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State courts far and away are the dominant arena for business divorce litigation. Just for kicks if not giggles, this week’s New York Business Divorce takes a look at some recent cases involving partnership disputes decided by federal courts.
Continue Reading Federal Courts Wade Into Business Divorce: Recent Decisions of Interest

Most practitioners believe the summary judgment in lieu of complaint statute, CPLR 3213, applies just to contracts involving loans or other indebtedness. Not so. In a recent decision, a Manhattan Commercial Division Justice granted summary judgment in lieu of complaint, entering a money judgment for nearly $35 million, based upon a seldom litigated provision of the statute permitting accelerated treatment “upon any judgment” – in this case, a prior declaratory judgment. Read about the Court’s novel approach to summary judgment in lieu of complaint in this week New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Summary Judgment in Lieu of Complaint Meets Business Divorce

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. In this week’s New York Business Divorce, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay serves his former business partner a cold dish in the form of a large post-trial judgment in a case seeking dissolution and derivative damages on behalf of two out-of-state entities formed to operate defunct Ramsay restaurant “The Fat Cow.”…
Continue Reading Gordon Ramsay’s The Fat Cow: Dishing Up Damages and Dissolution

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the history and development of the doctrine of tax estoppel, including two strands of competing case law emanating from a pair of New York State Court of Appeals decisions reaching opposite conclusions about the extent to which one may prove ownership status in a closely-held business based upon estoppel.
Continue Reading The Doctrine of Tax Estoppel in Ownership Status Disputes

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, . . .

A decision last week by the Appellate Division, First Department, highlights the relatively precarious position of LLC minority members versus minority shareholders of close corporations when it comes to seeking remedies for alleged abuse by the LLC’s controlling member. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading The Money’s There But Out of Reach for the Minority LLC Member