Stock awards are an integral part of compensation packages at many companies, but the distribution of payments can become contentious when company officers leave.
A lawsuit filed by WR Berkley in federal court in Delaware in January to recover nearly half a million dollars in stock from a former employee after he left to join a competitor drew a lot of reader interest.
Berkley said it issued Bruce E. Stanley a total of 14,217 shares, valued at $473,620, between August 2004 and August 2017 that had vested, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington in WR Berkley Corp. v. Bruce E. Stanley.
The story about the filing of the lawsuit was the sixth most read risk management related story of Business insurances website 2022.
The complaint stated that the share agreements granting Mr. The Stanley shares provided that if he commenced a “competition action”
; within one year of termination of employment, the insurer was entitled to demand repayment of an amount equal to the value of the share.The complaint said Berkley’s board compensation committee had “sole and absolute discretion” to determine whether he had engaged in anti-competitive conduct in violation of the stock agreements’ applicable provisions, and it determined that he had.
When he left the insurer in June 2021, Stanley was assistant vice president and controller-finance at Continental Western Group, an operating unit of a Berkley subsidiary.
He later joined Des Moines, Iowa-based EMC Insurance Cos. as vice president, financial planning and analysis, according to the complaint.
In June, Berkley voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit in district court, saying Stanley “has repaid the amount requested in the complaint.”
No. 7 most read story
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