Fine Wine

The board of FWPL were approached, in July 2012, by Doctor Cooper of USC with an unsolicited and confidential proposal for the manufacture of his wine cask invention. While standard wine casks generally ensure a 12 month use-by-date, his Long Life Cask enables wine to be consumed 20 years after bottling, even if opened and resealed. The FWPL board were the only ones to have knowledge of the invention at this time. The full board briefly considered the proposal at its regular monthly meeting. However, given its complex nature and the fact they had never received a similar proposal before, Nick Galli suggested that he personally liaises with Dr Cooper and determine its benefits, in detail, and report back in six months. Nick’s suggestion was accepted. In six months, Nick reported back with a recommendation that FWPL not take up the offer as it was too speculative a venture with no certainty of success even though FWPL bottled and casked their own wines. Without a written report and with little discussion, the board resolved to advise Doctor Cooper that no action be taken on his proposal. At the next monthly board meeting, Nick resigned. Nick then immediately set up his own business and exploited the Dr Cooper design. The manufacture of the new cask proved to be very successful from the outset and Nick’s company quickly made a seven figure profit exporting his product to the world. The board and membership of FWPL soon discovered Nick’s success. The board called an extraordinary general meeting of members, Mario moved a resolution ratifying Nick’s actions in taking the cask opportunity from FWPL. All members supported the resolution. However, Simon voted against it and said that if the meeting passed the ratification resolution, he will take statutory derivative action himself against Nick. Mario said that Nick is family and we cannot sue him. Simon said that he will not pursue the matter if Mario steps down as Managing Director and he is appointed to that role. Refer