The Delaware Court of Chancery issued an order in Palkon v. Maffei on February 20, 2024, holding that a decision by the boards of directors and the controller of TripAdvisor, Inc. (“TripAdvisor”) and Liberty TripAdvisor...more
Delaware Supreme Court Rejects No-Injury Medical Monitoring Claims - As part of our ongoing coverage of issues in Medical Monitoring, we noted that the Delaware Supreme Court received a certified question from the U.S....more
In Donegal Mut. Ins. Co. v. Thangavel, No. 379, 2022, 2023 Del. LEXIS 227, the Supreme Court of Delaware (Supreme Court) considered whether the Sutton Rule prevented the plaintiff from pursuing subrogation against the...more
The Delaware Supreme Court heard arguments on June 14, 2023, on a question certified to it from the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, as to whether medical monitoring claims can be made in Delaware without proof of...more
The Delaware Supreme Court heard arguments in late March in a lawsuit on appeal by the State of Delaware seeking to hold Monsanto as a manufacturer responsible for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that have contaminated...more
Creditors of distressed businesses are often frustrated by shareholder- controlled boards when directors pursue strategies that appear to be designed to benefit shareholders at the creditors' expense. In these...more
In Tola v. Bryant, No. 16150, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 241 (Cal. App. Mar. 24, 2022), the First Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal applied Delaware’s new formulation of the test for determining whether a...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently decided that an agreement (sometimes referred to as a “drag along”) to waive prospectively statutory appraisal rights is fully enforceable against the common stockholders who made such...more
On September 23, 2021—in United Food and Commercial Workers v. Zuckerberg—the Delaware Supreme Court endorsed a new universal three-part demand futility test. The decision will likely have far-reaching consequences, including...more
On September 20, 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court took the highly unusual step of overruling its prior decision in Gentile v. Rossette. An oft-criticized precedent from 2006, Gentile created an exception allowing minority...more
SCOTUS Grants Certiorari to Decide Whether Automatic Discovery Stay Applies to Securities Act Cases in State Court; Delaware Court of Chancery Dismisses Stockholder Suit Against FedEx for Failure to Make Pre-Litigation...more
The following case (link) should serve as a cautionary tale for directors of Delaware corporations when taking actions that may disenfranchise stockholders, especially in the election of directors. The Delaware Supreme...more
Express Scripts: Delaware Supreme Court holds that an otherwise undefined “deliberate fraud” carve-out to an indemnification provision is limited to intentional fraud and does not include recklessness. Specific provisions...more
New York Federal Court Dismisses Securities Fraud Claims Against Alkermes for Lack of Fraudulent Intent; Fourth Circuit Affirms District Court’s Denial of Leave to File Amended Complaint Against Triangle Capital as Futile;...more
In Dohmen v. Goodman, the Delaware Supreme Court declined to impose an affirmative fiduciary duty of disclosure on a general partner arising out of the general partner’s solicitation of capital contributions from a limited...more
The Delaware Supreme Court held on March 18 in Salzberg, et al. v. Sciabacucchi that the exclusive federal-forum provisions in certificates of incorporation for three Delaware corporations were not facially invalid....more
In a previous blog post, we discussed the Delaware Chancery Court’s decision in Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd. v. Blackrock Credit Allocation Income Trust and its relevance to the interpretation of advance notice bylaw...more
Despite political and economic uncertainties, markets and deal activity were resilient in 2019, and strong fundamentals remain in place heading into 2020. Companies continue to face a challenging litigation and enforcement...more
Recently, the frequency of stockholder demands to inspect corporate books and records pursuant to Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law has increased. In turn, the case law concerning Section 220 demands is...more
The question of what constitutes a “securities claim” in the context of public company D&O policies is often debated in insurance coverage disputes, and the answer to this question can have significant effects on the scope of...more
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
The first half of 2019 saw several decisions from the Delaware courts that will affect M&A dealmaking - Aruba: Supreme Court awards "deal price less synergies" in closely watched appraisal case - Rejecting the Chancery...more
DowDuPont Inc. v. The Chemours Co., C.A. No. 2019-0351 (Del. June 26, 2019). A recent Delaware Supreme Court Order emphasizes the risks associated with the presumptions of public access to court filings and the...more
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
On May 16, 2019, the Supreme Court of Delaware affirmed a judgment by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery in favor of Potomac Capital Partners II, LP on claims by shareholder plaintiffs that the...more