Let’s say you are a minority interest holder facing a squeeze-out merger. If someone else controls the process, the price, and the paperwork, how do you know the deal was fair? Can a minority shareholder that also holds a meaningful stake in the controller really be counted among the “disinterested” minority in a vote of
Corporate management takes the win in this week’s New York Business Divorce with what appears to be the first New York appellate decision to apply the business judgment rule to a decision by a board of directors to oust one of its own under the “cause” standard for removal found in Section 706 of the Business Corporation Law. Whether there is, or is not, “cause” to fire a co-director, held the Court, is a matter falling comfortably within the board’s business judgment, even as a response to aggressive activism. So behave on that board. Otherwise, your colleagues may show you the door.
Continue Reading Co-Director Removal and the Business Judgment Rule
A recent case from New York County caps a decade-long litigation saga and offers helpful guidance on when the business judgment rule applies to pocket-to-pocket transactions with common ownership on both sides.
Continue Reading Affiliated Entities, Conflicting Duties, and the Business Judgment Rule
A recent decision from New York County Justice Reed inspires a closer look at the circumstances under which a minority LLC owner can compel the majority to make distributions.
Continue Reading Prudent Management or Financial Starvation: Can Minority Members Compel the Majority to Make Distributions?
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the latest chapter in a long-running litigation saga between the son and daughter of artist Peter Max fighting for control of their family-owned corporation.
Continue Reading Principles of Fiduciary Deference: The Business Judgment Rule and Exculpatory Clauses
A bidding war 20 years ago over the purchase of maid’s quarters in a ritzy Park Avenue co-op. A series of co-op board rejections of a shareholder’s proposed sale of his apartment. A recent court decision denying a books-and-records petition. What’s the connection? Find out in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Bounces Books-and-Records Petition in Feud Over Park Avenue Co-op Board’s Rejection of Prospective Purchasers
It’s been almost 12 years since Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme exploded, inflicting billions in losses on thousands of investors. This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a first-impression ruling by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Joel M. Cohen in which he upheld a plan of liquidation of a dissolved Madoff feeder fund organized as an LLC.
Continue Reading Business Judgment Rule Prevails in Fight Over Liquidation Plan for Dissolved Madoff Feeder Fund
This week’s New York Business Divorce offers some “summer shorts” consisting of summaries of three recent decisions of interest including two by Justice Timothy Driscoll and another by Justice David Schmidt, featuring disputes over a liquidating receiver’s sale of the dissolved corporation’s real property and the requirements for pleading derivative claims.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Liquidating Receiver’s Authority to Compel Share Redemption and Other Recent Decisions of Interest