recover against United Business Investments, Inc., a broker with whom they had engaged to sell their business. The broker represented that a potential buyer had $300,000 more funds than was listed in buyer's financial statements. The plaintiffs sold to the buyers and the buyers defaulted on their payments to plaintiffs. The plaintiffs received a jury verdict and the defendants appealed, taking exception to a jury instruction that put the burden of proving the duty of full and faithful performance on the defendant. The defendants claimed that the burden of proof only falls on the defendant when there is evidence of self-dealing.

In a claim for breach of fiduciary duty, defendant does NOT have the burden of proving "by a preponderance of the evidence that it has fully performed its duty of full, fair and frank disclosure," unless there is evidence of self-dealing.

Agency | Fiduciary Duties | Duty of Care | Duty of Disclosure