If an oppressed, frozen-out minority shareholder is going to sue for judicial dissolution, chances are they’re going to do it within the applicable six-year statute of limitations. This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a recent decision where the shareholder claiming oppression waited at least 10 years to sue.
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Dissolution Defenses
A Cross-Country Road Trip of Elections to Purchase in Dissolution Proceedings


When a shareholder petitions for dissolution, many states have statutes allowing the corporation to respond by buying out the complaining shareholder. This week’s post takes a look at several recent decisions concerning buyout elections across the country.
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A Litigation Odyssey
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. …
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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.
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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.
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