These days general partnership decisions are rare. This general partnership rule is unprecedented: continuing to run an at-will partnership post-dissolution results in the partnership’s reconstitution even if the majority is actively suing for judicially supervised wind up. Does that sound right? Get our take in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading A General Partnership in Perpetual Enmity
This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the Eastland Food v Mekhaya case, focusing on last month’s Maryland Supreme Court’s split decision on whether the minority shareholder has a direct claim for breach of fiduciary duty based on alleged disguised distributions taken by the controlling shareholders.
Continue Reading Eastland Redux: Do Close Corporation Shareholders Have a Direct Claim Against Directors For Taking Disguised Distributions?
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider some recurring problems for corporate and general counsel in business divorce cases, including difficult issues of attorney-client privilege and the appreciable risk of disqualification when roles change from corporate to litigation counsel.
Continue Reading Pitfalls for Corporate Counsel in Business Divorce Disputes
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the faithless servant doctrine as it expands from the law of agency and employment to business divorce.
Continue Reading Faithless Servant in Business Divorce Cases
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
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about several strands of case law employing different language to express the same concept: a closely-held business interest transfer restriction or buy-sell agreement that would impose a “forfeiture,” cause the interest to become “void,” result in “annihilation of property,” or “bestow a windfall” upon a co-owner, is unenforceable as against public policy.
Continue Reading Stock Transfer Restrictions and “Annihilation of Property”
Most practitioners believe the summary judgment in lieu of complaint statute, CPLR 3213, applies just to contracts involving loans or other indebtedness. Not so. In a recent decision, a Manhattan Commercial Division Justice granted summary judgment in lieu of complaint, entering a money judgment for nearly $35 million, based upon a seldom litigated provision of the statute permitting accelerated treatment “upon any judgment” – in this case, a prior declaratory judgment. Read about the Court’s novel approach to summary judgment in lieu of complaint in this week New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Summary Judgment in Lieu of Complaint Meets Business Divorce
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the matrimonial-turned-business-divorce litigation between Italian billionaire Silvio Scaglia and his estranged wife / business partner, Julia Haart, and the difficult conflicts-of-laws questions that can arise when litigating damages claims related to Delaware entities in New York courts.
Continue Reading Conflicts of Laws and the Internal Affairs Doctrine
Grandpa’s Brooklyn-based seltzer manufacturing business went flat, but his real estate investments went through the roof. This week’s New York Business Divorce features a case in which one of four third-generation owners unsuccessfully sued her brother and cousins for judicial dissolution in her quest to monetize her share of the realty’s value.
Continue Reading Minority Shareholder’s Petition to Dissolve Seltzer Business Loses Its Fizz
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the outcomes of two pre-answer dismissal motions in parallel lawsuits commenced by the founding shareholder of a family-owned corporation challenging a cash-out merger initiated against him by the second-generation owners, including his cousins and nephew.
Continue Reading Questions Abound in Parallel Cash-Out Merger Rescission / Fair Value Appraisal Lawsuits