This 6th annual edition of Summer Shorts presents brief commentary on three decisions of interest in business divorce cases, including a dispute among LLP partners over the reduction of one partner’s interest; disqualification of counsel in an LLC dissolution case; and a Delaware books-and-records case involving phantom stock.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Partnership Interest Reduction and Other Recent Decisions of Interest

Justice Saliann Scarpulla’s recent decision in MFB Realty LLC v Eichner highlights statutory and contractual restrictions surrounding the scope of the rights transferred when LLC interests are assigned. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Operating Agreement’s Two-Step Consent Provision Foils Assignment of LLC Member Interest

The Delaware Court of Chancery plays an outsized role not only in the public company arena, but also in the field of business divorce and other disputes among co-owners of closely held corporations, partnerships, and LLCs. This week’s New York Business Divorce sets the stage and invites you to listen to a podcast interview of Delaware lawyers Kurt Heyman and Pete Ladig discussing litigation of business divorce cases in the Delaware Chancery Court.
Continue Reading Business Divorce, Delaware Style

The death and testamentary bequests of the majority member of a family-owned LLC set the stage for a legal contest over the executor’s standing to enforce dissolution and have himself appointed as receiver to wind up the LLC’s affairs. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading Executor of Deceased Majority Member Appointed Receiver to Wind Up LLC

A 2-against-1 battle between sibling co-owners of a third-generation family business leads to an interesting decision by Justice Duane Hart concerning a disputed stock buyback, highlighted in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Rejects Majority’s Gambit to Compel Buyback of Shares in Family-Owned Business

A very interesting decision earlier this month by Justice Eileen Bransten in Doppelt v. Smith addressed whether a minority limited partner’s right to seek judicial dissolution was preempted by the partnership agreement’s provision authorizing dissolution upon the consent of a majority of the limited partnership interests. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Enforces Waiver of Limited Partner’s Right to Seek Judicial Dissolution — Or Did It?

A shareholder dispute spanning seven years of litigation in New York and Delaware came to an end last week with the latter state’s highest court’s refusal to rehear the case. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights two of the many issues raised along the way: whether Delaware law recognizes a common-law claim for minority shareholder oppression, and the validity of a reverse stock split and cash-out of the minority shareholder that deprived her of standing to pursue derivative claims.
Continue Reading Business Divorce Case Reaches End of Long and Winding Road

An appellate ruling last week in Zwarycz v, Marnia Construction, Inc. illustrates the heavy price of neglect to issue stock certificates or follow other formalities in closely held corporations — a price paid in years of litigation over stock ownership. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Fifty Years a Stockholder, Six Years to Prove it in Court