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.
Continue Reading LLC Forced Buy-Out Pits Fair Value Against Fair Market Value Against Power to Amend Operating Agreement

A recent Commercial Division ruling involving a realty holding LLC unable to develop its property raises interesting questions about whether the LLC can achieve its stated purpose under the standard for judicial dissolution. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading And a Time to Every Purpose Under . . . the Operating Agreement?

State courts far and away are the dominant arena for business divorce litigation. Just for kicks if not giggles, this week’s New York Business Divorce takes a look at some recent cases involving partnership disputes decided by federal courts.
Continue Reading Federal Courts Wade Into Business Divorce: Recent Decisions of Interest

A claim for “usurpation of corporate opportunity” is simple to allege, but difficult to prove. Two recent cases out of the Manhattan Commercial Division and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York explore the bounds of the corporate opportunity doctrine under New York and Delaware law.
Continue Reading A Recurring Business Divorce Feature: Usurpation of Corporate Opportunity

One of the more interesting defenses in judicial dissolution cases alleging deadlock is that the petitioner itself contrived or manufactured the deadlock for the purpose of achieving dissolution. It’s a defense long ago recognized in cases involving close corporations, and only more recently in cases involving LLCs, including a decision this month by the Delaware Chancery Court. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Contrived LLC Deadlock Doesn’t Cut the Delaware Dissolution Mustard

This week’s post covers a case likely to make waves inside and outside of Delaware, where Vice Chancellor Laster explores the interplay between acts that are void ab initio and equitable defenses, and he encourages an appeal so that Delaware may reconsider its laws on the issue.
Continue Reading Magic Words Still Matter, and Equitable Defenses Can’t Save a “Void” Transfer

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.
Continue Reading Never the Twain Shall Meet: Damages Claims Do Not Offset the Purchase Price in Buy-Sell Agreements