In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the history and development of the doctrine of tax estoppel, including two strands of competing case law emanating from a pair of New York State Court of Appeals decisions reaching opposite conclusions about the extent to which one may prove ownership status in a closely-held business based upon estoppel.
Continue Reading The Doctrine of Tax Estoppel in Ownership Status Disputes
If a Schedule K-1 lists you or your client as a “general partner” and 2% owner of a partnership, is that the end of the story for proving ownership status? This week, we consider that question in the context of a long-running litigation between a well-known insurance litigation firm and its former “partner” over his standing to sue to dissolve the business.
Continue Reading The Law Firm “Partner”- A Rose by Any Other Name . . .
You won’t want to miss this week’s New York Business Divorce featuring a recent decision in which the court found minority shareholder oppression based on “disrespectful and unfairly disproportionate treatment of a female shareholder by the male majority in a closely held corporation.”
Continue Reading Minority Shareholder Oppression in the #MeToo Era
This week’s New York Business Divorce examines an interesting appellate ruling from Colorado denying enforcement of a non-compete against a shareholder-employee of a medical practice who dissented from a merger and demanded payment for the fair value of his shares.
Continue Reading You Dissented From a Merger. Are You Bound by Your Non-Compete?
Buy-out and retirement obligations in professional practices can trigger a contentious race to be the first to resign or retire when hard financial times hit, which is what happened in the case highlighted in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Race to the Exit as Professional Practice Falters
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
Tax analysis is a critical part of the business divorce attorney’s job when it comes to fashioning a shareholder buy-out agreement that, among other things, protects the selling shareholder from personal income tax liability on non-distributed or “phantom” net income that later may show up on the shareholder’s Schedule K-1. This week’s New York Business Divorce looks at a recent decision by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische in a fight over the tax consequences of a buy-out settlement of a corporate dissolution.
Continue Reading Beware Taxes on Phantom Income When Entering Into Shareholder Buy-Out Agreement
Matter of Bernfeld, decided last week by a Brooklyn appellate panel in a signed opinion authored by Justice John Leventhal, offers a rare and fascinating encounter with an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to obtain judicial dissolution of a professional corporation under Section 1103 of the Business Corporation Law, brought by the widow of the deceased majority shareholder. If you are, or have a client who is, a co-owner of a professional corporation, do yourself a favor and read this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Case Illustrates How Not to Plan for the Death of a Shareholder in a Professional Corporation
This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights the contributions of the Nassau County Commercial Division Justices Stephen Bucaria, Ira Warshawsky and Timothy Driscoll to the body of business divorce case law, also featuring three of their recent decisions.
Continue Reading New Decisions of Interest by Nassau County’s Commercial Division Judges
As if we needed another lesson in the perils of failing to enter into a written shareholders’ agreement, last week the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed a lower court ruling rejecting a buyout demand by the expelled shareholder of a law firm organized as a professional corporation. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Neither Statute Nor Public Policy Supports Buyout Right of Terminated Professional Corporation Shareholder