By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – A company that supplies much of the concrete in Lincoln County is embroiled in a bitter family dispute over its operation and ownership, leading to a judge’s temporary restraining order to prevent any sale, lease or disposal of its assets.
The fight is over the operation and assets of Tri-Agg, a Waldport company controlled and operated by Gary E. Tryon until his death last December.
The family business was owned by Tryon, his wife, Patricia, and his three brothers – Vernon, Robert and Loren. Gary Tryon is listed as president, Vernon Tryon as secretary, and Patricia Tryon as treasurer of Tri-Agg on state registrations.
Gary Tryon was also the principal in GVR Investments, which has extensive land holdings around Lincoln County, including property for the concrete businesses, more than a dozen vacant residential lots, and industrial, commercial and forest land valued by the county at more than $6 million. Tryon and Tri-Agg also owns and controls Waldport Ready Mix, Newport Ready Mix and Lincoln City Ready Mix.
Gary and Patricia Tryon are also principals in other land ownership or development groups that are not involved in the court action.
In their request for a restraining order filed in Lincoln County circuit court, Patricia, Robert and Loren Tryon allege that:
- Vernon Tryon seized control over Tri-Agg and GVR Investments in July by creating corporate resolutions removing Robert and Loren as company directors without their signatures, naming himself president, treasurer and secretary and appointing his son, Austin, as a director;
- Vernon Tryon then fired Patricia, who ran the office and locked her and his two brothers out of the office;
- The ownership dispute resulted in Umpqua Bank freezing all the company’s accounts, leaving the company unable to continue to pay vendors and other creditors without additional difficulty and expense …”, according to the filings;
- Vernon Tryon has refused to allow re-opening of the accounts “unless the other owners agree to either sell their shares or buy him out on terms acceptable to him,” the court filings state.
In his filing, Justin Thorp of Salem, the attorney for Patricia, Robert and Loren Tryon said Vernon Tryon was trying to force the sale of the company on terms favorable to him.
In their request for a temporary and then permanent restraining order, Robert, Loren and Patricia Tryon asked Lincoln County Circuit Judge Marcia Buckley to appoint a receiver “to allow for the dissolution and orderly wind up of the companies” and “ensure that the companies can continue to pay vendors, employees, and other creditors and to ensure that the companies’ assets are protected.”
Buckley signed the temporary restraining order Nov. 9, held a preliminary hearing Nov. 30 to listen to arguments, and then scheduled another hearing for Jan. 9.
The company continues to make and deliver concrete to construction sites all over the county.
In a three-page rebuttal to the filings, the attorney for Vernon and Austin Tryon simply say Gary Tryon’s wife and two other brothers “are wrong on the facts” and that neither a court-appointed receiver or preliminary injunction are needed.
In his filing, attorney Brooks Cooper of Lake Oswego said for years Gary Tryon operated Tri-Agg and related companies while Patricia Tryon did the bookkeeping and Vernon Tryon oversaw day-to-day operations.
After Gary Tryon died, Cooper said in his filing, Patricia Tryon “took the computers that contained the corporate records from the office in Waldport. She has not, despite request, returned them. Further, she is the only person with access to the corporate P.O. Box and has not given either defendant a key. She remains a signing on the corporate bank accounts despite having no active role in corporate management since July of this year.”
“… defendants will show, that despite the hurdles she has created, they are operating the business and the company continues to be profitable,” Cooper said. “There is no crisis and business continues in an orderly fashion today.”
Buckley’s temporary restraining order said Vernon and Austin Tryon, their agents or employees are prohibited from transferring, selling, leasing, disposing of, encumbering, gifting Tri-Agg or GVR Investment properties without her approval and not take “any action on behalf of the companies outside the regular scope of day-to-day business.”