Buyout

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This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the buy-out valuation contest going into its third year in Sassower v. 975 Stewart Avenue Associates, LLC, on the occasion of a recent decision by Justice Ira B. Warshawsky rejecting the parties’ dueling motions for summary judgment on the question whether the mortgage balance should be deducted from the subject company’s sole real estate asset in determining the purchase price of the minority interest being valued.
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Continue Reading Sassower Case Illustrates Anew the Price of Poorly Drafted Buy-Sell Agreement

This week and next, New York Business Divorce examines two recent First Department decisions clarifying the standards for overcoming general releases given in the context of transactions with fiduciaries in closely held business entities, where the plaintiffs allege that the fiduciary fraudulently induced them to enter into the transaction. This week’s focus is on Centro Empresarial Cempresa S.A. v. America Movil S.A.B. de C.V., 2010 NY Slip Op 04719 (1st Dept June 3, 2010).
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Continue Reading Recent Appellate Rulings Clarify Standards for Challenging Releases Given to Fiduciaries of Closely Held Business Entities: Part 1

This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits an important topic, involving mandatory stock buybacks triggered by the filing of a dissolution petition, prompted by a recent decision by an upstate appellate court in Matter of Stevens (Allied Builders, Inc.).
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Continue Reading Appellate Court Rejects Mandatory Stock Buyback Triggered by Dissolution Petition

Many shareholder and operating agreements provide redemption rights at a price stated in an appended certificate of value which is supposed to be updated periodically but often is not. A recent decision by Justice Stephen A. Bucaria addresses potential liability when the certificate of value is not timely updated. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading The Stakes Just Went Up for Failing to Update Certificate of Value

The Appellate Division, Second Department last week affirmed the key rulings by Justice Ira Warshawsky in the Murphy v. U.S. Dredging valuation case, including his application of a marketability discount to entire enterprise value rather than limiting it to good will. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Ruling on Valuation Discounts for Marketability, Built-In Gains Tax Ends Rift Among New York Appellate Courts

Stock valuation junkies can get their fix in this week’s New York Business Divorce, as it revisits the issue of discounts for BIG — as in built-in capital gains taxes — in the appraisal of C corporation shares under the fair value standard, prompted by a decision last week by a Manhattan appeals court in a case called Matter of Mandelbaum.
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Continue Reading Dissenting Shareholder Stock Appraisal Triggered by Freeze-Out Merger Raises Issue of Post-Merger Tax Consequences for C Corporation with Built-In Gains

Last week the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed a lower court’s order directing an “equitable” buyout of an LLC member who petitioned for dissolution, notwithstanding the omission of a buyout remedy in the LLC Law. Read about this important ruling in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Appeals Court Upholds Equitable Buyout Remedy in LLC Dissolution

It’s hard to imagine a more challenging fact pattern and set of legal issues for a law school exam than the one presented in real life in the recently decided case, Pappas v. Tzolis, involving a buyout among LLC members followed by the purchasing member’s sale of the LLC’s asset to an outside buyer for a price far in excess of the buyout, followed by a lawsuit by the former members claiming they were bamboozled by the buying member. Read all about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Does Operating Agreement’s Clause Permitting Competitive Activities Eliminate Member’s Fiduciary Duty to Disclose Negotiations to Sell LLC’s Assets Before Buying Out Co-Members?

Case law involving judicial dissolution of LLCs is still in its infancy. A recent Delaware Chancery Court decision takes another small developmental step, while also highlighting the need for operating agreement buy-sell provisions that stand a reasonable chance of avoiding business divorce litigation. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Two-Member LLC Operating Agreement Contains Recipe for Dissension and Litigation