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In this week’s New York Business Divorce, companion appellate decisions issued last week in the long running Kassab v Kasab litigation emphasize the fundamental legal differences between corporate and LLC dissolution, with allegations of majority “oppression” sufficient to grant dissolution in one case, but so insufficient as to require pre-answer dismissal in the other.
Continue Reading To Dissolve or Not to Dissolve, that is the Question. The Answer is Both.

The phrase “naked expulsion clause” is not a biblical reference to Adam and Eve’s eviction from the Garden of Eden. It’s about a provision in an LLC agreement at the center of a recent ruling by the Appellate Division, Second Department, in a 10-year litigation saga involving a fractured family-owned business. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story. …
Continue Reading Court Enforces LLC Agreement’s “Naked” Expulsion Clause

In this week’s New York Business Divorce, find out what happened when the majority shareholder petitioned to rescind the minority shareholder’s unauthorized sale of the corporation’s realty to a third party purchaser in violation of the court’s restraining order. …
Continue Reading Bona Fide Purchaser Avoids Rescission of Minority Shareholder’s Unauthorized Sale of Corporation’s Realty

An appellate ruling last week in a dispute between a putative 50% LLC member and the other party claiming to be the sole member raises the issue whether a written operating agreement, to be enforceable, requires signatures. Read more in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading If LLC Agreement Must Be in Writing, Must it Be Signed?

This week’s New York Business Divorce offers its annual Winter Case Notes with synopses of five recent decisions in business divorce cases involving LLC dissolution, cash-out merger, LLC member expulsion, and more. …
Continue Reading Winter Case Notes: LLC Deadlock and Other Recent Decisions of Interest

Should courts apply a marketability discount in determining the fair value of interests in realty holding companies? In downstate New York, the answer may vary depending on whether the court lies within the First or Second Departments of the Appellate Division. This week’s New York Business Divorce has the story. …
Continue Reading A River’s Divide: Time for the Manhattan and Brooklyn Appellate Courts to Agree on Marketability Discount in Fair Value Proceedings

The Appellate Division, Second Department last week decided a trio of appeals in related cases concerning the consequences of an LLC member’s withdrawal, holding that the member was not entitled to a fair-value buyout and that upon withdrawal he lost standing to maintain derivative claims. Read all about it in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Operating Agreement Defeats Statutory Buyout Rights Upon LLC Member’s Withdrawal

After more than two years in receivership, an appeals court gives a dissolved LLC a new lease on life because the petitioners “offered no competent evidentiary proof” why the entity should have been dissolved. We take a closer look in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading “Where’s the Beef?” Says Appeals Court, Reversing LLC Dissolution

Did the Appellate Division, Second Department, throw us a curve ball in its decision last week in Mace v. Tunick, reinstating an LLC dissolution complaint based on its finding that the operating agreement’s purpose clause, authorizing the LLC to engage in “any lawful business,” did not set forth “any particular purpose”? Learn more about this important development in this week’s New York Business Divorce. …
Continue Reading Does Your LLC Agreement Have a Purposeless Purpose Clause?

New York’s highest court last week agreed to hear an appeal in a case that raises important issues concerning wrongful dissolution, damages, and valuation discounts under New York’s partnership law. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Court of Appeals to Decide Controversial Partnership Dissolution Case