A Manhattan panel of appellate judges last month enforced an LLC operating agreement’s provision giving the manager sole discretion — even at his “whimsy” or “impetuously” said the court — to determine a member’s sharing ratio of the firm’s profits. It’s worth reading in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Court Upholds LLC Manager’s Broad Discretion Under Operating Agreement to Determine Member’s Profit Share

Equitable remedy trumps pick-your-partner, is one way to describe the outcome in Garber v. Stevens, decided last month by Justice Eileen Bransten, who granted a motion by limited partners to remove the wrongdoing general partners of a real estate limited partnership and replace them with an LLC wholly owned by the limited partners. Read more about this unusual case in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading The Court’s Equitable Power to Remove and Replace a Limited Partnership’s General Partner

In an unusual corporate dissolution case involving 50/50 shareholders decided last month by Justice Emily Pines, the court compelled a buyout of the petitioner’s shares by the other shareholder notwithstanding the latter’s consent to dissolution. Get the full story in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Court Compels Buyout Despite Consent to Dissolution

The doctrine of “unclean hands” played a decisive role in a recent decision by Justice Emily Pines in Kimelstein v. Kimelstein, in which the court dismissed a dissolution petition brought by someone who admitted that he never formalized his stock interest to keep it hidden from his ex-wives and the government. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Unclean Hands Defense Defeats Petitioner’s Shareholder Status in Corporate Dissolution Suit

In New York, the common law right to judicial dissolution of a closely held corporation has existed for about 50 years, but there have few reported cases on the subject, which gives all the more reason to read this week’s New York Business Divorce highlighting an important decision earlier this month by Justice Alan Scheinkman in White v. Fee, denying a motion to dismiss a common law dissolution claim involving a family-owned business.
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Continue Reading Court Upholds Complaint Seeking Common Law Dissolution of Family-Owned Business

A tattoo parlor business is the unusual setting for a decision last week by the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirming the lower court’s post-trial dismissal of an LLC dissolution case brought by a member claiming denial of her co-equal management rights. It’s “inked” in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Woe Unto the Undocumented LLC Member Seeking Judicial Dissolution

Provisions in LLC operating agreements, penalizing members for failing to make capital contributions, have generated a number of court decisions in recent years, but none as interesting and perhaps controversial as last week’s ruling by the Appellate Division, First Department, in Antonini v. Petito. You won’t want to miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Bad LLC Agreement Makes Bad Law in Dispute Over Capital Call

A recent decision by Justice Paul Feinman in Ng v. Ng illustrates the dilemma faced by a putative, undocumented shareholder in a close corporation who needs access to the corporate kit, tax and financial records — which generally only recognized shareholders are given — to establish his ownership claim. See how the court resolved the issue, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Court Orders In Camera Review of Corporate Records in Fraternal Dispute Over Stock Ownership

Justice David Schmidt of the Kings County Commercial Division issued a decision last week holding that, absent stock transfer restrictions in the shareholders’ agreement, a close corporation shareholder has no fiduciary duty requiring that the shares of a departing shareholder be offered pari passu to the remaining shareholders. Get the details in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading There’s No Fiduciary Duty to Share and Share Alike for Shares of Stock

Justice Kevin Dowd issued a significant decision last month, granting dissolution of an LLC operating a youth baseball camp near the Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate Cooperstown, based on the majority member’s diversion of hospitality business to offsite facilities. It’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Majority Member’s “Egregious Breach” of Operating Agreement Leads to LLC’s Judicial Dissolution