Lee Harris Farms in Bentonville
Shareholders in a Bentonville poultry and livestock farm are suing its controlling shareholders to prevent the sale of the company’s assets and to order an accounting of its expenditures.
Holly Harris of Dallas County, Texas, and Mary Beth Mann of Benton County, who own 50 percent of the common stock in Lee Harris Farms Inc., filed the lawsuit earlier this month. The company was founded in January 1976 and operates a farm off of SW Regional Airport Boulevard that raises poultry and other livestock, according to the complaint.
Eric Berger, the attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in the complaint that Mike and Beth Harris Perkins, who own all of the voting shares in the company, have operated the company at a loss to support their “disproportionate” salaries, have engaged in self-dealing with the company and now plan to sell “substantially all” of the company’s assets.
Berger wrote that the plaintiffs have objected to the Perkinses’ business decisions and that any sale would require the approval of two-thirds of all shareholders, not just voting shareholders.
John Everett, a Fayetteville attorney representing the Perkinses, responded to the lawsuit last week, arguing that his clients had always acted in the best interests of the company, that contracts between them and the company meant the farm paid below market value and that their salaries have always been fair and reasonable.
Everett also denied that the company had voted to sell substantially all of its assets. He wrote that the company has done an accounting of expenditures, but that the plaintiffs have not accepted invitations to review its books.
Circuit Judge John Scott held an emergency hearing last week on whether to appoint a receiver for the company, but refused while the case heads to trial. A trial date had not yet been set last week.
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