Don’t Mess With Sasquatch: Family Business Is No Place For Revenge

Mark Briol 

He  made up some extraordinarily creative ideas to go after his father and his brother and the companies, including opening a competing business right across the street in Minong, Wisconsin, you know, a city of about what seven people do they have in Minong, Scott? 550 people!

Pat Milan 

Welcome back, guys. I’m making my way through the chapters of this book that’s coming out. And there is one case that caught my attention. Well, it’s astounding. And Scott, you can probably talk about that. But there are clerical errors, some really poorly picked battles in a family business. And this chapter centers around a family business, that just about anybody listening or watching this podcast will be familiar with, it’s Jack Link’s Meat Snacks. I think what people don’t know is that there have been a series of legal battles that have really embroiled this family over two decades. All those battles were brought on by Jay Link, who is the son of the family business patriarch, Jack Link. Mark, I want to ask you to start here. Can you talk about the riff that was created between Jay and Jack? And why was this the wrong way for Jay to pick a legal fight?

Mark Briol 

Well, Jay, always thought that I mean, Jay was the older son. They had two sons, Troy and Jay. And Jay was the older son and Jay thought that he was to be ultimately made king of the empire that was being built by Jack. First of all, the company goes way back. I mean, the great grandfather had a meat business, and then the grandfather had a meat business. And then Jack Link came in, and basically, you know, started a business where he grew it into an international company, you know, making more than a billion dollars a year in sales. And, Troy became the CEO of the company. And I think that’s probably what started the acrimony between Jay and his father. This is not something that I ever saw Jack Link instigate. I mean, Jack, I think was a businessman. I think he treated his kids as a business person would; took each of the kids for the talents, he saw that they had and put them in those roles. Jay wasn’t having any of that. I mean, Jay wanted to be the CEO of this company. He thought it was his birthright to be CEO of this company, and went after his father. And just it wasn’t at the beginning, you said that they might have been more astute in picking their battles. Jay just picked every one. If there was a battle, he picked it. I mean, he didn’t duck for one. I mean, he made up some extraordinarily creative ideas to go after his father and his brother and the companies, including opening a competing business, right across the street in Minong Wisconsin, you know, a city of about, I don’t know, what’s, how many people do they have in Minong Scott? 

Scott Benson 

 550!

Mark Briol 

550 people. And they’ve got the, they’ve got the Jack Link, grocery store, they’ve got the Jack Link car dealership, they’ve got the Jack Link restaurant. I mean, the whole company is Jack Link and the Link family. And go ahead. 

Pat Milan 

No, I was gonna say, well, when I was reading the chapter, the tipping point on this felt like when the company bought out a competitor, I think it was called King B Snacks. Was that kind of the tipping point that set this thing off?

Mark Briol 

Well, it was and it was something that you know, is done and there was a controversy between Jack and Jay as to whether it was going to be done or not, and it got done. And that was what started the fight between Jack and Jay. And then it just, I mean, the amount of time, the difference between this case and other cases was simply the acrimony involved in this case was so, the vitriol was so intense. I mean, opening a competing company across the street. Now, across the street in Minneapolis might mean the difference between being in the Wells Fargo tower and being the IDS Tower. But this is Minong.

Pat Milan 

Yeah, but across the street is it’s so in your face, right and just goes to the point about Jay as you guys were pointing out in the chapter. He just picked his battles poorly. Scott, Jack and Troy, that’s Jays brother. They’re not exactly absolved of all the wrongdoing either, right? I mean, without consulting the board of directors, and they pretty much I think, based on your chapter ignored their corporate bylaws, Jack just issued a memo that stripped Jay of all his responsibilities at Link Snacks. And that proved to be a pretty costly move.

Scott Benson 

That’s right. You look at at least what’s reported in court documents at what Jack and Troy did, compared to kind of what Jay’s attitude was. And you wonder how the eventual case came out the way it did. But before we get there, you’re right. Jack basically decided after this King B Snacks purchase that he opposed, that and, you know, there was subsequent issues between him and Jay, they couldn’t work together anymore. And Jay had threatened to quit and then came back in and there was a series of that. But finally, Jack had had enough and without following the corporate bylaws and procedures, he sent a memo to Jay saying you’re going to be stripped from your responsibilities. And eventually too, Jay quit, or said he was quitting and Jack and Troy came back to him with several options about how that might work, how they might pay him over the course of a couple of years and his salary and keep him on the benefits. But he would have no active part in the company. Or they would buy his shares at a valuation by an appraiser that they could both agree to, you know, they came up with several different scenarios. But none of them were really acceptable to Jay because Jay wanted to run the business, that’s what he wanted. And so this eventually went to trial in tiny Washburn County, Wisconsin with one judge.

Pat Milan 

One judge, and I read in the chapter that like the judge was running out of room just to store all the boxes of materials.

Scott Benson 

There, it was such a big case. You know, in rural Wisconsin and rural Minnesota, you have to really feel for the judges. Here he’s got a multimillion, maybe billion dollar enterprise where he’s gonna have to make determinations of who did what to who, and what the value of the company is. And maybe the next case he has is a dog bite case. So I mean, these judges in rural areas, just see everything from soup to nuts. And I’m sure this is the biggest value case that’s ever hit Washburn County, Wisconsin.

Pat Milan 

And then it gets really interesting, because I’m still trying to figure out, did they miss a deadline? What happened here?

