News & Analysis as of

Bad Faith Board of Directors

Miller Canfield

Hard Bargaining or Unlawful Bargaining: What A Difference A Board Member Makes

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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently held that an employer’s proposal and adherence to proposals could in itself be deemed to be unlawful bad faith bargaining. District Hospital Partners, 375 NLRB No. 55...more

The Volkov Law Group

Checking In on Caremark Cases in Delaware

The Volkov Law Group on

Over the last ten years, we have seen a marked shift from the Delaware Chancery Court chipping away at corporate board member liability claims.  In a number of seminal cases involving Boeing airplane crashes (In re the Boeing...more

Patton Sullivan Brodehl LLP

“Business Judgment Rule” Applies to HOAs

California’s common law “business judgment rule,” as described by the courts, protects from court intervention “those management decisions which are made by directors in good faith in what the directors believe is the...more

BCLP

Recent Delaware cases clarify Caremark oversight duties for directors and executive officers

BCLP on

A claim for breach of the duty of oversight is known as a Caremark claim, after the landmark Delaware Court of Chancery decision in In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation (1996). Since then, Delaware courts...more

Paul Hastings LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Dismisses Duty of Oversight and Care Claims Against Directors

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In our February 14, 2023 Stay Current, we discussed a Delaware Court of Chancery decision allowing shareholder derivative claims to proceed against a corporate officer for alleged oversight duty failures stemming from...more

Fisher Phillips

Red Flags Mean Danger! 6 Key Steps for Businesses as Delaware Expands Fiduciary Liability for Corporate Officers

Fisher Phillips on

Human Resources Executives and Chief Compliance Officers now face the potential for increased personal liability following a first-of-its-kind decision from a Delaware court, which established the fiduciary duty of oversight...more

Goodwin

Delaware Court of Chancery Declines to Dismiss Investment Firm from Stockholder Derivative Suit

Goodwin on

Delaware Court of Chancery Declines to Dismiss Investment Firm from Stockholder Derivative Suit; Delaware Chancery Court Dismisses Majority of Claims Alleging that California Biotech Firm Profited from Nonpublic Information...more

Cooley LLP

Blog: Pleading Bad Faith Against Special Committee Members: A New Trend?

Cooley LLP on

Special committees, by design, are created to address conflicts and to insulate the board of directors from liability for the very conflicts that may invite judicial scrutiny of the fairness of the board’s decision. A...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Caremark Update: Delaware Court of Chancery Dismisses Two ‘Oversight’ Derivative Actions Arising From Government Investigations

The Delaware Court of Chancery recently issued two opinions — Richardson v. Clark (MoneyGram) and Fisher v. Sanborn (LendingClub) — that dismissed stockholder derivative claims for breach of directors’ oversight duties...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Delegating Preparation of Proxy Statement to Management was an Unexculpated Act of Bad Faith

In Re Pattern Energy Group Inc. Stockholders Litigation involved an M&A transaction where the sales process of Pattern Energy Group Inc. was run by an undisputedly disinterested and independent special committee that...more

Thomas Fox - Compliance Evangelist

Executives Acting in Bad Faith and the Role of the Board

A piece by Dick Cassin in the FCPA Blog had some very stark language. He quoted from the Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Ericsson) 6-K filing for the following, “While the Company had a compliance program and a supporting...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Health Care Provider Director and Officer Liability: Important Takeaways from Clovis and Marchand

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Health care provider boards of directors have been put on notice—given these two recent Delaware court decisions - Clovis and Marchand—that courts may be willing to significantly extend a corporate board’s Caremark duty to...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

INSIGHT: New Corporate Board Procedures Advisable to Satisfy Duty of Oversight

Foley & Lardner LLP on

In Marchand v. Barnhill, a unanimous Delaware Supreme Court imposed substantial new procedural expectations on corporate directors to satisfy their fiduciary duty of oversight related to material risk areas and legal...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Dismisses Stockholder Challenge To Merger For Failure To Rebut Business Judgment Rule

A&O Shearman on

On July 25, 2019, Vice Chancellor Kathaleen S. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a stockholder suit challenging the $18 billion merger of equals between Towers Watson & Co. and Willis Group Holdings plc,...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Allows Caremark Claim to Proceed Against Directors of Ice Cream Manufacturer Following Listeria Outbreak

In Marchand v. Barnhill, No. 533, 2018, 2019 Del. LEXIS 310 (Del. June 18, 2019), the Delaware Supreme Court (Strine, C.J.) reversed a Delaware Court of Chancery (Slights, V.C.) order dismissing a derivative claim alleging...more

White and Williams LLP

Evidence of Lack of Adequate Compliance Systems Sufficient to Plead Bad Faith by Board

Summer is usually the best time of year for ice cream companies, but the season is off to a rough start for Blue Bell Creameries, USA, Inc. The Delaware Supreme Court, in Marchand v. Barnhill, held on June 18 that a suit...more

A&O Shearman

M&A Watch — Caremark Unfrozen: Delaware Supreme Court Revisits Oversight Claims

A&O Shearman on

The Delaware Supreme Court recently took the opportunity to revisit Caremark with its en banc decision in Marchand v. Barnhill, No. 533, 2018 (Del. June 19, 2019). In Marchand, the Court reversed the dismissal of a...more

Dechert LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Reverses Dismissal of Caremark Claim, Finding Lack of Board-Level Oversight and Director Independence

Dechert LLP on

In Marchand v. Barnhill et al. (“Blue Bell”),1 the Delaware Supreme Court on June 19 unanimously reversed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative lawsuit against the members of the board of directors and two officers of...more

Jackson Walker

Delaware Supreme Court Holds Directors’ Fiduciary Duties Require Monitoring Mission-Critical Risks

Jackson Walker on

In 2015, Blue Bell Creameries USA, Inc., a Delaware subchapter S corporation headquartered in Brenham, Texas (Blue Bell), through subsidiaries made and distributed ice cream tainted with listeria bacteria. As a consequence,...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Delaware Supreme Court Finds Viable Caremark Claim

In Marchand v. Barnhill et al the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the Court of Chancery’s decision to dismiss a complaint asserting a Caremark cause of action for failure to state a claim.  The case involved Blue Bell...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Corporate Law & Governance Update - June 2018

McDermott Will & Emery on

Executive Compensation Recoupment - The most recent development in the prominent University of Louisville Foundation controversy is the release of an independent analysis suggesting that its senior executive leadership was...more

Gray Reed

Am I My Director’s Keeper?

Gray Reed on

Board of directors member Y.I. Gnough, who is also president of Algae Company, is in a pickle. Although denying any knowledge of sexual harassment and misconduct by the company founder and deal-maker Iam Algae, three co-board...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Dismisses Claim Seeking Damages Post-Closing for Unfair Merger Transaction

Morris James LLP on

Delaware jurisprudence encourages decision-making by boards of independent and disinterested directors. If a transaction does not involve a controlling stockholder and is approved by a majority of disinterested and...more

Morris James LLP

Court Of Chancery Explains When Side Deals Are Actionable Under A Bad Faith Theory

Morris James LLP on

Kahn v. Stern, C.A. No. 12498-VCG (Aug. 28, 2017) - It is not easy to sufficiently plead a bad faith breach of fiduciary duty by a board in approving a merger when a majority of the directors were disinterested and...more

Bennett Jones LLP

The Supreme Court of Canada Clarifies the Personal Liability of Directors in Oppression Cases

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In Wilson v. Alharayeri, 2017 SCC 39 [Alharayeri], the Supreme Court of Canada in a unanimous decision provides significant guidance as to when directors ought to be held personally liable for oppressive conduct under the...more

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