Hard to believe in the year 2021 we’re seeing litigation over the validity of capital calls because notice was given by email rather than snail mail, but that’s what happened in a case recently decided by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department and reported in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Court Cancels Capital Call For Want of a Postage Stamp

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the plight of a Brooklyn beer brewing company founder whose co-members allegedly attempted to “freeze out” his interest by way of a forced dilution and ouster from management, and his efforts to fight back with a start-of-the-case preliminary injunction motion.
Continue Reading Court Enjoins Dilution of Brewing Company LLC Membership Interest

The Delaware Chancery Court finally caught up with court decisions in New York and elsewhere, ruling last month in a case involving a bitcoin mining company that Delaware courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate petitions to dissolve non-Delaware business entities. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Delaware Declines Subject Matter Jurisdiction Over Judicial Dissolution of Foreign Entities

This week’s New York Business Divorce presents the 11th annual edition of Summer Shorts, featuring brief commentary on six decisions of interest in business divorce cases from across the country involving LLCs, limited partnerships, and close corporations. …
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Business Divorce Cases From Across the Country

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a would-be LLC dissolution plaintiff goes down swinging on an unanswered complaint within an unopposed motion for a default judgment, just the latest example of New York courts closely scrutinizing the merits of LLC dissolution claims at the pleadings stage.
Continue Reading Swing and a Miss: Unopposed LLC Dissolution Claim Denied

When valuing an owner’s interest in a closely-held company, the calculation and applicability of a discount for lack of marketability is among the most fertile grounds for sharp disagreement. One open question: should the DLOM account for any contractual restrictions on a controlling owner’s ability to transfer his or her control? …
Continue Reading Fueling the DLOM Debate: Control Transfer Restrictions and the Discount for Lack of Marketability

This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits a recurrent fact pattern featured in a recent Florida case involving a conflict between provision in a partnership agreement restricting transfer upon death and the deceased partner’s testamentary devise of the partnership interest.
Continue Reading When It Comes to Transfers of Ownership Interests, Where There’s a Will There’s Not Always a Way

New York appellate precedent uniformly holds that New York courts lack subject matter jurisdiction in dissolution cases involving foreign business entities. So what’s a business divorce lawyer to do when the client seeking dissolution of a foreign business entity presents an owners’ agreement containing a forum selection clause giving New York courts exclusive jurisdiction in any litigation between the parties? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Business Divorce Alert: Forum Selection Clauses Do Not Confer Subject Matter Jurisdiction in Foreign Entity Dissolution Cases

In a decision of apparent first impression last month, Justice Nancy Bannon of the Manhattan Supreme Court issued an injunction against the holding of a corporate election under BCL § 619. Minority shareholders facing an anticipated election called by a rival majority would be wise to consider the roadmap to injunctive relief charted by the plaintiffs here. …
Continue Reading Stop the Vote: Injunction Halts Shareholders Meeting Pursuant to Courts’ Broad Power to Review Corporate Elections

A hot topic of late, the viability in New York of common-law dissolution of limited liability companies is cast into doubt by a new decision, the third in a series from Brooklyn Commercial Division Justice Leon Ruchelsman. Read about it, and where the case law may go from here, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Common-Law and Equitable LLC Dissolution: Going, Going, . . .