Opinion ID: 2801672
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Doug Maxwell

Text: Lincoln also brought claims for breach of fiduciary duty against Doug Maxwell in his individual capacity. Recall that Doug Maxwell is the sole officer, director, and shareholder of U.S. Auto. He also owns roughly 40% of CSi and serves as an officer and director; and has a 39.6% partnership interest in Alpha. Just as it did against U.S. Auto, Lincoln first asserts S&C’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty. The district court acknowledged Maxwell’s admission that he “was appointed as a managing general agent by State and County with respect to business produced under the Reinsurance Agreements,” but granted summary judgment for the same reason it did so on S&C’s claim against U.S. Auto—the mistaken belief that the fiduciary duty arose only after U.S. Auto deposited premiums in the trust account. ROA 3385. We therefore reverse this ruling for the reasons already discussed. Next, Lincoln asserts that Doug Maxwell directly owed Lincoln a fiduciary duty based on a common law agency relationship or the Texas Insurance Code. The district court also granted summary judgment in favor of Doug Maxwell on this claim. We have doubts about whether this issue has any remaining practical effect on this litigation in light of our other holdings allowing fiduciary duty claims to be asserted against Doug Maxwell on remand. Those are the assigned claim of S&C just discussed and the soon-to-be-discussed claim 23 Case: 13-10589 Document: 00513046323 Page: 24 Date Filed: 05/18/2015 No. 13-10589 asserting that Doug Maxwell aided and abetted U.S. Auto’s breach of fiduciary duty. It is unlikely that the outcome of those claims would differ than the outcome of a claim asserting that Doug Maxwell owed a fiduciary duty directly to Lincoln. Moreover, it is unclear how the district court’s prior dismissal of this claim is affected by our ruling that fiduciary duties existed prior to deposit of the funds in the trust account. As such, we find it appropriate remand this claim for further consideration. If Lincoln still sees the need to assert it, the district court can evaluate its viability based on our other rulings.