If there’s one thing Russell Budd doesn’t appear to need right now, it’s a suit filed by a disgruntled Baron & Budd shareholder over a compensation agreement. Budd, the majority shareholder in the Dallas-based firm, already is doing battle in a Dallas court with firm founder and former shareholder Fred Baron and former shareholder Lisa Blue, Baron’s wife. The couple filed Baron, et al. v. Baron & Budd P.C., et al. in August 2006, alleging that Budd, the firm and others conspired to deny them payments under a series of complex agreements that resulted in the sale of their equity interest in the firm to Budd.
But as of Jan. 25, Budd has another suit to defend. Baron & Budd shareholder Charla G. Aldous has sued Budd and the firm in Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 2, alleging in a bare-bones petition that in December 2004, Budd offered her employment at the firm, agreeing to pay her “a minimum sum certain and to provide benefits.” In reliance on that offer, Aldous joined Baron & Budd and closed her practice. But she alleges that the defendants’ failed “to compensate Aldous as agreed.”
