This week in New York Business Divorce, read about yet another attempted bequest in a last will and testament of a valuable business interest foiled by a buy-sell provision in the entity’s contract. We’ll summarize some of the rules of law courts use to resolve the conflict.
Continue Reading A Gift Horse with Rotten Teeth: When Equity Bequests Violate Transfer Restrictions or Buy-Sell Agreements
Breach of Fiduciary Duty: A More “Lenient Standard” for Damages?
A torturously prolonged, 28-year litigation culminates in an important appellate decision affording plaintiffs suing for breach of fiduciary duty a more “lenient standard” for proving damages. Will other appeals courts do the same? Read about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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“Prevailing Party” Attorneys’ Fee Provisions
Contracts with “prevailing party” fee-shifting provisions offer the tantalizing, coveted prospect of the winner recovering attorneys’ fees from the loser in legal disputes over the contract’s breach. But when the parties bombard each other with legal claims, and neither recovers on much (or any) of them, the hard question of whether either side (or any side) “prevailed” can lead to years of litigation within litigation. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Dollars, Donuts, and Buy-Sell Options
This week’s New York Business Divorce touches on familiar themes. A bitter father-son dispute. A disagreement over whether to sell or keep the business. An expulsion and compelled buyout. Throw in a fistfight, criminal charges, and an alleged extortion in exchange for reduced criminal charges, and you’ve got one heck of a sordid story. There’s even a legal lesson about the importance of strict compliance with closing deadlines in buy-sell option agreements.
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Oral Joint Ventures: The Wild West of Business Associations
Oral joint venture agreements tend to be the murkiest, easiest to allege, and difficult to disprove of all closely-held business relations. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Limo Company Shareholders Can’t Hitch a Ride in Derivative Litigation
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the intervention rules and some of the challenges they pose for closely-held business owners hoping to intervene in derivative litigation.
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Business Divorce and Accountant Liability
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, learn how a son’s betrayal of his own mother while managing the famous Stardust Diner ensnared an accounting firm in claims of malpractice and aiding and abetting fraud for declining to inform the mother of the son’s financial misdeeds.
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Two Cases. Two Mammoth Fee Awards. Coup de Grâce or Pyrrhic Victory?
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the grand finale conclusion of two important cases previously featured on this blog, with massive affirmed attorneys’ fee awards in both, one by statute, one by contract.
Continue Reading Two Cases. Two Mammoth Fee Awards. Coup de Grâce or Pyrrhic Victory?
Rare as a Dodo: Bifurcation in Business Divorce Trials
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about an exceptionally rare find: a bifurcated jury trial in a business divorce dispute.
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The Flexible “For Cause” Standard for Director and Officer Removal
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a first-in-a-generation appeals court decision affirming a lower court’s removal of a corporate officer “for cause.”
Continue Reading The Flexible “For Cause” Standard for Director and Officer Removal