Scott Benson 

Well, interestingly, the jury, I think, said plague on both your houses. And they basically said, you know, Jck and Troy, you didn’t act in a fiduciary responsible way, in the way you treated Jay. And so you’re gonna have to pay Jay, I think it was $736,000, which was the equivalent of his salary for a year. And most importantly, $5 million in punitive damages. And Jay, you need to pay Jack and Troy and the company, I think it was 100 and some thousand dollars. And you have to pay $5 million in punitive damages. So really kind of a cancelling out of damages back to them. And then the court was set to determine the value of the company and what Jay’s shares would be valued at which is another whole chapter here. But to get to this deadline point, they had 20 days then to do their post trial briefs, and seek, essentially, to have this $5 million punitive damages claim reduced or eliminated. Jay submitted his brief two minutes past the deadline on the day it was due. But the clerk stamped it as being in on that day. Jack’s attorneys mailed their brief on the day it was due. So it didn’t get to the court until two or three days later, that of course, those were the days when you actually had good mail service. So actually getting there two days later from Chicago wasn’t that bad, but didn’t get filed with the court till at least two days late. And so that set up an issue about how could the court determine who was right with punitive damages?

Mark Briol 

Well, and having missed that, the Court said you missed the deadline, and threw out the $5 million punitive award, and I mean, which was a win for Jay, obviously. Well, you should know for the record that Scott and I represented Jay Link’s wife in their divorce. And you know, the other thing about the family was big hunters, big game hunters. Jay would travel all over the world shooting animals and had a massive home in which he had, you know, a variable menagerie of various animals from all around the world staged in his house.

Pat Milan 

Clearly they captured Sasquatch, because they’ve been using him in their branding.

Mark Briol 

That’s a good point. That’s a good point. But Scott actually visited Jay’s home.

Pat Milan 

How did this one end up, guys? Where did it all? Assuming Jay is out? They figured out how to pay him off, and the company has moved on and learned good lessons from it.

Scott Benson 

Oh, I don’t know. Is it over?

Mark Briol 

I don’t know that it’s over. Oh! It’s not over?

Scott Benson 

I wouldn’t say it’s ever over. I mean, there’s been so many lawsuits that Jay has lodged. First of all, as Mark pointed out, the $5 million punitive award, again, Jack and Troy’s was overturned. But Jay, got his $5 million. So as you look at this, while Jay was late too, he was two minutes late. But anyway, it all went all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And I, they said the court was right to say that Jack and Troy’s brief was late and so Jay’s $5 million that he was to receive stayed, and the amount Jay was supposed to pay him $5 million to Troy and Jack was overturned. But then, of course, there was the decision on how much are Jay’s shares worth. And the court determined that Jay would get fair market value. And Jay wanted fair value. Fair market value takes into account what your shares are worth as a percentage of the value of the company as a whole, but then discounts it because of marketability concerns. And because of your minority holding, essentially, the theory is who wants to buy a minority share in a family business by other family members? So Jay fought that for years. And I’m not sure he’s still tryinng to fight.

Pat Milan 

Hey, Scott, let me ask you this, and then Mark, I’m going to come to you too, and we’ll wrap it up. But, Scott, if you are representing the family company, what would you have done differently to get this thing taken care of and try to get the emotion out of it? Remember, I’m gonna ask Mark if he was representing Jay so I’m sure he’s gonna flame up the emotion all he can. But what would you do on behalf of the company to get this thing to settle down and be more reasonable in the end? Or do you even want to, I don’t know, maybe you don’t want to? 

Scott Benson 

Yeah, I think they were in a difficult situation frankly, given the animosity that was developed and you know, Jay’s sense that he should be running the company, he was smarter and could run it better than Jack and Troy. I think they were in a difficult spot and Jack and Troy had the majority interest. I wouldn’t have violated, if I was advising them and they probably didn’t seek advice, I wouldn’t have violated the provisions of the bylaws in reducing Jay’s responsibility. Really that’s the only thing.

Pat Milan 

Yeah, but you did point out in the chapter, the lawyers told him not to do it. So yeah. Mark, if you’re representing Jay, if you’re the Jay in this scenario, and somebody’s watching this, and they’re like, I am the Jay.

Mark Briol 

 I represented Jays wife and kids, right? 

Pat Milan 

Yeah, that’s okay. Just pretend like you didn’t for a minute. Would you have done anything differently? Or do you think the emotion, all of that runs in his favor and trying to get to what he wants? 

Mark Briol 

Well, I mean, Jay was the heir apparent in his own mind. He wanted everything. He wanted control and money and he wanted the respect. Would I have done anything differently if I was Jay’s lawyer? I mean, Jay’s lawyers did everything. Everything. Bringing suit in Canada, you know, starting businesses in other countries. I mean, it was they did everything possible. I’m not sure there’s anything additional that I could have done. I mean, obviously, you know, I might have advised him not to do some things. But that would, I am sure his lawyers did that and it fell on deaf ears. And now, Jay still embroiled, and this is in the book, and lawsuits from a number of women who have alleged that he has posted their pictures wrongfully online in various stages of undress. And so he’s just, I mean, he’s a professional litigant.

Pat Milan 

Wow. Well, let me just say to our listeners, or viewers, that if you have a family member who’s setting up a competing company across the street, or if you’re that person who’s so mad, you are setting up, you should call these guys whether it’s minority shareholders rights, securities fraud, high net worth divorce or patent litigation. Briol and Benson are prepared to answer your questions and they’ll figure out if you have a case, and how to get control of your rights. For more information, you can go to briollaw.com to subscribe to the podcast, find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. And remember, you can always ask questions here in the podcast, or you can drop us a line through the website. Mark, Scott, thanks for your time today. We’ll see you on the next podcast when we get to talk about people who have way too much money, and apparently too much time. 

Scott Benson 

Thanks, Pat.