Common Law Dissolution

A recent decision by Justice Stephen A. Bucaria in a common-law dissolution case prompts a look at the rules governing use of company funds to pay legal fees in dissolution cases. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading The Prohibition Against Using Company Funds for Legal Fees in Dissolution Proceedings

A 2-against-1 battle between sibling co-owners of a third-generation family business leads to an interesting decision by Justice Duane Hart concerning a disputed stock buyback, highlighted in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Rejects Majority’s Gambit to Compel Buyback of Shares in Family-Owned Business

A shareholder dispute spanning seven years of litigation in New York and Delaware came to an end last week with the latter state’s highest court’s refusal to rehear the case. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights two of the many issues raised along the way: whether Delaware law recognizes a common-law claim for minority shareholder oppression, and the validity of a reverse stock split and cash-out of the minority shareholder that deprived her of standing to pursue derivative claims.
Continue Reading Business Divorce Case Reaches End of Long and Winding Road

Equitable dissolution of LLCs may not sound familiar to business divorce mavens, but that could change after last week’s decision by Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Chancery Court in a case involving the Tom James custom apparel company. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Delaware Chancery Court Endorses Equitable Dissolution of LLC

In the face of Second Department case law rejecting subject-matter jurisdiction over statutory dissolution claims involving foreign business entities, the plaintiffs in Bonavita v Savenergy, Inc. argued to Justice Timothy Driscoll that he nonetheless could hear a claim for common-law dissolution of a Delaware corporation. Did they succeed? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Declines Jurisdiction Over Claim for Common-Law Dissolution of Delaware Corporation

On the heels of the Zelouf and AriZona Iced Tea cases, this week’s New York Business Divorce highlights yet another interesting fair value contest, decided by Justice Carolyn Demarest, involving a battle of forensic accounting and valuation experts over the alleged skimming of millions in cash receipts at a restaurant.
Continue Reading Restaurant’s Cash-Skimming Majority Owners Forced to Buy Out Minority Shareholder or Face Dissolution

This week’s New York Business Divorce features an important decision last month by Justice Vito DeStefano in which he upheld a claim for advancement of legal fees incurred by a close corporation minority shareholder, director and former officer, who initiated suit against the controlling shareholder, in defending counterclaims asserted in the name and right of the company.
Continue Reading Court Upholds Former Officer’s Right to Seek Indemnity and Advancement in Intra-Company Dispute

Common-law dissolution makes another rare appearance in a recent appellate ruling by the First Department in Gjuraj v. Uplift Elevator, which may be the only reported common-law dissolution case in which a plaintiff won at trial. Don’t miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Successful Common-Law Dissolution Case Survives Appeal, But Remedy Limited to Buy-Out