Earlier this month, in a case called Reichman v. Reichman, the Brooklyn-based Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed a lower court’s decision and granted a preliminary injunction in a bitter feud between father and son over the ownership of a dot-com business organized as an LLC. Don’t miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Father May Not Know Best: Appeals Court Grants Injunction in Son’s Bid to Establish Majority Ownership of LLC

This week’s New York Business Divorce features a pair of recent decisions by New York and Delaware courts addressing disputes between accounting firms and departing partners over entitlement to buy-out payments. Both are highly interesting decisions, especially for anyone involved in drafting agreements for professional firms.
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Continue Reading New York and Delaware Courts Decide Disputes Over Accounting Firm Buyouts

Recent decisions by New York and Delaware courts address the rights of non-controlling members of LLCs to inspect company books and records. Learn more about this important topic in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading New York and Delaware Courts Address LLC Member Access to Books and Records

An unusual shareholders’ agreement leads to unusual, concurrent arbitration and judicial proceedings in a shareholders’ battle for control of a Brooklyn restaurant business. Read about Justice Carolyn Demarest’s recent decision in Boz Export & Import v. Karakus in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Concurrent Arbitration and Court Proceedings in Shareholder Dispute? It Can Happen.

Last week, in Pappas v. Tzolis, the Appellate Division, First Department, handed down a 3-2 decision reinstating claims for fiduciary breach and fraud brought by members of an LLC against another member who acquired their interests allegedly while keeping secret his negotiations to sell the LLC’s sole asset to an outside buyer at a drastically higher valuation. It’s an important decision likely headed to the New York Court of Appeals, and it’s in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading The Rise and Fall and Rise of Blue Chip: Fiduciary Duty Trumps Waiver in Latest First Department Decision

A recent decision by Kings County Justice Carolyn Demarest ordered disqualification of plaintiffs’ lawyer in litigation among co-owners of a limited liability company, finding a non-waivable conflict of interest between two groups of complaining members. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading “Beauty Bar” Case Highlights Conflicted Legal Representation in Dispute Among LLC Members

When you can’t be a fly on the wall, a discreetly placed tape recorder may be the next best thing. That, at least, is one of the lessons taught by Feinberg v. Silverberg, decided last month by Nassau County Justice Ira Warshawsky, in which the court granted a preliminary injunction in a shareholder dispute based on tape recordings that captured the defendant planning to oust his business partner. Don’t miss it in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading “So If We Shut the Lights on This Sucker” and Other Things Not to Say on Tape When Squeezing Out a Fellow Shareholder

A recent and controversial decision by the Delaware Chancery Court highlights the need for counsel drafting multiple-member LLC operating agreements to focus attention on whether, and if so the circumstances under which, a member may transfer its membership interest, including economic and voting rights, to another existing member with or without the other members’ consent. Learn more about this important case law development in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Avoiding the Pain of Achaian, or How Not to Draft LLC Membership Transfer Provisions

Is the statutory remedy of judicial dissolution available when shareholders fail to implement a prior agreement for a voluntary winding up and dissolution? Nassau County Justice Stephen A. Bucaria answers the question in Matter of Toledano (Home Tower Group, Inc.), featured in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Continue Reading Deadlock Over Voluntary Dissolution Agreement Leads to Involuntary Judicial Dissolution

Stock valuation aficionados will not want to miss the report in this week’s New York Business Divorce on the recent decision in Matter of Harlem River Yard Ventures, Inc. It’s a dissenting shareholder case triggered by a squeeze-out merger in which the court was faced with widely disparate expert valuations of a company holding a 99-year lease on the Bronx site of the former Penn Central rail yards, now serving as an industrial park.
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Continue Reading Court Endorses Discounted Cash Flow Method, Rejects Post-Merger Tax Benefits, in Determining Fair Value Award to Dissenting Shareholder