01/22/90 Bayberry Associates V. R. Lewis Jones

In these consolidated cases, this Court granted permission to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeals to address two issues: (1) Whether the defendants, R. Lewis Jones, George Cate, Jr., James Gregoric, Robert McCullough, and Bedford Chapin, as directors of Comdata Network, Inc., may be sued under Maryland law directly by the plaintiffs as shareholders of Comdata or must a suit be brought only as a shareholders' derivative suit on behalf of Comdata Network, Inc., and (2) assuming a direct action can be brought, whether the Chancellor erred in refusing to certify a class in Bayberry Associates (Bayberry) with Bayberry as class representative. As a part of the second issue, the parties were asked to address the question of whether the trial court's order denying class certification was appealable under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 54.02.