2019

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a wild tale of a settlement achieved, settlement spurned, and a litigant threatened with incarceration for contempt in an intensely bitter, nine-year battle between two brothers over their Manhattan-based real property LLC.
Continue Reading A Pig in a Poke: The Rollercoaster Kadosh Settlement Litigation

Matthew Donovan takes the helm in this week’s New York Business Divorce, writing about a recent Delaware Chancery Court decision finding that certain, shall we say, unusual behavior by a New York-based company’s co-founder, president and director breached fiduciary duty.
Continue Reading Throwing Grenades and Casting Plagues Upon Your Fellow Directors: A Lesson in Fiduciary (Ir)responsibility

If you bring a business divorce case, do you unwittingly expose yourself to a countersuit for defamation? A recent decision addresses that question in the context of withdrawn petitions by two brothers against their uncle to dissolve three family-owned businesses in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Sue for Dissolution – Get Sued for Defamation?

This week’s New York Business Divorce offers its annual Winter Case Notes with synopses of half a dozen recent decisions in business divorce cases involving minority shareholder oppression, books and records proceedings, and more.
Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: Oppression of the “Gifted” Minority Shareholder and Other Recent Decisions of Interest

This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights an important decision denying a dissolution petition brought by the 50% member of a realty-holding LLC on the ground that his own deliberate conduct in breach of the operating agreement created the conditions alleged as a basis for dissolution.
Continue Reading The Bad-Faith Petitioner Defense Makes Successful Debut in LLC Dissolution Case

You won’t want to miss this week’s New York Business Divorce featuring a recent decision in which the court found minority shareholder oppression based on “disrespectful and unfairly disproportionate treatment of a female shareholder by the male majority in a closely held corporation.”
Continue Reading Minority Shareholder Oppression in the #MeToo Era

When shareholders enter into a written agreement governing the terms for a buyout of their stock, to what extent must courts hold a hearing to determine if the agreement provides an “adequate” alternative to dissolution? In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a Manhattan appeals court considers this important question in the context of an epic, 12-year litigation over the value of shares of stock in a Bronx funeral home.
Continue Reading A Fresh Take on an Old Doctrine – The “Adequate, Alternative Remedy” to Dissolution