This week’s New York Business Divorce touches on familiar themes. A bitter father-son dispute. A disagreement over whether to sell or keep the business. An expulsion and compelled buyout. Throw in a fistfight, criminal charges, and an alleged extortion in exchange for reduced criminal charges, and you’ve got one heck of a sordid story. There’s even a legal lesson about the importance of strict compliance with closing deadlines in buy-sell option agreements.
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Expulsion and Removal
Battle for Company Control Turns on Conflicting Copies of Operating Agreement Amid Accusations of “Old-Fashioned Forgery”
A federal lawsuit ostensibly about trademark infringement morphs into a contest over control of a Delaware LLC in which the two sides offer materially different copies of the same operating agreement, with each side accusing the other of forgery. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Crossing the Hudson: Recent Business Divorce Decisions from Yonder States
On the menu for this week’s New York Business Divorce: five noteworthy business divorce cases from five different states. …
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The Flexible “For Cause” Standard for Director and Officer Removal
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a first-in-a-generation appeals court decision affirming a lower court’s removal of a corporate officer “for cause.”…
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Judicially Expelled Member Pays Heavy Price For Abandoning LLC
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a fascinating New Jersey case in which the court expelled the minority member of an LLC after it abandoned the venture and withdrew its financial support.
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Bad Things Can Happen When You Steal a Business from a Minority Co-Owner
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a rare punitive damages award in a business divorce case after a majority owner misappropriated a 25% interest in a sushi restaurant, secretly transferred the entity’s assets to another he owned, then dissolved the original, all unbeknownst to the minority owner. …
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At-Will Employment Agreement Plus Mandatory Redemption Clause Leaves Minority Shareholder-Employees Out in the Cold
What happens when you cross an at-will employment agreement with a mandatory redemption requirement at a deeply discounted price? Find out in this week’s post.
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The Art of Manager Removal
Combine a business divorce with a marital divorce and what do you get? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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LLC Forced Buy-Out Pits Fair Value Against Fair Market Value Against Power to Amend Operating Agreement
If you want to find out what can happen when an LLC agreement authorizes member removal for any or no reason but doesn’t address compensation for the terminated member’s interest, read this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Never the Twain Shall Meet: Damages Claims Do Not Offset the Purchase Price in Buy-Sell Agreements
This week’s post considers a recent decision from New York County Commercial Division Justice Borrok, who offers well-reasoned guidance on the separateness between claims to specifically enforce a buy-sell agreement, on the one hand, and damages claims, on the other.
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