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
Dissolution Defenses
The Worst of Both Worlds: Untimely Buyout Election Yields Full Merits Hearing and Huge Bond

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a rare decision considering whether to grant an untimely BCL 1118 buyout election and the unsavory consequence of the respondent’s delay: imposition of a million dollar bond.
Continue Reading The Worst of Both Worlds: Untimely Buyout Election Yields Full Merits Hearing and Huge Bond
Dueling Dissolution Petitions Beget Dissolution Without Consideration of Alternate Remedies


Can two contested dissolution petitions—one by each 50% shareholder based on the other’s alleged misconduct—yield a shortcut to uncontested dissolution? See what the Second Department has to say in this week’s post.
Continue Reading Dueling Dissolution Petitions Beget Dissolution Without Consideration of Alternate Remedies
The Evidenceless Petition to Dissolve
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, learn the tough lesson for the dissolution petitioner who states sufficient grounds to dissolve but fails to prove it with evidence accompanying the petition.
Continue Reading The Evidenceless Petition to Dissolve
Anti-Dissolution Provisions and Public Policy

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the history and development of case law in New York over the past 25 years holding potentially void as against public policy provisions in partnership, shareholders, and operating agreements barring closely-held business owners from petitioning courts to dissolve the entity.
Continue Reading Anti-Dissolution Provisions and Public Policy
Holes in Shotgun Buy-Sell Agreement Keep Deadlock Dissolution Petition Alive

Does an LLC’s member’s pulling the trigger on a shotgun buy-sell agreement foreclose a petition for deadlock-based dissolution? Not if the members can’t agree on the terms of the sale, holds Vice Chancellor Slights. …
Continue Reading Holes in Shotgun Buy-Sell Agreement Keep Deadlock Dissolution Petition Alive
Court Rejects Oppressed Shareholder’s Bid for Dissolution or Buy-Out, Finds Money Damages Sufficient
Not all misconduct by majority shareholders is worthy of dissolution or a compelled buy-out. The Court’s broad power under BCL 1104-a to craft appropriate remedies also includes the power to award money damages, and dissolution may not be appropriate where the alleged shareholder oppression was a discrete, one-time transaction.
Continue Reading Court Rejects Oppressed Shareholder’s Bid for Dissolution or Buy-Out, Finds Money Damages Sufficient
Resignation: Antidote for Internal Dissention and Deadlock?

Under what circumstances, if at all, does resignation of one member of a two-member board of directors eliminate “deadlock” and “internal dissention” as an available grounds for corporate judicial dissolution? In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a recent ruling by Justice Andrea Masley on that important question.
Continue Reading Resignation: Antidote for Internal Dissention and Deadlock?
Court Looks to Partnership Law in Ruling Against Petitioner’s Status as LLC Member

Courtesy of a recent decision by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Leon Ruchelsman, this week’s New York Business Divorce examines a case in which the court dismissed a petition for judicial dissolution of an LLC after finding that the petitioner failed to show he possessed a membership interest.
Continue Reading Court Looks to Partnership Law in Ruling Against Petitioner’s Status as LLC Member
Siblings Battle Over Spoils from Sale of Family-Owned Business
The sale of a family-owned business triggers a dissolution petition over the contested disposition of the sale proceeds, leading to a noteworthy decision earlier this month by Justice Richard M. Platkin. Get the story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Siblings Battle Over Spoils from Sale of Family-Owned Business