Business valuation junkies, rejoice! This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the Giaimo case, a bitter family business dispute being litigated in Manhattan Supreme Court, following a decision last week by Justice Marcy Friedman concerning a fair value determination by Referee Louis Crespo of a stock interest in two real estate holding “C” corporations, in which the discounts for lack of marketability and for built-in gains taxes take center stage.
Continue Reading Court Rejects Marketability Discount, Applies “Murphy Discount” for Built-In Gains, in Determining Fair Value of Shares in Real Estate Holding Corporations
Peter A. Mahler
Peter A. Mahler is a litigator focusing on business divorce cases involving dissolution and other disputes among co-owners of closely held business entities, such as limited liability companies, corporations, and partnerships. Peter represents both control and non-control owners, often involving family-owned businesses. Frequently counseling business owners prior to litigation, he advises them of their rights and also assists in designing and negotiating an amicable separation between parties. Peter’s counsel helps avoid litigation by means of a buy-out, sale, or division of business assets.
Bonding a Fair Value Award: When Can the Court Require It?
When the company or majority shareholder elects to purchase a dissolution petitioner’s shares for fair value, how can the selling shareholder be sure the purchaser will be able to pay the eventual award? The statute offers relief in the form of a bonding requirement, as illustrated in a recent case decided by Nassau County Commercial Division Justice Stephen A. Bucaria. Get the story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Judicial Estoppel + Dead-Man’s Statute = No Standing to Seek Judicial Dissolution of Close Corporation
This week’s New York Business Divorce tells a cautionary tale of a business partnership between a lawyer and his client turned sour, as revealed in a recent decision by Nassau County Acting Supreme Court Justice Thomas Adams in Matter of Gleich (Iceland, Inc.) where the court dismissed a dissolution petition for lack of standing.
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Continue Reading Judicial Estoppel + Dead-Man’s Statute = No Standing to Seek Judicial Dissolution of Close Corporation
Lawyers Caught in the Crossfire of Shareholder Disputes
Getting sued by your client’s adversary is an occasional occupational hazard for attorneys in any field, but perhaps more so for attorneys who represent closely held companies that fall into the business divorce maelstrom, as evidenced by Nassau County Justice Denise Sher’s recent decision in Aranki v. Goldman & Associates. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Court Sends Everyone Home Empty Handed in Bitter Business Breakup
This week’s New York Business Divorce features an interesting decision by Commercial Division Justice Emily Pines in Nastasi v. Carlino, where she sent both sides home empty handed in a bitter shareholder dispute with misconduct on both sides.
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Continue Reading Court Sends Everyone Home Empty Handed in Bitter Business Breakup
Chris Mercer Tackles Statutory Fair Value
Chris Mercer, one of the country’s leading authorities on business valuation, has written a series of important and helpful articles on the statutory fair value standard used by courts in dissenting shareholder appraisals and oppressed minority shareholder buy-out proceedings. Get a taste in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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New Decisions of Interest by Nassau County’s Commercial Division Judges
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights the contributions of the Nassau County Commercial Division Justices Stephen Bucaria, Ira Warshawsky and Timothy Driscoll to the body of business divorce case law, also featuring three of their recent decisions.
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Continue Reading New Decisions of Interest by Nassau County’s Commercial Division Judges
Dissecting the Order to Show Cause in Corporate Dissolution Proceedings
The order to show cause is a critical document drafted by the petitioner’s counsel for signature by the judge when initiating a corporate dissolution proceeding. This week’s New York Business Divorce offers a drafting primer using some illustrative forms.
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Court Decision Weds Business Divorce with Matrimonial Divorce
In a rare intersection of matrimonial and business divorce, last week the Appellate Division, Third Department, upheld the dismissal of an LLC dissolution proceeding brought by one spouse on the ground it was superseded by the other spouse’s prior-filed divorce action. But wait a minute; how can the court simply disregard the LLC as a separate entity? Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Court Decision Weds Business Divorce with Matrimonial Divorce
Disqualification of Counsel in Business Divorce Proceedings
The rough and tumble of business divorce meets attorney ethics in this week’s New York Business Divorce which highlights a pair of decisions by Justices Elizabeth H. Emerson and Timothy S. Driscoll involving the issue of attorney disqualification in judicial dissolution proceedings of closely held businesses.
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