This week’s New York Business Divorce involves an unusual procedural motion by a plaintiff to convert its lawsuit from a plenary action to a special proceeding under Section 1008 of the Business Corporation Law to adjudicate an individual’s shareholder’s liability for the corporation’s alleged breaches of contract and torts. May plaintiffs use BCL 1008 as an alternative to a veil piercing claim? Can corporate creditors use BCL 1008 to intervene in a judicial dissolution proceeding? Learn the answers in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Defendant Dissolves Mid-Lawsuit: What’s the Creditor’s Remedy?

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

Can the federal statute that brought down John Gotti also play a role in business divorce litigation? This week’s New York Business Divorce looks at the sparse and largely if not entirely unsuccessful role the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act a/k/a RICO has played in litigation between co-owners of closely held firms.
Continue Reading Civil RICO: A Blunt But Elusive Tool in Business Divorce Cases

This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights a recent decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Andrea Masley dismissing a petition to dissolve a realty holding corporation brought under the rarely used Section 1104 (c) of the Business Corporation Law for failure to hold board elections.
Continue Reading Dissolve for Failure to Elect a Board? Better Demand an Election First

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a remarkably thoughtful opinion by Commercial Division Justice Jennifer G. Schecter containing some noteworthy hints about the future of LLC dissolution claims in light of the coronavirus pandemic and its catastrophic economic impact on New York closely-held businesses.
Continue Reading Will the Pandemic Be a Boon for Future LLC Dissolution Claimants?

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider a thoughtful decision from Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Andrea J. Masley about the rules for pleading pre-suit demand or demand futility upon a “liquidator” appointed to wind up the affairs of the corporation, including the rarely-litigated concept that allegations of pre-suit demand or demand futility can potentially “relate back” to a prior pleading that is “validly in litigation.”
Continue Reading The Pre-Suit Demand Requirement for a Corporation in Liquidation or Receivership

A ministerial failure to replace the registered agent of a Delaware LLC ultimately started a chain of events leading to the dismissal last month by a New York appellate court of a direct action by the LLC against its former managers. Get the full story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Unauthorized Certificate of Revival Dooms Delaware LLC’s Claims Against Former Managing Members