Kemp & Beatley

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After 35 years, Matter of Kemp & Beatley, Inc. (64 NY2d 63 [1984]), remains the leading authority in New York on oppression-based corporate dissolution. In Kemp & Beatley, the Court of Appeals announced a now-venerable legal rule: “Assuming the petitioner has set forth a prima facie case of oppressive conduct,” a shareholder wishing to “forestall dissolution” must “demonstrate to the court the existence of an adequate, alternative remedy.” In practice, what this means is that courts must consider whether a buyout will provide the petitioning shareholder a “reasonable means of withdrawing his or her investment.”

A recent decision by a Manhattan-based appeals court, Campbell v McCall’s Bronxwood Funeral Home, Inc., 2019 NY Slip Op 00182 [1st Dept Jan. 10, 2019], presents a number of interesting questions about how courts should apply Kemp & Beatley’s pronouncement that courts must consider an “adequate, alternative remedy” to dissolution in the face of a written shareholder’s agreement that provides a formula and method for buying out a shareholder’s stock. Campbell is an epic 12-year litigation with seemingly no end in sight. Continue Reading A Fresh Take on an Old Doctrine – The “Adequate, Alternative Remedy” to Dissolution

OppressionAn earlier post on this blog, examining a post-trial decision in Matter of Digeser v Flach, 2015 NY Slip Op 51609(U) [Sup Ct Albany County Nov. 5, 2015], described the minority shareholder’s dissolution claim under Section 1104-a of the Business Corporation Law as a “classic case of minority shareholder oppression.” The Albany-based Appellate Division, Third Department, recently agreed with that assessment in affirming the lower court’s order finding sufficient grounds for dissolution.

The appellate panel’s unanimous decision in Matter of Gould Erectors & Rigging, Inc., 146 AD3d 1128, 2017 NY Slip Op 00228 [3d Dept Jan. 12, 2017], affirmed in every respect Albany County Commercial Division Justice Richard M. Platkin’s post-trial decision to dissolve two affiliated construction businesses. Here’s a quick recap of the case as it unfolded at the trial level.

Background

The story begins with two father-son pairs. The petitioner, Henry A. Digeser, is a 25% shareholder of two New York corporations, Gould Erectors & Rigging, Inc. (“Gould”) and Flach Crane & Rigging Co., Inc. (“Flach Crane”). The respondent, John C. Flach, owns the remaining 75%. Digeser’s father was a close friend and business colleague of Flach’s father, who founded the companies, and served on the businesses’ boards. Eventually, the younger Digeser got involved in the businesses and became an owner. Continue Reading An Oppression How-To: Revoke Employment, Profit Sharing and Control