Stay granted in Vontz v. Miller

Vontz v. Miller is an interesting First District decision that I noted in late December but did not have an opportunity to discuss. The named parties are each 50% shareholders of Dayton Heidelberg Distributing Co., and their litigation concerned a shareholder impasse. The trial court issued injunctive relief requiring the shareholders to attend a shareholder meeting, but the First District reversed in part, holding that the trial court exceeded its authority.

But in doing so, the First District ordered that the quorum requirement in the company's Code of Regulations would not apply to a meeting called by Vontz in the future. Vontz did in fact call such a meeting, and so Miller moved for a stay of the First District's decision, arguing that the First District exceeded its equitable authority by creating a new quorum rule. The Supreme Court today granted the stay, without opinion.

There were no noted dissents or recusals from the decision to grant the stay. That means that Justice DeWine, who was a member of the unanimous First District panel below (though not the author of the decision), apparently voted to stay his own ruling.