This week’s New York Business Divorce goes to the movies, sort of, as it looks at a recent Delaware Chancery Court decision granting a former LLC manager’s claim for advancement of legal expenses, in which the court drew comparison between the defendant’s losing argument and a scene from the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs.
Continue Reading When Will Then Be Now? Court Construes LLC Agreement’s Advancement Provision With An Assist From Spaceballs
Summer Shorts: Partnership Interest Reduction and Other Recent Decisions of Interest
This 6th annual edition of Summer Shorts presents brief commentary on three decisions of interest in business divorce cases, including a dispute among LLP partners over the reduction of one partner’s interest; disqualification of counsel in an LLC dissolution case; and a Delaware books-and-records case involving phantom stock.
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Business Divorce, Delaware Style
The Delaware Court of Chancery plays an outsized role not only in the public company arena, but also in the field of business divorce and other disputes among co-owners of closely held corporations, partnerships, and LLCs. This week’s New York Business Divorce sets the stage and invites you to listen to a podcast interview of Delaware lawyers Kurt Heyman and Pete Ladig discussing litigation of business divorce cases in the Delaware Chancery Court.
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LLC Case Notes: Member Expulsion, Withdrawal, and LLC Purpose
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a trio of recent decisions involving LLC disputes concerning the membership rights of the estate of a deceased member, the intended purpose of the LLC as the basis for a dissolution claim, and the power to expel a member.
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A Split No More: First Department Agrees, No Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dissolve Foreign Business Entities
A longstanding inter-departmental rift was healed last week when the Appellate Division, First Department, issued a decision disavowing one of its own precedents and aligning itself with Second and Third Department decisions holding that New York courts lack jurisdiction to order dissolution of foreign business entities. Read about this important ruling in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading A Split No More: First Department Agrees, No Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dissolve Foreign Business Entities
Unraveling the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing: Guest Post by Professor Daniel Kleinberger
This week’s New York Business Divorce features a guest post by Daniel S. Kleinberger, Emeritus Professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law and renowned expert on business organizations. His topic: the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing under Delaware law.
Continue Reading Unraveling the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing: Guest Post by Professor Daniel Kleinberger
Recent Articles Highlight Dissolution of Foreign Entities and Delaware LLC Litigation
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights two recently published articles on two topics of great interest to business divorce practitioners: (1) whether courts of one state have jurisdiction to dissolve business entities formed in another state, and (2) the role of equity in Delaware LLC litigation.
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Business Divorce Case Reaches End of Long and Winding Road
A shareholder dispute spanning seven years of litigation in New York and Delaware came to an end last week with the latter state’s highest court’s refusal to rehear the case. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights two of the many issues raised along the way: whether Delaware law recognizes a common-law claim for minority shareholder oppression, and the validity of a reverse stock split and cash-out of the minority shareholder that deprived her of standing to pursue derivative claims.
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Can LLC Agreement Be Enforced Against Member Who Doesn’t Sign It?
You may be surprised to learn that, according to a ruling last month in Shapiro v Ettenson, a minority member of a New York LLC that initially had no written operating agreement is bound by a written operating agreement subsequently adopted by the majority members, notwithstanding the minority member’s refusal to sign the agreement. Get the detailed story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Summer Shorts: Member Expulsion and Other Recent Decisions of Interest
Traditions are good. This blog has two annual traditions. First, at the end of each year I write a post listing the year’s top ten business divorce decisions. Second, each August I offer readers who are (or ought to be) on summer vacation some light reading in the form of three, relatively short case summaries.
So here we are in what’s been a particularly felicitous August weather-wise (at least here in the Northeast U.S.), with another edition of Summer Shorts. This edition’s summaries feature two out-of-state cases — one from Florida involving expulsion of an LLC member and one from Delaware involving the valuation upon redemption of an LLC member’s interest — and a New York appellate court decision involving the removal of a limited partnership’s general partner.
The Anti-Chiu: Florida Court Upholds LLC Member’s Expulsion
Froonjian v Ultimate Combatant, LLC, No. 4D14-662 [Fla. Dist. Ct. App. May 27, 2015]. The Florida intermediate appellate court’s ruling in Froonjian makes for a fascinating contrast with New York case law represented most prominently by the Second Department’s 2010 decision in Chiu v Chiu holding that, absent express authorization in the LLC’s operating agreement, a member’s involuntary expulsion is not permitted. Going 180° in the other direction, the Froonjian court upheld the majority members’ expulsion of a minority member from a Florida LLC that had no operating agreement, reasoning that the Florida default statute vesting all decision-making authority in the members acting by majority vote encompasses the authority to expel a member.
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