News & Analysis as of

Board of Directors Motion to Dismiss Shareholder Litigation

Morris James LLP

Chancery Dismisses Executive Compensation Action For Failure To Plead Demand Futility

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Eckert v. Hightower, C.A. No. 2024-0569-MTZ (Del. Ch. Mar. 24, 2025) - A board of directors approved compensation packages for the company’s CEO, who also was its controlling stockholder. The CEO was a member of the...more

Hogan Lovells

Federal district court denies Target’s motion to dismiss securities claims related to one of its ESG and DEI Initiatives

Hogan Lovells on

In Craig v. Target Corporation, et al., the District Court for the Middle District of Florida considered whether Target Corporation (Target) committed securities violations by failing to disclose risks related to an ESG and...more

Venable LLP

Chancery Court Dismisses Equitable Challenge to Advance Notice Bylaws as Unripe

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Invoking the recent Delaware Supreme Court decision Kellner v. AIM ImmunoTech Inc., 320 A.3d 239 (Del. 2024) (“Kellner”), the Court of Chancery held that equitable challenges to the enforceability of advance notice bylaws are...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Dismisses Fiduciary Duty Claim Against Directors Based on Disclosures Regarding the Company’s Purposes

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Stansell v. Rosensweig, C.A. No. 2023-0180-PAF (Del. Ch. June 12, 2024) - The plaintiff was a stockholder of a company that provided online education resources. Some of the company's customers used its products to cheat on...more

Morris James LLP

Court of Chancery Dismisses Aiding And Abetting Fraud Claim Against Corporate Officers And Directors On Grounds That A Corporation...

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Urvan v. AMMO, Inc., Consol. C.A. No. 2023-0470 PRW (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2024, corrected Mar. 14, 2024) - It is an axiom of Delaware law that a corporation acts through its human agents. This principle informs the causes of...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

‘Mission Critical’ Issues and ‘Red Flags’: What It Means for a Board To Exercise Oversight

Takeaways - Delaware courts have become more willing to allow stockholders to pursue claims that directors breached their duty to oversee risk management and compliance. Directors are most vulnerable to suits where they have...more

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

Divided Delaware Supreme Court Decision Highlights Issues About Director Independence in Derivative Actions

The Delaware Supreme Court recently affirmed a Court of Chancery ruling granting a Special Litigation Committee’s motion to terminate a shareholder derivative action that had survived a motion to dismiss. The split decision...more

Jones Day

Recent Developments in Shareholder Derivative Litigation Concerning Diversity in Corporate Leadership

Jones Day on

The Situation: A number of shareholder derivative lawsuits in federal court have been filed seeking to hold directors and officers of major companies accountable for alleged failures to uphold their companies' stated...more

Winstead PC

Court Addressed A Shareholder Derivative Suit Against Officers And Directors For Self-Interested Transactions, Misuse Of Company...

Winstead PC on

In Roels v. Valkenaar, a shareholder filed a shareholder derivative suit against former and current officers and directors of the company based on multiple claims of breach of fiduciary duty. No. 03-19-00502-CV, 2020 Tex....more

BCLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Again Declines to Dismiss a Caremark Oversight Failure Claim

BCLP on

On April 27, 2020, the Delaware Court of Chancery for the third time in a year denied a motion to dismiss a Caremark claim. The case, Hughes v. Hu, involves a derivative claim against the audit committee and officers of a...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Addresses Pleading ‘With Particularity’ Under Rule 23.1

Rule 23.1 of the Delaware Court of Chancery Rules requires a plaintiff asserting a shareholder derivative action to plead “with particularity the efforts, if any, made by the plaintiff to obtain the action the plaintiff...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Key Developments in Delaware Corporation Law

Consistent with trends in recent years, in 2019 Delaware corporation law largely was shaped by post-closing suits for money damages against directors who had approved mergers and acquisitions. Two Delaware Supreme Court...more

Jones Day

Chancery Court Requires Entire Fairness Review of Tesla CEO Compensation

Jones Day on

The Background: A shareholder challenged an extraordinary and extremely lucrative incentive-based compensation package awarded by Tesla to its chair, CEO, and controlling shareholder, claiming a breach of fiduciary duties. ...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Inside the Courts – An Update From Skadden Securities Litigators - September 2019

This quarter’s issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between May and August 2019....more

K&L Gates LLP

In Rejecting Defendants’ Motion For Dismissal, Chancery Court Finds That Individual Fiduciary May Be Held Liable For Trades That...

K&L Gates LLP on

In the consolidated stockholder derivative litigation, In re Fitbit, Inc., CA No. 2017-0402-JRS (Del. Ch. Dec. 14, 2018), the Delaware Court of Chancery denied the Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ insider trading and...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Finds Implicit Consent To Jurisdiction By A Foreign Controlling Stockholder In Connection With The...

A&O Shearman on

On March 15, 2019, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to dismiss a derivative suit brought by minority stockholders of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (the “Company”) against the Company’s...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Delaware Chancery Court Finds Elon Musk May Be Controlling Stockholder of Tesla Motors

On March 28, 2018, in In re Tesla Motors, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by stockholders of Tesla Motors, Inc. (“Tesla” or the “Company”)....more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Hot Topic for 2018 Proxy Season: Director Compensation in Wake of New Delaware Supreme Court Ruling

Troutman Pepper Locke on

In an important recent opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in In re Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation that certain director compensation decisions would be reviewed under the “entire fairness” standard...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Under Delaware Law, the Occurrence of Alleged Illegal Conduct at a Company Is Not Enough to Plead Demand Futility Sufficient to...

In a shareholder derivative action, to survive a motion to dismiss for failure to plead facts showing demand futility, a derivative plaintiff must plead particularized facts showing either actual involvement by a majority of...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Chancery Court Declines To Dismiss Challenges To Director Option Grants And Outside Investor Voting Agreement

A&O Shearman on

On June 28, 2017, Vice Chancellor Tamika Montgomery-Reeves of the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to dismiss purported derivative and direct stockholder claims for breaches of fiduciary duty against the directors of...more

Carlton Fields

Yellow Flags Are Not Red Flags: Delaware Court of Chancery Rejects Caremark Claim in Reiter v. Fairbank

Carlton Fields on

In October 2016, the Delaware Court of Chancery rejected a shareholder derivative lawsuit premised on an alleged lack of oversight by the directors of Capital One Financial Corp., Reiter v. Fairbank, C.A. No. 11693-CB, 2016...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

"Two Court of Chancery Deal Litigation Decisions Provide Helpful Guidance"

Chelsea Therapeutics: Post-Closing Bad Faith Claim a ‘Rare Bird’ in Delaware Absent Allegations of Self-Interestedness or Lack of Independence - In In re Chelsea Therapeutics International LTD Stockholders Litigation,...more

King & Spalding

Delaware Court of Chancery Dismisses Litigation Arising from Controller Buyout of Books-A-Million Under "MFW" Framework

King & Spalding on

On October 10, 2016, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued its decision in In re Books-A-Million, Inc. Stockholders Litigation. The decision, authored by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, is important because it applies the...more

McCarter & English, LLP

Delaware Law Updates – Court of Chancery Puts Boards of Directors on Notice that Contracting Away Derivative Claims in a Merger...

Vice Chancellor Glasscock has held that a merger designed to eliminate derivative claims against a majority of directors justified the application of the entire fairness standard of review in a direct challenge to the merger....more

Morris James LLP

Court of Chancery Explains Bad Faith Test

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This decision deals with when the actions of directors may be considered to be in bad faith, at least when there is no self-interest involved and the directors are properly informed before taking the time to decide what to...more

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