Welcome to this year’s Winter Case Notes where, amidst the arctic blast currently sweeping most of the nation, I offer shortish takes on several court decisions in recent business divorce cases.

This year’s edition features notable decisions by New York courts stemming from cases with, shall we say, not your typical fact patterns:

• Affirming the lower court’s post-trial verdict rejecting a shareholder’s claim to enforce an alleged agreement requiring the defendant shareholder, following the plaintiff’s acquittal on murder charges, to transfer back to the plaintiff shares he sold to the plaintiff in the course of the plaintiff’s lengthy criminal proceedings;

• Without deciding whether the death — accidental in this case — of an LLC member qualifies as a withdrawal for purposes of LLC Law § 509’s buyout provision, ordering the surviving member to turn over books and records to the estate representative but only through the date of death; and

• Denying interim injunctive relief restoring a minority shareholder to his former management position in a group of auto dealerships upon the court’s finding that the plaintiff failed to establish a likelihood of success on his claims of minority shareholder oppression and that the governing agreements were never effective.

Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: Murder, Forgery, Accidental Death, Oppression, Oh My!