Hard to believe in the year 2021 we’re seeing litigation over the validity of capital calls because notice was given by email rather than snail mail, but that’s what happened in a case recently decided by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department and reported in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court Cancels Capital Call For Want of a Postage Stamp
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about the hurdles one can face when attempting to change course after suing for, or stipulating to, dissolution. The lesson: when suing for dissolution, be prepared to see it through to the bitter end.
Continue Reading An Extreme Case of Petitioner’s Remorse
Merit-based bonuses protected by the business judgment rule, or de facto dividends? That was the central question on which depended the outcome of a common-law dissolution claim in a case decided last month by a New York appellate panel involving a family-owned business. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Past is Prologue: Refusal to Adopt Dividend Policy After Petitioner Resigns Not Ground for Dissolution
This week’s New York Business Divorce looks at partnerships — what gives them legal recognition and what doesn’t — in light of a recent appellate ruling dismissing a claim for breach of an oral partnership agreement.
Continue Reading Calling an Organization a Partnership Doesn’t Make it One, But Not Calling it a Partnership Doesn’t Make it Not One. Got It?
It’s that time again, when New York Business Divorce lists the ten most noteworthy business divorce cases of the past year, along with short summaries and links to prior posts on the featured cases. Happy New Year!
Continue Reading Top Ten Business Divorce Cases of 2013
Whatever doubts you may have had about the perils of using fixed-pricing in shareholder buy-sell agreements likely will be dispelled when you read this week’s New York Business Divorce highlighting a recent decision by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, in Sullivan v. Troser Management, Inc.
Continue Reading Missing Certificate of Value Spawns Decade-Long Lawsuit Over Buy-Sell Agreement
This week’s New York Business Divorce features brief summaries of a handful of noteworthy court decisions that escaped my attention last year, including a pair of decisions involving deadlock and oppressed minority shareholder disputes, and another pair of decisions involving receivership applications.
Continue Reading Some Winter Case Notes
Buy-sell agreements in shareholder agreements are supposed to avoid — not foment — litigation over the value of the interest being redeemed or sold. Matter of Grande’ Vie, LLC, decided last month by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, tells a cautionary tale of a buy-sell provision gone wrong. Learn more about this important topic in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Clash of the Clauses: Divided Appellate Panel Rules that “Binding” Appraisal Per Buy-Sell Agreement Must be Arbitrated
This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits an important topic, involving mandatory stock buybacks triggered by the filing of a dissolution petition, prompted by a recent decision by an upstate appellate court in Matter of Stevens (Allied Builders, Inc.).
Continue Reading Appellate Court Rejects Mandatory Stock Buyback Triggered by Dissolution Petition
The hiring by one 50% business owner of legal counsel to take action in the company’s name against the other 50% owner is a frequent source of litigation. This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the Caplash case, which involved this issue in the LLC context, on the occasion of a new decision by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirming rulings by Justice Kenneth Fisher.
Continue Reading Appellate Court Affirms Caplash Ruling Rejecting Authority of 50% LLC Member to Hire Company Counsel in Proceedings Against Other 50% Member