Access to Books and Records

This weeks New York Business Divorce proudly presents the 13th annual edition of Summer Shorts featuring brief commentary on five recent decisions of interest in business divorce cases in the New York courts.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Equitable Contribution, Stock Redemption, and Other Recent Decisions of Interest

A pair of significant appellate decisions last week address the courts’ remedial powers concerning co-op and condominium board elections and access to the shareholder list for purposes of campaigning for board seats. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Appellate Rulings Endorse Courts’ Broad Remedial Powers Over Condo and Co-op Board Elections

This week’s post considers a duo of recent decisions concerning disputes between LLC members over the terms of their operating agreement.  In the first case, the court considered whether to enforce an operating agreement as written despite evidence that the parties actually intended a different deal.  In the second, the court considered whether to enforce an operating agreement where its buyout terms were grossly unfair.  The cases’ different outcomes highlight the outer limits of the parties’ freedom of contract in LLC operating agreements. 
Continue Reading The Operating Agreement Controls, Unless Public Policy Says Otherwise

Shareholders considering exercising their right to inspect the corporation’s books and records–particularly in the context of a valuation proceeding under BCL 1118 or 623–would be wise to consider Justice Platkin’s recent primer on different inspection rights and their correspondingly different scopes, conditions precedent, and required justifications.
Continue Reading Justice Platkin’s Primer on Shareholders’ Inspection Rights

Earlier this month the Connecticut Supreme Court handed down an important, first impression decision construing RULLCA’s provision granting members of manager-managed LLCs the right to inspect books and records. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading The Nutmeg State Out Front on Member Inspection Rights Under RULLCA

A corporation and a dissident shareholder enter into agreement where the dissident shareholder agrees to receive regular payments in exchange for staying away from the Company’s business. What happens when the outspoken shareholder dies? In Stile v C-Air Customhouse Brokers-Forwards, Inc., Index No. 656575/2020 [Sup Ct, New York County 2021], the New York County Supreme Court declined to dismiss a suit by the estate of a shareholder subject to a stay away settlement agreement on the grounds that the stay away obligations did not expressly apply to the shareholder’s successors.
Continue Reading Stay Away Settlement Between Closely-Held Corporation and Dissident Shareholder Goes Away Upon Shareholder’s Death

A bidding war 20 years ago over the purchase of maid’s quarters in a ritzy Park Avenue co-op. A series of co-op board rejections of a shareholder’s proposed sale of his apartment. A recent court decision denying a books-and-records petition. What’s the connection? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Bounces Books-and-Records Petition in Feud Over Park Avenue Co-op Board’s Rejection of Prospective Purchasers

This 10th annual edition of Summer Shorts presents brief commentary on four recent decisions of interest in business divorce cases in the New York courts along with a recent decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court upholding an unusual freeze-out remedy.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: For-Cause Termination of LLC Member and Other Decisions of Interest