A shareholder’s derivative action alleging misappropriation and waste by the controlling shareholders, filed in 2009, was scheduled for trial earlier this month. About three weeks before trial, the controlling shareholders initiated a freeze-out merger for the specific purpose of defeating the suing shareholder’s standing to maintain the action. Did it work? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Permits Freeze-Out Merger on Eve of Trial of Shareholder Derivative Action
Minority Shareholder’s De Facto Liquidation Claim: Direct, Derivative, or Both?
Classifying a shareholder claim as direct or derivative has important consequences at the pleading stage and beyond. This week’s New York Business Divorce looks at a recent decision by Justice Melvin Schweitzer in which he concluded that the defendant majority shareholder’s alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, constituting a “de facto liquidation” of the company, could support dual direct and derivative claims.
Continue Reading Minority Shareholder’s De Facto Liquidation Claim: Direct, Derivative, or Both?
Court Dismisses Shareholder Derivative Action Due to Inconsistent Stock Ownership Claim in Prior Lawsuit
In prior litigation with his ex-wife, Gary Rubio swore he sold his shares in the family business to his father. When he brought a subsequent shareholder derivative action against his brother, he swore he didn’t, and proffered a company tax return to prove it. What’s a judge to do? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Dismisses Shareholder Derivative Action Due to Inconsistent Stock Ownership Claim in Prior Lawsuit
Dissolution Case Ensnares Buyer of Corporation’s Realty in Unauthorized Sale
Someday, if and when the facts come out in discovery, we’ll learn what really happened in the curious case of Matter of Hu (Lowbet Realty Corp.), 2012 NY Slip Op 22314 (Sup Ct Kings County Nov. 2, 2012), in which a slippery minority shareholder somehow managed to sell the corporation’s sole realty asset and abscond with $1.6 million sale proceeds in violation of court order in a pending liquidation proceeding brought by the majority shareholder. In the meantime, the buyer and the property manager now find themselves ensnared in the majority shareholder’s effort to rescind the sale and to recover damages.
The court’s decision in Lowbet, issued earlier this month by Brooklyn Commercial Division Justice Carolyn E. Demarest, tells a remarkable story of brazen disobedience of court order by one Margaret Liu, a 25% shareholder of Lowbet Realty Corp. The decision also sheds light on an interesting, rarely seen procedural question in corporate dissolution proceedings, namely, whether the court may adjudicate within such summary proceedings a shareholder’s claim for relief against a third party who is neither a shareholder nor officer/director of the corporation, rather than being forced to commence a separate, plenary action by ordinary summons and complaint.
Background
The petitioner, Shau Chung Hu, was the 100% owner of Lowbet when, in 1980, it purchased a 19-unit apartment building in Brooklyn. In 1985, Hu married Margaret Liu and gave her a 25% stock interest in Lowbet. Mr. Hu and Ms. Liu separated in 1995, at which time Mr. Hu went to China where he has resided ever since, leaving Ms. Liu in full control over Lowbet.
Continue Reading Dissolution Case Ensnares Buyer of Corporation’s Realty in Unauthorized Sale
Case Illustrates Power of Constructive Trust to Establish Stock Ownership
The equitable remedy of constructive trust comes to the rescue of a minority shareholder in a family-owned business in Quadrozzi v. Estate of Quadrozzi, decided last week by the Appellate Division, Second Department. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Case Illustrates Power of Constructive Trust to Establish Stock Ownership
Summer Shorts: Liquidating Receiver’s Authority to Compel Share Redemption and Other Recent Decisions of Interest
This week’s New York Business Divorce offers some “summer shorts” consisting of summaries of three recent decisions of interest including two by Justice Timothy Driscoll and another by Justice David Schmidt, featuring disputes over a liquidating receiver’s sale of the dissolved corporation’s real property and the requirements for pleading derivative claims.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Liquidating Receiver’s Authority to Compel Share Redemption and Other Recent Decisions of Interest
Appellate Decision in Partnership Dispute Clarifies Distinction Between Direct and Derivative Claims
Derivative claims seeking recovery on behalf of the business entity frequently are brought in liitgation among the business’s co-owners. Often they are combined with direct claims seeking individual redress. A decision last week by a Manhattan appellate panel in Yudell v. Gilbert, featuring a signed opinion by Justice Karla Moskowitz, adopts Delaware’s approach to distinguish direct from derivative claims, which is crucial in determining whether the plaintiff must satisfy the requirement of pre-suit demand upon the entity’s controlling body. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading Appellate Decision in Partnership Dispute Clarifies Distinction Between Direct and Derivative Claims
Anesthesiology Practice Undergoes “Legal Equivalent of a Proctology Exam” in Shareholder Dispute
This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a fascinating post-trial decision last month by Justice Emily Pines in which the court resolved competing claims by a medical practice and one of its members who was expelled in the aftermath of a contentious acquisition of an ambulatory surgery center. You won’t want to miss it.
Continue Reading Anesthesiology Practice Undergoes “Legal Equivalent of a Proctology Exam” in Shareholder Dispute
Can a Member of a Member of an LLC Sue to Dissolve the LLC?
By statute a member can seek judicial dissolution of an LLC, but can a member of a member seek dissolution by way of a derivative claim under Tzolis v. Wolff? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce featuring Justice Kornreich’s recent decision in JG Club Holdings, LLC v. Jacaranda Holdings, LLC.
Continue Reading Can a Member of a Member of an LLC Sue to Dissolve the LLC?
Family Feud Highlights Hurdles to Derivative Actions Against Close Corporation Directors
A lawsuit among siblings who co-own a business that owns and operates a boat yard is fodder for an interesting decision earlier this month by Suffolk County Commercial Division Justice Elizabeth Emerson in Gillette v. Sembler. The decision, which addresses the requirement for pre-suit demand for derivative claims, is featured in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Family Feud Highlights Hurdles to Derivative Actions Against Close Corporation Directors