Buyout

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Insurance-funded buy-sell agreements among owners of closely held companies, when done right, provide financial security for the family of a deceased owner and continuity for the surviving owners. When done wrong, well, that’s another story, as illustrated in a case recently decided by Justice Timothy Driscoll highlighted in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading How Not to Create an Insurance-Funded Buy-Sell Agreement

Buy-sell agreements are commonly used to break fundamental deadlock in companies owned by 50/50 shareholders. This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a recent decision by Justice David Schmidt in Mintz v. Pazer in which he enforced an unusual buy-sell agreement that prompted a lawsuit over which side had the right to buy out the other. …
Continue Reading Court Enforces “Quick Draw” Buy-Sell Agreement in Suit Between 50/50 Shareholders

Pass-through tax entities including S corporations and LLCs can create personal tax liability on so-called phantom income, that is, undistributed net income allocated on Form K-1. A case recently decided by a Manhattan appeals court tells the tale of a selling shareholder’s costly failure to deal with the issue of phantom income in a stock buy-out agreement. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading Stock Redemption Agreement Forecloses Seller’s Suit for Tax Liability on Phantom Income

None too surprisingly, last week the Delaware Supreme Court in Blaustein v. Lord Baltimore Capital Corp. affirmed a Court of Chancery decision dismissing the contention that directors of closely held Delaware corporations have a common-law fiduciary duty to redeem the stock of a minority shareholder. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Delaware Supreme Court: No Duty to Buy Out Minority Stockholder

Rules of procedure can be a minefield for any litigation, including judicial dissolution proceedings. This week’s New York Business Divorce features a compilation of 10 of the most common procedural mistakes in business divorce cases. …
Continue Reading 10 Ways to Screw Up Your Business Divorce Case

This week’s New York Business Divorce features Part One of a two-part online interview of Claudia Landeo, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Alberta, and Kathryn Spier, Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, on their collaborative article forthcoming in the Yale Journal on Regulation entitled “Shotguns and Deadlocks.” The interview explores the article’s thesis, supported by economic theory and data from laboratory experiments, that courts should make greater use of the shotgun buy-out mechanism to resolve deadlock dissolution cases, and should assign the role of offeror to the better-informed owner. …
Continue Reading Interview With Professors Claudia Landeo and Kathryn Spier on Shotguns and Deadlocks: Part One

In Digirolomo v. Sugar LI, LLC, decided last month by Justice Stephen Bucaria, the court devised a novel solution in a lawsuit between LLC members, designed to bring about an equitable buy-out, by conditioning injunctive relief on the plaintiffs filing an amended complaint seeking dissolution. Don’t miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Novel Ruling in Lawsuit Over Capital Call Prods Parties to Equitable Buy-Out

Common-law dissolution makes another rare appearance in a recent appellate ruling by the First Department in Gjuraj v. Uplift Elevator, which may be the only reported common-law dissolution case in which a plaintiff won at trial. Don’t miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Successful Common-Law Dissolution Case Survives Appeal, But Remedy Limited to Buy-Out