In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the latest chapter in a long-running litigation saga between the son and daughter of artist Peter Max fighting for control of their family-owned corporation.
Continue Reading Principles of Fiduciary Deference: The Business Judgment Rule and Exculpatory Clauses
The Evidenceless Petition to Dissolve
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, learn the tough lesson for the dissolution petitioner who states sufficient grounds to dissolve but fails to prove it with evidence accompanying the petition.
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Binding Nonsignatories to Arbitration Agreements
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a beleaguered plaintiff stuck between a rock and a hard place, with some claims arbitrable, but others not.
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Anti-Dissolution Provisions and Public Policy
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the history and development of case law in New York over the past 25 years holding potentially void as against public policy provisions in partnership, shareholders, and operating agreements barring closely-held business owners from petitioning courts to dissolve the entity.
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Valuation Decision Finds LLC “Worthless, Worthless, Worthless”
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about an unusual business valuation decision in a breach of contract case rendered by a court solely on papers pitting an expert against layperson, with the layperson successfully persuading the Court the entity had no value.
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Defendant Dissolves Mid-Lawsuit: What’s the Creditor’s Remedy?
This week’s New York Business Divorce involves an unusual procedural motion by a plaintiff to convert its lawsuit from a plenary action to a special proceeding under Section 1008 of the Business Corporation Law to adjudicate an individual’s shareholder’s liability for the corporation’s alleged breaches of contract and torts. May plaintiffs use BCL 1008 as an alternative to a veil piercing claim? Can corporate creditors use BCL 1008 to intervene in a judicial dissolution proceeding? Learn the answers in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Defendant Dissolves Mid-Lawsuit: What’s the Creditor’s Remedy?
The Outer Limits of LLC Indemnification: Michael Cohen v Trump Organization
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we tackle one of the most spectacular and well-publicized business falling-outs of modern times: Michael D. Cohen’s departure from the Trump Organization LLC, his resulting criminal conviction, and his cooperation with the Federal Government’s various investigations into activities surrounding former President Trump J. Trump. As an alleged former officer of the Trump Organization, Cohen sued the company for indemnification under its operating agreement for millions of dollars in legal fees resulting from the sprawling array of civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings against him. Learn how Cohen’s claims were resolved in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading The Outer Limits of LLC Indemnification: Michael Cohen v Trump Organization
#MeToo and Business Divorce: The Flip Side
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a recent appeals court decision in which an elderly male business founder alleged he was ousted from the company and his reputation smeared based upon false allegations of sexual harassment allegedly solicited by a hostile male CEO. Do these allegations equate to a viable claim for breach of fiduciary duty against the CEO? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Cooked or Raw? Enforceability of Partly Signed Operating Agreements
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a recurring problem with LLC operating agreements: enforceability of the writing when it is unexecuted or partially executed. A growing body of case law finds such agreements at least potentially enforceable absent an expression of intent to the contrary. Read about that issue, and related issues of due execution of operating agreements, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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The Doctrine of Tax Estoppel in Ownership Status Disputes
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the history and development of the doctrine of tax estoppel, including two strands of competing case law emanating from a pair of New York State Court of Appeals decisions reaching opposite conclusions about the extent to which one may prove ownership status in a closely-held business based upon estoppel.
Continue Reading The Doctrine of Tax Estoppel in Ownership Status Disputes