Family-Owned Businesses

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a tip of the hat to retiring Justices Eileen Bransten and Charles E. Ramos with a look back at some of their more memorable business divorce rulings.
Continue Reading A Fond Adieu to Two Giants of the Manhattan Commercial Division Bench

Intellectual property rights are the lifeblood of many a closely held business entity. This week’s New York Business Divorce looks at three recent decisions involving disputes among business co-owners over the ownership and exploitation of critical IP assets.
Continue Reading IP Disputes Among Private Business Co-Owners Dominate Three Recent Cases

It’s back! For the third week in a row, New York Business Divorce examines a decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Saliann Scarpulla in a multi-faceted feud among members of the Yu family, this time requiring the court to balance the fiduciary duty owed by LLC managers against the right to amend the operating agreement without the consent of the affected minority member.
Continue Reading Does This Decision Put the Brakes on Non-Unanimous Amendments to Operating Agreements?

This weeks New York Business Divorce examines a recent decision by Justice Saliann Scarpulla, dismissing a complaint seeking judicial dissolution of two family-owned LLCs in which the plaintiff alleged that his siblings’ actions were in furtherance of a “personal vendetta.”
Continue Reading Judicial Dissolution and the Weaponized LLC

Merit-based bonuses protected by the business judgment rule, or de facto dividends? That was the central question on which depended the outcome of a common-law dissolution claim in a case decided last month by a New York appellate panel involving a family-owned business. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Past is Prologue: Refusal to Adopt Dividend Policy After Petitioner Resigns Not Ground for Dissolution

This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the Kassab case on the occasion of the latest decision in its five-year litigation journey, denying for the second time the minority member’s bid to dissolve a realty holding LLC co-owned with his brother in the wake of having successfully dissolved their related realty holding corporation.
Continue Reading Court Denies Second Bite at Dissolution Cherry in Kassab Brothers Business Divorce

In Hammad v Al-Lid Food Corp., decided last month by Justice Sylvia Ash, the court denied the minority shareholder’s application for various interim remedies sought after the company elected to purchase his shares. Find out more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading You Sued for Dissolution, They Elected to Buy You Out, What Else Do You Want?

It’s brother against brother in the case featured in this week’s New York Business Divorce, in which the court dismissed a petition to dissolve a real estate holding company based on alleged withholding of company information.
Continue Reading Shareholder Oppression Requires More Than Denial of Access to Company Information

This week’s New York Business Divorce features the “double whammy” of a fight over ownership of a highly successful dental practice, spiced with allegations of illegal kickbacks for patient referrals, intertwined with an acrimonious matrimonial divorce between the two litigants.
Continue Reading Divorcing Husband Not Smiling Over Court’s Rejection of Ownership Interest in Wife’s Dental Practice

Business Divorce Stories is the title of the latest episode of the Business Divorce Roundtable podcast highlighted in this week’s post, featuring short interviews with business appraiser Tony Cotrupe and attorney Jeffrey Eilender sharing their first-hand accounts of business divorce cases involving break-ups of two businesses, each co-owned by a pair of brothers.
Continue Reading Business Divorce Stories: Podcast Interviews with Business Appraiser Tony Cotrupe and Attorney Jeffrey Eilender