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Court of Chancery Explains DGCL Section 141

Cummings v. Eden, C.A. 13007-VCS (February 20, 2018) - This decision is particularly helpful in clarifying the effect of Section 141 of the DGCL. A transaction that is passed by the vote of even a single disinterested...more

Court Of Chancery Explains Proper Purpose Analysis

KT4 Partners LLC v. Palantir Technologies Inc., C.A. 2017-0177-JRS (February 22, 2018) - When a demand to inspect corporate records states a purpose other than to value the corporation’s stock, it is often difficult to...more

Supreme Court Clarifies Need To Disclose A Director’s Opinions

Appel v. Berkman, No. 316, 2017 (February 20, 2018) - When seeking stockholder votes it is not always clear when the company must disclose an opinion of an individual director on the merits of the proposed transaction....more

Court Of Chancery Applies The Covenant Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing To Fill A Gap

In re Oxbow Carbon LLC Unitholder Litigation, C.A. 12447-VCL (February 12, 2018) - This may be the definitive decision on when and how to apply the covenant in every LLC agreement to act in good faith and deal fairly. Here...more

Court Of Chancery Resolves Allocation Issues In Advancement Case

Weil v. Vereit Operating Partnership LP, C.A. 2017-0613-JTL (February 13, 2018) - This decision clearly sets out how to allocate fees for claims subject to advancement of attorney fees from those that are not covered by an...more

Court Of Chancery Holds Stock Issuance Void

Southpaw Credit Opportunity Master Fund LP v. Roma Restaurant Holdings Inc., C.A. 2017-0059-TMR (February 1, 2018) - When stock is issued in violation of a stockholder agreement, the issuance is “void.” This has great...more

Delaware Supreme Court Gives Preclusive Affect To Prior Dismissal In Wal-Mart Derivative Litigation

California State Teachers Retirement System v. Alvarez, No. 295, 2016 (Del. Jan. 25, 2018) - This is an important decision clarifying the rules regarding the preclusive effect a dismissal of a derivative suit may have on a...more

Court Of Chancery Explains Caremark Claims

Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System v. Corbett, C.A. 12151-VCG (December 18, 2017) - This decision is an exhaustive review of what constitutes a Caremark claim. It makes it clear that merely because the...more

Delaware Supreme Court Clarifies Ratification Defense In Stock Option Cases

In re Investors Bancorp Inc. Stockholder Litigation, No. 169, 2017 (December 13, 2017) - There has been some uncertainly over the effect of stockholder approval of stock option plans for directors, such as does that...more

Delaware Supreme Court Stresses Value Of Deal Price In Appraisal Case

Dell Inc. v. Magnetar Global Event Driven Master Fund Ltd., No. 565, 2016 (December 14, 2017) - In this much-anticipated decision, the Delaware Supreme Court stresses the importance of the deal price to the award in an...more

Court Of Chancery Expands MFW To Recapitalization

IRA Trust FBO Bobbie Ahmed v. Crane, C.A.. 12742-CB (December 11, 2017) - This is an important decision because it extends the holding of MFW to a stock reclassification. Under the 6-part test of MFW, the business judgment...more

Court Of Chancery Enforces Oral Agreement To Add Directors

Sarissa Capital Domestic Fund LP v. Innoviva Inc., C.A. 2017-0309-JRS (December 8, 2017) - This is a great explanation of when a director is authorized to enter into an oral agreement that is enforceable, here to add two...more

Court Of Chancery Explains Basis For Inspection Of Alleged Wrongdoing

Silverberg v. ATC Healthcare Inc., C.A. 2017-0242-JRS (December 5, 2017) - While the standard to win the right to inspect corporate records to investigate alleged wrongdoing is a lenient one, it is still not enough to just...more

Court Of Chancery Applies Corwin And Test For Control

Peter Van Der Fluit v. Yates, C.A. No. 12553-VCMR (Nov. 30, 2017) - Briefly, under Corwin, the informed vote of a majority of the disinterested stockholders subjects a transaction to the business judgment rule when the...more

Be Careful What You Ask For in a Section 225 Case

Delaware recognizes the need to promptly resolve disputes over the composition of the board of directors of a Delaware corporation. Section 225 of the Delaware General Corporation Law provides that the Delaware Court of...more

Court Of Chancery Rejects Attorney-Driven Books And Records Demand

Wilkinson v. A. Schulman, Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0138-VCL (Nov. 13, 2017) - This decision has potential far-reaching consequences for shareholder-plaintiff litigation. As is well known, some entrepreneurial plaintiff-side...more

Court Of Chancery Gives Guidance On What Constitutes Bad Faith

In Re Meadwestvaco Stockholders Litigation, C.A. No. 10617-CB (August 17, 2017) - As this decision explains, to state a claim attacking a merger on the basis that the Board acted in bad faith you need more than ...more

Court Of Chancery Protects Privilege In Books and Records Action And Addresses Corwin’s Effect On Mismanagement Investigation...

Salberg v. Genworth Financial Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0018-JRS (July 27, 2017) - This is an important decision for its analyses implicating the Garner and Corwin rules. The Garner rule is that, under certain narrow...more

Court Of Chancery Upholds Duty Of Care and Loyalty Claims

H&N Management Group Inc. v Couch, C.A. No. 12847-VCMR (Del. Ch. Aug. 1, 2017) - This is a rare case involving apparent lack of care in approving a conflicted transaction and a failure to employ almost any safeguards to...more

Court of Chancery Advocates New Test Governing Preclusion in Derivative Litigation

In re Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Delaware Derivative Litig., C.A. No. 7455-CB (Del. Ch. July 25, 2017) - This is an important decision holding that just because one derivative litigation was dismissed for failure to overcome...more

Court Of Chancery Explains Stock Restriction Law

Henry v. Phixios Holdings Inc., C.A. No. 12504-VCMR (July 10, 2017) - This is the rare decision explaining when restrictions on stock transfers (permitted by Section 202 of the DGCL) can be enforced. While the statute...more

Court Of Chancery Explains When Entire Fairness Applies To Option Grants And Voting Agreements

While directors have the right to issue options, when the grant is to themselves and there are specific facts suggesting unfairness, those directors will have the burden of proving the grants were entirely fair in a...more

Court Of Chancery Explains Corwin Limits

This is an important decision if only because it explains a further limitation on the Corwin rule that an informed uncoerced stockholder vote insulates a corporate transaction from attack. First, the decision explains when a...more

Court Of Chancery Appraises Company Below Deal Price

Recent criticism of appraisal arbitrage argues that it comes without real risk to the petitioners. This appraisal decision, which values the company below the deal price based on a discounted cash flow analysis, should be...more

Court Of Chancery Declines To Hold Unocal Claim Automatically Excuses Demand

A derivative plaintiff who fails to make a pre-suit demand on the board must show why demand is excused using particularized facts. Here, the plaintiff argued that demand was automatically excused by sufficiently pleading a...more

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