Wells Financial Corp., each of the current members of its board, and Eau Claire, Wis.-based Citizens Community Bancorp Inc. are facing a lawsuit that seeks to block the pending deal between the two companies.

The putative stockholder class action and derivative complaint was filed by purported Wells stockholder Paul Parshall in the District Court of Faribault County, Minn., on March 22.

It asserts, among other things, that the director defendants breached their fiduciary duties by initiating a process to sell Wells that undervalues the Wells, Minn.-based company; and that Wells and Citizens aided and abetted the purported breaches of fiduciary duty.

The defendants believe the lawsuit is meritless. They intend to vigorously defend against the allegations.