Calma v. Templeton, C.A. 9579-CB (April 30, 2015)
This decision reviews the history of the effect of stockholder ratification on director compensation. Briefly, stockholder ratification will cause the compensation to be subject to the business judgment standard of review when the stockholders are fully informed and approve a specific level of compensation. In other words, just approving a general compensation plan that is not specific as to the actual compensation to be received is not sufficient to shift the standard of review and instead, assuming all the directors receive the compensation at issue, they will need to meet the entire fairness standard of review. Note also that directors are deemed interested for demand excuse purposes on matters of their own compensation without a showing that it was material as to them individually.
