Sólstafir at Supreme court of Iceland

Hello friends.
Many of you my non-Icelandic friends have been asking me about news articles in Icelandic that have been floating around Facebook for the last couple of days.
So let me explain.

The Reykjavík District Court dismissed the case that I filed against Aðalbjörn Tryggvason on behalf of Svalbard Music Group ehf. (Ltd.) (see previous blog).
The case was dismissed on a technical formality. I am convinced that the court’s decision is neither right nor just and it’s very narrow interpretation of a certain law provision does not apply.
A board meeting and a shareholder’s meeting the company decided that a) Aðalbjörn Tryggvason was to be released from his duties as the executive director of Svalbard Music Group for his gross misconduct and b) that Svalbard Music Group would sue Aðalbjörn Tryggvason for illegally seizing control over and ownership of the company’s main asset, the trademark Sólstafir and the band’s business, and for hollowing the company out from the inside.
Both the meetings were legally convened and we have receipts that show that both Aðalbjörn and Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson (an alternate on the board) received the invitations but both of them chose not to show up nor send a lawyer in their stead nor explain their absence in any way. They simply ignored both the meetings.
The Reykjavík District Court finds the fact that they simply ignored legally convened board and shareholder’s meetings makes the conclusion of the meetings illegal for the fact that only half of the board’s members (one out of two) showed up but according to the court’s interpretation more than half have to be present, even though I hold the odd vote as chairman of the board.
This sets a really dangerous example for private companies where there are only two persons on the board, as is very often the case. This simply means that a person can literally hold a private company hostage if he doesn’t like that pre advertised agenda of the meeting (as is required by law) by simply not showing up.

This decision of the Reykjavík District Court totally ignores Aðalbjörn’s gross misconduct and the fact that he hollowed the company out from the inside by using the company’s credit cards to the max but then pocketing all the income himself, leaving the company in debt. One would think that this would be illegal under Icelandic laws adhering to private companies and as stated before this sets an extremely dangerous example for other private companies and therefore we will appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Iceland. More info on that later.

To end this blog I would like to ask you to share this and also think about what you are supporting when you go to a concert or buy merchandise from any band. What kind of behavior are you condoning?

I apologize if any of the legal terms are wrongly translated to English, I am neither a lawyer nor a linguistic expert, only a dude that wanted to make music.

Thank you!
Guðmundur Óli Pálmason