By virtue of a rare summary decision, Schuyler Roche's Thomas Draths won a directed finding after a two-and-a-half week trial before Judge Robert Boharic in the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

In this case of brother against brother, the minority shareholder brother in a closely held family business had sought to acquire control of the corporation as redress for his brother's alleged breach of fiduciary duty and for his overreaching in certain transactions involving the corporation. The plaintiff also brought a mandamus action under the Business Corporation Act against the corporate defendant—represented by Draths—for alleged denial of access to corporate records.

At the close of the plaintiff's case, Draths moved for a directed finding on behalf of the company, as did the attorney for the majority shareholder brother. Ruling from the bench, Judge Boharic concluded the plaintiff had acquiesced in a series of transactions dating as far back as 1991, the same transactions about which he chose to complain by filing the lawsuit in the year 2000. The judge found, among other things, that the plaintiff was not believable and had no cause of action against either defendant. He therefore dismissed the case.

"If ever a case were ripe for this type of ruling, it appeared to me this was the one," says Draths.

He is quick to explain that although the judge ruled as he had hoped, he could not have counted on such an outcome during the two years leading up to the trial—or even during the trial itself. "We knew our clients were credible," Draths notes, "but until there is live testimony, you never know whether your opponent will hold up under cross-examination, and how the judge will rule on evidentiary issues."

Quite simply, Draths concludes, Schuyler Roche's witnesses were credible and the plaintiff was not. "The judge made the right call."

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