Brothers v. Supreme Court of Mississippi. 12 W FACTS Phillips Brothers, LP (limited partnership), Harry Simmons, and Ray Winstead were the own- ers of Kilby Brake Fisheries, LLC (limited liability company), a catfish farm in Mississippi. For nearly eight years, Winstead operated a hatchery for the firm. During this time, the hatchery had only two profitable years. Consequently, Winstead was fired. He filed a suit in a Mississippi state court against Kilby Brake and its other owners, alleging a "freeze-out." (A freeze-out occurs when a majority of the owners of a firm exclude other owners from certain benefits of participating in the firm.) Why was Winstead f catfish hatchery The defendants filed a counterclaim of theft. To support this claim, th the defendants asked the court to allow them to obtain documents W from Winstead regarding his finances, particularly income from his Winstead Cattle Company. The court refused this request. A jury b awarded Winstead more than $1.7 million, and the defendants ta appealed ti Si re ISSUE Were the defendants entitled to discovery of information con- cerning Winstead's finances to seek evidence to support their claims? DECISION Yes. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision to deny discovery of information on Winstead's out- side finances and remanded the case for a new trial