On Friday, the District of Colorado issued an order in the case of Western Acceptance, LLC, v. General Agriculture, Inc. et al., granting in part and denying in part defendants California Capital & Investment Group, Inc. and Stig Westling’s motion to dismiss.
According to the order, Western Acceptance is a Colorado limited liability company headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado that is in the business of hemp extraction. The court further states the defendants are three corporations, General Agriculture, Inc., Sonoma Stainless, Inc. and California Capital & Investment Group, Inc. (CCIG), along with three California citizens affiliated with those entities that Western Acceptance sued over a business dispute.
The court states that this case stems from a contract Western Acceptance entered into with former defendant SXIP, LLC for approximately $2 million to design and manufacture business equipment referred to as a “Distillate Unit.” The order further states that during the manufacturing of the Distillate Unit, SXIP, LLC was acquired by General Agriculture, Inc. and as a result, the plaintiff entered into an oral contract with General Agriculture to assume the design and manufacture of the Distillate Unit in exchange for money directly from Western Acceptance. The plaintiff alleges that the oral agreement was in addition to the contract with SXIP which general Agriculture owned through its acquisition.
The order holds that after the oral agreement, agents of General Agriculture and CCIG began visiting the plaintiff’s facility under the illusion that they wanted to partner with Western Acceptance, when in reality, the defendants were conspiring to learn of the plaintiff’s business for purposes of eventually taking its property and money. Additionally, the order states that the defendants began taking property from the plaintiff’s facility including heaters and effectively took the Distillate Unit by refusing to provide it or its location once completed.
Subsequently, Western Acceptance commenced the present lawsuit on January 7, 2020, and in its second amended complaint, asserted the following claims: breach of contract by General Agriculture and Sonoma, negligence by Sonoma, civil theft, conversion and conspiracy by General Agriculture, CCIG and the individual defendants and unjust enrichment by all defendants. On September 17, 2021, the court dismissed the claims against Sonoma and the civil conspiracy claim against General Agriculture and two of the individual defendants.
Under current review from the court is CCIG’s motion to dismiss filed March 1, 2021, and Individual defendant Stig Westling’s motion to dismiss filed December 2, 2021.
In its motion to dismiss, CCIG argued that the court lacked personal jurisdiction, the plaintiff failed to assert a specific allegation that the claims should be dismissed because the harm was caused by a superseding cause, and that the plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts for the conspiracy claim. The court denied CCIG’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction and superseding cause argument and held that the plaintiff sufficiently asserted causes of action against CCIG, but affirmed its motion to dismiss the conspiracy claim.
Additionally, the court affirmed Stig Westling’s motion to dismiss all claims for failure to state a claim. In the order, the court held that the allegations specific to Mr. Westling are particularly sparse and too vague and conclusory to state a claim for relief.
Western Acceptance, LLC is represented by Potts Law Firm LLP, Stig Westling is represented by Allen & Curry and CCIG is represented by its in-house counsel.
