2016

The Appellate Division, Second Department, last week decided three appeals in the same business divorce case, addressing important issues concerning claims for LLC dissolution, equitable buyout, and use of company monies for legal fees defending dissolution proceedings. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading One Parking Lot, Two Brothers, Three Decisions

The LLC majority members in Bonanni v. Horizons Investors Corp., were ordered to pay the piper in a post-trial decision earlier this month by Justice Elizabeth Emerson in a 10-year old case, finding that they had converted the plaintiff’s minority membership interest. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading A Decade Later, LLC’s Majority Members Pay The Price For Converting Minority Member’s Interest

Justice Alan Scheinkman’s highly detailed, 33-page decision last week in Verghetta v Lawlor, valuing a minority interest in two LLCs that own and operate Planet Fitness health clubs, is must reading for lawyers and business appraisers who handle fair value contests. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Threading the Fair-Value Needle: Court Finds Major Flaws in Both Sides’ Appraisals in Arriving at Its Own Value

A longstanding inter-departmental rift was healed last week when the Appellate Division, First Department, issued a decision disavowing one of its own precedents and aligning itself with Second and Third Department decisions holding that New York courts lack jurisdiction to order dissolution of foreign business entities. Read about this important ruling in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading A Split No More: First Department Agrees, No Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dissolve Foreign Business Entities

New York Business Divorce this week inaugurates Winter Case Notes, offering synopses of three recent decisions by Supreme Court Justices Richard Platkin, Stephen Bucaria, and Cynthia Kern in cases involving the removal of an LLC manager and other issues of interest to business divorce professionals.
Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: LLC Manager Removal and Other Recent Decisions of Interest

This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a recent decision by Justice Richard Platkin in a case involving a fractured family-owned business where the deaths of two shareholders before and during litigation triggered a consequential change in control. …
Continue Reading Death of a Shareholder

For the second week in a row, New York Business Divorce examines the always controversial discount for lack of marketability in fair value contests, this time focusing on a recent New Jersey appellate decision applying a 25% DLOM despite strong evidence of liquidity. …
Continue Reading Court Applies 25% Marketability Discount Despite “Strong Indicators of Liquidity”