New York law regards a shareholder derivative plaintiff’s standing as fundamentally distinct from the plaintiff’s individual capacity. That leads to problems where a shareholder derivative defendant hopes to counterclaim against the plaintiff for personal liabilities. Read about this problem, and whether it forecloses direct counterclaims against shareholder derivative plaintiffs, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Can a Shareholder Suing Derivatively Face Countersuit Individually?

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

Partners of New York limited partnerships should sit up and take notice of a new, first-impression decision holding that the commencement of a dissolution proceeding against, or the appointment of a receiver for, the limited partnership can, in and of itself, result in withdrawal of the general partner and dissolution of the entity, even if the limited partnership agreement does not say so. Read about this important decision with profound implications for New York limited partnerships and their owners in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Limited Partnerships and the Self-Fulfilling Dissolution Petition

Derivative actions brought by LLC members take the spotlight for the second week in a row, this time featuring a pair of noteworthy decisions involving Delaware and Nevada LLCs in which the defendants argued that the plaintiff’s right to sue derivatively was waived by the operating agreement. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Can LLC Agreement Waive Right to Sue Derivatively? Not in These Two Cases

This week’s New York Business Divorce offers some “summer shorts” consisting of summaries of three recent decisions of interest including two by Justice Carolyn E. Demarest and a split decision by the Appellate Division, First Department.

Continue Reading Summer Shorts: Stock Sale Under Duress and Other Recent Decisions of Interest