Del. Bankr. Court: Fiduciary Duty Claim Survives Even If Duplicative of Contract Claim
In the case of In Re Fruehauf Trailer Corp., 369 B.R. 817 (Bankr. Del., June 2007), read opinion here, the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, based on Delaware state law, denied a motion to dismiss a fiduciary duty claim that the defendant argued was duplicative of contract claims. The Bankruptcy Court provides a very educational discussion of Delaware state court decisions that have addressed the issue in gerneral, but found that none of those cases were applicable to the facts of this case, involving a claim by a successor trustee against the original trustee of a liquidating trust. The court concluded that at this early stage it would premature to dismiss the claims on that basis and that there was clearly a fiduciary duty imposed on the trustee.
