Compared to its Business Corporation Law, New York’s LLC Law provides greater latitude to LLC members when it comes to making management decisions without necessity of holding a formal meeting. A recent Delaware Chancery Court decision construing that state’s similar LLC statute sheds light on the interplay between the statutory default rule and operating agreement provisions that set forth voting procedures without mention of the members’ right to take action without a meeting. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading When Can LLC Members Act Without Holding a Meeting?

A Manhattan panel of appellate judges last month enforced an LLC operating agreement’s provision giving the manager sole discretion — even at his “whimsy” or “impetuously” said the court — to determine a member’s sharing ratio of the firm’s profits. It’s worth reading in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading Court Upholds LLC Manager’s Broad Discretion Under Operating Agreement to Determine Member’s Profit Share

Equitable remedy trumps pick-your-partner, is one way to describe the outcome in Garber v. Stevens, decided last month by Justice Eileen Bransten, who granted a motion by limited partners to remove the wrongdoing general partners of a real estate limited partnership and replace them with an LLC wholly owned by the limited partners. Read more about this unusual case in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading The Court’s Equitable Power to Remove and Replace a Limited Partnership’s General Partner

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

A decision last week by the Appellate Division, First Department, in Lehey v. Goldburt brings to light a bitter dispute between the managing member of a vodka distributor with a gimmicky bottle featuring an LED ticker display, and an investor claiming that his millions in funding have been squandered. Get the story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading Appellate Court Reinstates LLC Manager in Dispute with Investor in Vodka Venture

This week’s New York Business Divorce features an interesting decision by Commercial Division Justice Emily Pines in Nastasi v. Carlino, where she sent both sides home empty handed in a bitter shareholder dispute with misconduct on both sides.

Continue Reading Court Sends Everyone Home Empty Handed in Bitter Business Breakup

In Georgi v. Polanski, decided last month by Kings County Commercial Division Justice David Schmidt, the court addresses the right of a controlling LLC member to expel the non-controlling member upon his failure to comply with a capital call. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading Not a Capital Idea: Making Unauthorized LLC Capital Calls

Can a court order the expulsion of an LLC member for misconduct absent language in the operating agreement so providing? Get the answer in this week’s New York Business Divorce highlighting a recent decision by the Appellate Division, Second Department, posing the issue in the context of a bitter dispute between two brothers.

Continue Reading Tzolis No Solace for Proponent of LLC Member Expulsion

The expulsion of an LLC member for breach of the LLC agreement, when combined with buyout provisions that leave the expelled member with little or no return on investment, is a sure-fire recipe for litigation, as evidenced in a recent decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Melvin Schweitzer in Jain v. Rasteh. Read about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading The Perils of For-Cause Expulsion Provisions in LLC Agreements