Celcom v. AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
To resolve this appeal, and pursuant to section 2.60.020 of the Washington Revised Code, we propose to certify a question of state law to the Supreme Court of Washington relating to the scope of a partner’s
Because no Washington court has had occasion to define the scope of the fiduciary duty of loyalty in the context of a fully disclosed, self-dealing transaction in light of the new statutory scheme, we propose to request under Washington Rule of Appellate Procedure 16.16 and section 2.60.030 of the Washington Revised Code that the Supreme Court of Washington answer our certified question on the parameters of the fiduciary duty of loyalty. The parties are invited to comment on the apparent conflict in Washington law requiring certification and on the following proposed question to be certified:
Does a controlling partner violate the duty of loyalty to the partnership or to dissenting minority partners by transferring all of the partnership’s assets to an affiliated party at a price determined by an independent appraisal, when the appraisal and the parties to the transaction are fully disclosed but the partnership agreement is silent on the subject of sale to a related party?
The parties shall assume the primary responsibility of gathering for our certification under Washington Revised Code 2.60.010 and 2.60.030 the relevant excerpts of the district court record to aid the Supreme Court of Washington’s review in this matter. Attached is a list of documents that we think should be included in the certified record. See id. § 2.60.010(4). The parties are free to make additions to or to propose deletions from this list.
The comments on the apparent conflict, certified question, and excerpts of record, if any, must be filed with the Clerk of the Court within 30 days from the date of the filing of this Order. Any comment shall not exceed 10 pages of fourteen-point type.
Proposed List of Documents to Include in Certified Record for Transmittal to the Supreme Court of Washington
1. Third Amended Complaint (Docket No. 176)
2. Amended Order Granting Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment and Denying Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (ER 386-410)
3. Copies of the partnership agreements: Boise (ER 33-46), Fort Collins (ER 53-73, 81-86), Greeley (ER 88-112), Redding (ER 505-515,131-136), Rochester (ER 138-49), Texarkana (ER 152-164), Wheeling (ER 188-202, 206-208), Yakima
4. Bradner Declaration (SER 1-65)
5. Pladson Declaration (SER 94-116)
6. Thompson Declaration (SER 354-75)
7. Appraisal of Boise City Cellular Partnership (ER 256-304)
8. April 2002 letter from J. Kennedy and response (ER 529, 531)
9. AWS Approval Request (ER 249-54, 527)
10. October 2004 Walters report (ER 9-31)
11. March 2005 Taylor Declaration (SER 170-249, 313-51)
12. January 2005 Walters report (ER 939-74)
13. Excerpt from Walters deposition (SER 135-44)
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J&J CELCOM Lupe Azevedo Woodrow W. Holmes, Jr. Lucille Hoss Daniel Murray Rajive Oberoi Kenneth L. Ramsey Gary R. Robbins Joanne Robbins S&D Partnership Cell-Cal IX-T9 Nancy Donnelly Rodger D. Friz Sid Danny Hoff Om Parkash Kalra Ronald Wilson Del-chi Corporation v. AT&T WIRELESS SERVICES, INC. McCaw Cellular Interests Inc. AT&T Wireless Services of Colorado LLC AT&T Wireless Services Of Idaho Inc. AT&T Wireless Services of Washington LLC Boise City Cellular Partnership, formerly known as New Boise City Cellular Partnership Fort Collins-Loveland Cellular Telephone Co., formerly known as New Fort Collins-Loveland Cellular Telephone Company Greeley Cellular Co., formerly known as New Greeley Cellular Company Yakima Cellular Telephone Company, formerly known as New Yakima Cellular Telephone Company McCaw communications of Wheeling, Inc. McCaw Communications of Texarkana, Inc. AT&T Wireless Services of California
- Status
- Published