Opinion ID: 1269674
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hirsch defendants

Text: The courts below concluded that the Trustee's claims against defendants Hirsch, Hirsch and Gross were barred by Indiana's two-year statute of limitations on breach of fiduciary duty claims and granted their motion for summary judgment. Under Indiana law, a claim for breach of fiduciary duty is subject to the two-year statute of limitations that applies to tort claims for injury to personal property. Shriner v. Sheehan, 773 N.E.2d 833, 846 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). The Trustee filed this action on May 10, 1999. Although the filing date was almost nine years after the Hirsch defendants left Consolidated's board, the Trustee argues that the two-year limitations period should have been tolled under the adverse domination doctrine. The doctrine of adverse domination allows the tolling of the statute of limitations where the entity [to whom the cause of action belonged] is controlled by or dominated by wrongdoers. The statute of limitations begins to run again when the wrongdoers lose control of the entity. The rationale behind the adverse domination doctrine is premised upon the principle that officers and directors who have harmed the entity cannot be expected to take legal action against themselves. Resolution Trust Corp. v. O'Bear, Overholser, Smith & Huffer, 840 F.Supp. 1270, 1284 (N.D.Ind.1993) (citation omitted) (alteration in original). [8] The courts below concluded that Marion Antonini, who replaced Hirsch, Hirsch and Gross in October 1990, was a disinterested outsider from the standpoint of any wrong which his predecessors may have committed. Appellants' App. at 90. Thus, any claim the Trustee had against the Hirsch defendants accrued in October 1990 and the applicable statute of limitations required Consolidated to bring its breach of fiduciary duty claims against the Hirsch defendants by October 1992. When the Hirsch defendants moved for summary judgment, they asked the court to accept the facts in the Trustee's Third Amended Complaint as true. In the Third Amended Complaint, the Trustee alleged that Enodis controlled the composition of Consolidated's board of directors through January 1998. But this allegation is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the Hirsches exerted any control over Consolidated after they left the board such that they would be in a position to prevent the company from suing them for breach of fiduciary duty. Celotex v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 331, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). We affirm the bankruptcy court's conclusion that the statute of limitations for the Trustee's claims against the Hirsch defendants began running in 1990 and had lapsed by the time the bankruptcy petition was filed in 1998.