Deadlock

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“Legally fascinating” is how the court, in a dispute between the owners of Newsweek, described the “two distinct lines” of case precedent concerning the ability of one 50% shareholder to bring suit in the company’s name against the wishes and interests of the other 50% shareholder. Read about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Can One 50% Shareholder Sue the Other in the Company Name on the Company Dollar? Answer: It Depends

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a multi-year litigation odyssey culminating in the statute-of-limitations dismissal of a claim for misappropriation of an alleged corporate opportunity to own land based upon the date of execution of the contract of sale rather than the closing of the real estate purchase.
Continue Reading A Litigation Odyssey

Two-member, 50/50 LLCs are natural fodder for deadlock. This week’s New York Business Divorce questions whether New York’s standard for LLC dissolution takes too narrow an approach to deadlock. …
Continue Reading Has the Time Come for New York to Follow Delaware and Officially Pronounce Deadlock as Ground for LLC Dissolution?

One of the more interesting defenses in judicial dissolution cases alleging deadlock is that the petitioner itself contrived or manufactured the deadlock for the purpose of achieving dissolution. It’s a defense long ago recognized in cases involving close corporations, and only more recently in cases involving LLCs, including a decision this month by the Delaware Chancery Court. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Contrived LLC Deadlock Doesn’t Cut the Delaware Dissolution Mustard

This week’s New York Business Divorce offers its annual Winter Case Notes with synopses of four noteworthy decisions by courts in New York and Iowa.
Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: Dissolution of Not-For-Profit Corporation and Other Decisions of Interest

The interaction between an LLC’s operating agreement and a subsequent, informal deal between the members raises difficult questions surrounding the enforceability of either agreement. In a recently-filed Manhattan Commercial Division case, the Court granted the plaintiff a preliminary injunction, signaling to the parties that the plaintiff was likely to succeed on his claim to enforce the informal deal notwithstanding arguably contrary provisions in the operating agreement. The case reminds us that the formality requirements of an LLC operating agreement may give way to an informal agreement when both LLC members manifest their intent to be bound by the informal agreement.
Continue Reading A Shotgun Buy-Sell Agreement and an Email Deal Walk into a Beachside Bar . . .

Can a shotgun turn into a minefield? The answer is “yes” judging from a recent decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Andrew Borrok finding a defective exercise of provisions in an LLC agreement for a deadlock-triggered shotgun buy-out. Read about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading LLC Member Pays the Price For Not Sticking to Deadlock-Breaking Script