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Court Declines to Undo a Corporate Board’s Vote that a Disgruntled Shareholder Skipped

In a costly episode of Aaron Sorkin’s adage that “decisions are made by those who show up,” the majority shareholder in a pair of family-controlled oil and gas companies learned of about 850,000 reasons why attendance can be...more

Discovery Molehills, Mountains, and a Climbing Guide from the NC Business Court

Sometimes a discovery molehill turns into a mountain (of documents) quicker than you can type the word warehouse. Back in January, in North Carolina ex rel. Stein v. EIDP, Inc., the State raised a discovery dispute regarding...more

Even in an Olympic Year, a “Low Bar” for Intervening Parties can be a Major Hurdle

The road leading away from HCA Healthcare’s 2019 acquisition of the multi-campus Mission Health hospital system in Western North Carolina has been a bumpy ride. HCA has faced suit connected to the transaction alleging it...more

Wide Access for Inspecting LLC’s Records has Narrow, but Crucial, Guideposts

As a matter of business hygiene, North Carolina’s records inspection statute is a bit of an information ATM. But the Business Court recently cautioned that a requester still has to press the right buttons. In Extra Care, LLC...more

Business Court Gives Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town in the Sky More Time to Scare up Some Investors

A member seeking to dissolve an LLC which owns a mothballed amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, didn’t have a “ghost of a chance” to close out a struggling, yet functional, company. In McClure v. Ghost Town in...more

Court Looks Closely, but Sees no Whistleblower Story to Support Fired Employee’s Download of Key Documents

More than 500 sequentially accessed files downloaded to a personal thumb drive, and a description in a verified complaint of the purported confidential information and trade secrets implicated, were the key components of the...more

Charlotte’s Contracts to Build Transit System are Inseparable Part of Government Function to Provide Service to Public

The City of Charlotte’s Gold Line Streetcar extension, that brought the system to a 4-mile, 17-stop line, opened to the public in August 2021. But disputes about its construction (and payment for it) that stretched back to...more

A Recipe for Rule 12(b) Failure: Unsavory Complexity, a Pinch of Confusion, and an Overflowing Cup of Acronyms

It turns out there is something more difficult than the financing and development of a luxury retirement community, the long life of which spanned from its initial municipal approval in 2002, through the 2008 financial...more

When Discovery Goes Off Track, can a Pro Se Party Right the Course?

When discovery goes so off the rails that a court declares a party “has stalled the progress” of a case, prejudiced its opponent and “wasted judicial resources,” there’s little doubt the sanctions sure to follow will be...more

A Pirate’s Story, it Turns Out, is Worth its Weight in Gold

When Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was discovered off the North Carolina coast in 1996 after a decade of searching, whatever treasure might have been with it when it found a watery grave in 1718 had been...more

JNOV is a Tough Road, but it’s Not a One in a Million Shot

A party seeking to unseat a verdict by JNOV “bears a heavy burden under North Carolina law.” Only a “scintilla of evidence” is needed to support the elements of the prevailing claim. But as the Business Court reminded in...more

Check your Receipts at Summary Judgment: Court Awards Attorney’s Fees Against Party that Pressed on with “Meritless” Claim After...

After a “hotly contested” four-year litigation that resulted in mutual, without prejudice dismissals, the plaintiff in Vitaform, Inc. v. Aeroflow, Inc., 2023 NCBC 76, said it would refile and try again. But first, the...more

A Bitter Dish in the Dessert Industry: Company Pays Litigation Expenses for a Corporate Officer who Won Dismissal of Its...

PreGel America makes and distributes products used in the gelato, ice cream and pastry business. But it alleges a far less than sweet experience with its former CEO, who the company says approved unauthorized personal salary...more

Third Time’s the Charm. Mostly.

Maybe the third time is really only the charm in Baltimore. But at least sometimes a third shot at a sufficiently pled complaint in North Carolina can still carry the day. In Trail Creek Invs., LLC v. Warren Oil Holding Co.,...more

When Employees Become Competitors, NC Business Court Keeps a Careful Watch on Disturbances in Marketplace Force

Joshua Langley worked for Autocraft, Inc. for more than five years and rose to have wide access to its business affairs and “substantial responsibility for its overall operations.” While still employed there, he opened LB...more

North Carolina Supreme Court Unpacks a Service Contract and Finds a Potential Software Sale Lurking Within

If a company contracts to acquire software which it then licenses to a third party as a component of a lucrative service package, did it “sell” the software? In Value Health Solutions, Inc. v. Pharmaceutical Research...more

A Mediation Isn’t Quite Hotel California, but Check Out Times are Still Strictly Regulated

The Business Court recently reminded that while there is great value to showing up and seeing what might happen at mediation, the costs of a decision to avoid the process can be more easily quantified. In Chi v. N....more

A Nightmare on CivPro Street: Unanswered Requests for Admission

In a litigator’s nightmare, when old wooden floors creak and the house speaks in sinister tones to its owner, it’s not: “Get Out!” that the lawyer hears. It’s: “Your Responses to the Admissions are Late.” Such is the life. ...more

When Doing the Same Thing Over Again and Expecting Different Results is not Insane, a Court Explains

After a six-day jury trial including evidence of “no show” jobs, questionable “friends and family” payroll slots, and allegations of fraud and embezzlement, a Mecklenburg County jury returned a $3-million-plus verdict for the...more

A Trade Secret Tale: When a “Gold Mine” is not Worth the Digging

An employee trading places among industry competitors allegedly provided his new employer with bidding and pricing information so critical that the receiving company’s CEO thought it was a “gold mine” it could use “to...more

Silence as to Some Facts in a Complaint can be Golden

A dispute between co-owners of a trampoline park in Asheville came before the Business Court, appropriately enough, on defendants’ motion to bounce plaintiffs’ claims regarding misappropriation of funds. In Bivins v....more

Business Court Holds Clause Curbing Limitations Period Means Exactly What Contracting Parties Said it Did

While an insurance carrier “labor[ed] valiantly” to rescue claims over $3.1 million in overpayments to a hospital in its network, the Business Court held it failed because the contract at issue “clearly and unambiguously”...more

Episode 2: The One Where the Consent Order Didn’t Bring Much in the Way of Finality

In one of many litigations to arise from alleged contamination at the Fayetteville Works chemical manufacturing plant, the Business Court recently decided that a “been there, done that” motion to dismiss should not stop the...more

Business Court Rejects Effort to Eclipse Tax Credit Regime that Spurred NC Solar Farm Builds

The NC Department of Revenue sought to throw some shade at the financing regimes through which solar farm and other renewable energy projects are built by challenging the flow of tax credits from LLC developers to their...more

Friends, Family, and Partnerships: a Litigation Tale as Old as Time

“Ray Reason, along with his aunt and uncle, decided to go into business with Gerald Barfield, a family friend who was a real estate developer.” When that’s a line in a holiday card letter of how the year went, it...more

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