Clint Black et al. v. Charles Sussman et al.

Entertainer filed this suit against his former business manager, who is an accountant, and against several business entities for breach of fiduciary duty, accounting malpractice, breach of contract, misrepresentation, and violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. The trial court granted summary judgment for the business manager and another defendant on the ground that the gravamen of the complaint was accounting malpractice and that all of the claims were barred by the applicable one-year statute of limitations. As to a second group of defendants, the trial court granted summary judgment based upon the absence of an actual partnership and the absence of proof that the entertainer relied on any representations of partnership. We have concluded that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to the first group of defendants because the complaint states causes of action for breach of a business manager’s fiduciary duties as well as causes of action for accounting malpractice, and these two types of causes of action are subject to different statutes of limitations. As to the second group of defendants, we have concluded that summary judgment was not appropriate because material issues of fact remain as to the entertainer’s reliance on representations of partnership.