A Brooklyn appellate panel last week provided more fodder for the DLOM debate that’s been in the legal news of late, upholding a 0% DLOM in a fair value appraisal of a membership interest in a real estate holding company. It’s featured in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Appellate Court Upholds 0% Marketability Discount in LLC Fair Value Case

The Zelouf case returns to the spotlight in this week’s New York Business Divorce, occasioned by Justice Shirley Kornreich’s decision last month denying a motion to reargue the court’s refusal to apply a marketability discount in valuing the shares of a dissenting minority shareholder of a family-owned business.
Continue Reading Court’s Rejection of Marketability Discount in Zelouf Case Guided by Fairness, Not “Formalistic and Buzzwordy Principles”

New York Business Divorce proudly presents its seventh annual list of the past year’s ten most noteworthy business divorce cases, along with short summaries and links to prior posts on the featured cases. Happy New Year!
Continue Reading Top Ten Business Divorce Cases of 2014

On the heels of the Zelouf and AriZona Iced Tea cases, this week’s New York Business Divorce highlights yet another interesting fair value contest, decided by Justice Carolyn Demarest, involving a battle of forensic accounting and valuation experts over the alleged skimming of millions in cash receipts at a restaurant.
Continue Reading Restaurant’s Cash-Skimming Majority Owners Forced to Buy Out Minority Shareholder or Face Dissolution

After years of litigation and a lengthy trial, earlier this month Justice Timothy Driscoll released his decision fixing the fair value of the petitioning 50% shareholder’s interest in the AriZona Iced Tea companies. You won’t want to miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Rejects Potential Acquirers’ Expressions of Interest, Relies Solely on DCF Method to Determine Fair Value of 50% Interest in AriZona Iced Tea

Last week’s post highlighted Justice Kornreich’s rejection of a marketability discount in the Zelouf case, a dissenting shareholder appraisal proceeding. In this week’s Part Two, New York Business Divorce examines a number of additional issues of interest in the Zelouf decision, including tax-affecting, control premium, and damages for quasi-derivative claims.
Continue Reading Zelouf (Part Two): Fair Value Ruling Addresses Range of Issues

This week’s New York Business Divorce presents the first of a two-part examination of Justice Shirley Kornreich’s must-read decision in Zelouf International v. Zelouf, a dissenting shareholder appraisal proceeding in which the court rejected application of a marketability discount.
Continue Reading Zelouf (Part One): Marketability Discount Rejected in Fair Value Proceeding

Pastrami, corned beef, and valuation were on the menu in Ruggiero v. Ruggiero, decided last month by Justice Emily Pines in a case pitting the widow of one brother against the surviving brother in a contested buy-out of shares in a kosher deli business. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights the court’s discussion of the conflicting expert business appraisals.
Continue Reading How Much is That Pastrami in the Window? Court Determines Fair Value of Kosher Deli

An important decision last week by the Appellate Division, First Department, in Giaimo v. Vitale directed the application of stock valuation discounts for lack of marketability and built-in gains taxes in a case involving closely held, subchapter C real estate holding corporations. It’s must reading for business appraisers and business divorce lawyers, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Appellate Court Directs 16% Marketability Discount in Fair Value Buy-Out of Realty Companies, Affirms Discount for Future Built-In Gains Tax at Present Value