An unusual, two-state battle between 50-50 owners of a New York LLC led to a decision earlier this month by Justice Kornreich dismissing a dissolution petition and denying injunctive relief following a New Jersey judge’s order appointing a fifth Director to break a Board deadlock. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading Court Dismisses Dissolution Petition Amidst Multi-Jurisdictional Battle for Control of LLC

This week’s New York Business Divorce traces New York’s endorsement of the marketability discount in fair value proceedings to its first application in 1982 by a court-appointed Referee named Sam Tripp — my grandfather!
Continue Reading The Birthing of New York’s Marketability Discount in Fair Value Cases: A Family Affair

A decision last month by Justice Robert Bruno foiled a convicted felon’s attempt to assign to his wife his 50% membership interest in two realty holding LLCs. Find out more in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading How Good is Your Operating Agreement’s Anti-Assignment Clause?

A recent decision by Justice Donna Mills highlights the consequences of not including in the operating agreement confidentiality requirements linked to member rights to inspect books and records. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Conditional Inspection of LLC Books and Records: When Is It Permitted?

The Appellate Division, Second Department, last week decided three appeals in the same business divorce case, addressing important issues concerning claims for LLC dissolution, equitable buyout, and use of company monies for legal fees defending dissolution proceedings. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story.
Continue Reading One Parking Lot, Two Brothers, Three Decisions

The LLC majority members in Bonanni v. Horizons Investors Corp., were ordered to pay the piper in a post-trial decision earlier this month by Justice Elizabeth Emerson in a 10-year old case, finding that they had converted the plaintiff’s minority membership interest. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading A Decade Later, LLC’s Majority Members Pay The Price For Converting Minority Member’s Interest

Justice Alan Scheinkman’s highly detailed, 33-page decision last week in Verghetta v Lawlor, valuing a minority interest in two LLCs that own and operate Planet Fitness health clubs, is must reading for lawyers and business appraisers who handle fair value contests. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Threading the Fair-Value Needle: Court Finds Major Flaws in Both Sides’ Appraisals in Arriving at Its Own Value

The Revised Uniform LLC Act or “RULLCA” has been adopted by a growing number of states. This week’s New York Business Divorce highlights RULLCA’s overlapping dissolution and dissociation provisions as recently construed by one appellate court.
Continue Reading Choose Carefully: Dissolution vs. Dissociation Under RULLCA

A longstanding inter-departmental rift was healed last week when the Appellate Division, First Department, issued a decision disavowing one of its own precedents and aligning itself with Second and Third Department decisions holding that New York courts lack jurisdiction to order dissolution of foreign business entities. Read about this important ruling in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading A Split No More: First Department Agrees, No Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dissolve Foreign Business Entities

New York Business Divorce this week inaugurates Winter Case Notes, offering synopses of three recent decisions by Supreme Court Justices Richard Platkin, Stephen Bucaria, and Cynthia Kern in cases involving the removal of an LLC manager and other issues of interest to business divorce professionals.
Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: LLC Manager Removal and Other Recent Decisions of Interest