The Calista Corporation has had its fair share of infighting over the years, but the power struggle between CEO Andrew Guy and former chairman Col. Wayne Don is nastier than most. Both men are accusing each other of staging boardroom coups, abusing their authority, and lying to shareholders. Now, Calista is trying to forcibly remove Don from its board by taking him to court.
On Monday, Calista filed a lawsuit against Don, his attorney Sam Fortier, and Harley Sundown, a former Calista board member who supports him. In a civil complaint filed with the court, the corporation accuses Don of staging a failed coup against Calista CEO Andrew Guy last year. It also claims that Don and Fortier made “multiple egregiously false and misleading statements to the press” in an attempt to influence the corporation’s July election, when four of Calista’s 11 board members will be up for re-election.
In interviews Wednesday, Don and Fortier strongly denied that they’d falsely stated anything and said that it’s Calista that’s not telling the truth. Fortier described the lawsuit as frivolous and bullying.
"It’s an attempt at intimidation in order to suppress the truth," he said. "There’s no grounds for it. The facts that they allege are easily disproved, the legal grounds for it have no basis, and the demands are simply silly."
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of measures Calista's CEO and Board have taken to force Don out of their corporation. Over the past six months, the Board has stripped Don of his chairmanship, asked that he resign, accused him of misconduct, and publicly censured him. Don still refuses to resign from the board.
At the heart of this conflict is a sexual harassment complaint that was made last year about an unnamed Calista employee who was eventually fired. Don's attorney, Fortier, says that Calista CEO Andrew Guy knew about the harassment, but did nothing to stop it. He also says Guy tried to push Don out of the corporation when he brought concerns about the CEO’s behavior to the rest of the board.
That's not the way Calista describes the situation in its lawsuit. In its court filing, the corporation claims that Don operated secretly to push Guy out of the corporation. It further alleges that Guy responded to the sexual harassment allegations appropriately, and accuses Don of trying to use the ensuing personnel investigation to his advantage.
The third defendant listed in Calista’s lawsuit, Harley Sundown, is a shareholder and former Calista board member from Scammon Bay. Calista accuses him of improperly trying to influence its upcoming election with several posts on Facebook.
In its legal action, the corporation asks the court to silence Don, his lawyer, and Sundown, and forcibly remove Don from the corporation's Board of Directors. The case has been assigned to a judge, who has requested a response as the next step.