This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a recent decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Andrea Masley dismissing a petition to dissolve a realty holding corporation brought under the rarely used Section 1104 (c) of the Business Corporation Law for failure to hold board elections.
Continue Reading Dissolve for Failure to Elect a Board? Better Demand an Election First
Does an LLC Member Have Absolute Power to Withdraw from the LLC?
“Can I withdraw?” is a question frequently posed by unhappy LLC members to their legal counsel. This week’s New York Business Divorce features a recap of a highly informative conversation on that topic conducted on the Listserv of the ABA Business Law Section’s Committee on LLCs, Partnerships and Unincorporated Entities.
Continue Reading Does an LLC Member Have Absolute Power to Withdraw from the LLC?
“Rank Pretext Will Not Do”: Court Enjoins Freeze-Out Merger With No Corporate Benefit
“Rank pretext will not do.” With those words, a Manhattan judge preliminarily enjoined a freeze-out merger in the absence of credible evidence that the merger advanced a general corporate purpose. Get the full story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading “Rank Pretext Will Not Do”: Court Enjoins Freeze-Out Merger With No Corporate Benefit
Disputes Over Member Status Continue to Roil the LLC Waters
What is it about LLCs that spawn so many lawsuits over member status and percentage interests? This week’s New York Business Divorce may not have the answer, but it does highlight a trio of recent court decisions involving disputed ownership claims.
Continue Reading Disputes Over Member Status Continue to Roil the LLC Waters
Business Judgment Rule Prevails in Fight Over Liquidation Plan for Dissolved Madoff Feeder Fund
It’s been almost 12 years since Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme exploded, inflicting billions in losses on thousands of investors. This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a first-impression ruling by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Joel M. Cohen in which he upheld a plan of liquidation of a dissolved Madoff feeder fund organized as an LLC.
Continue Reading Business Judgment Rule Prevails in Fight Over Liquidation Plan for Dissolved Madoff Feeder Fund
Consider Whether Your Buy-Sell Provision is a Call Option Before Pulling the Trigger
This week’s New York Business Divorce, authored by Peter J. Sluka, looks at a first-impression decision by the Delaware Chancery Court in which the court characterized a shareholder buy-out provision as a call option, with consequences for the company’s attempt to revoke its initiation of the buy-out.
Continue Reading Consider Whether Your Buy-Sell Provision is a Call Option Before Pulling the Trigger
A Trio of Recent Business Divorce Decisions by Manhattan Commercial Division Judges
The months-long shutdown of New York courts due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the judges of the Manhattan Commercial Division from issuing a number of noteworthy decisions in business divorce cases. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights three of them.
Continue Reading A Trio of Recent Business Divorce Decisions by Manhattan Commercial Division Judges
This Single-Appraiser Buy-Sell Agreement Was Asking for Trouble
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a recent decision by Justice Joel M. Cohen in a fascinating, high stakes case involving an allegedly “rigged” appraisal pursuant to a repurchase option in an LLC agreement.
Continue Reading This Single-Appraiser Buy-Sell Agreement Was Asking for Trouble
$30 Million Appraisal of Plumbing Fixtures “Marketeer” Goes Down the Drain at Fair Value Hearing
Was the company worth $30 million or $6 million? That was the question recently decided by Justice Vito M. DeStefano who presided over a 7-day fair-value appraisal hearing in Magarik v. Kraus USA, Inc. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading $30 Million Appraisal of Plumbing Fixtures “Marketeer” Goes Down the Drain at Fair Value Hearing
Member Liquidity, Default Rules, and the Corporate-ization of LLCs: A Conversation with Dean Donald J. Weidner
This week’s New York Business Divorce features my podcast interview of Donald J. Weidner, Dean Emeritus of Florida State University College of Law, about his forthcoming article in The Business Lawyer entitled LLC Default Rules Are Hazardous to Member Liquidity.
Continue Reading Member Liquidity, Default Rules, and the Corporate-ization of LLCs: A Conversation with Dean Donald J. Weidner