Equity and capital forfeiture for competition provisions given less scrutiny than other post-employment restrictive covenants - Companies subject to Delaware law were handed a welcome surprise in a recent Delaware Supreme...more
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court decision that we wrote about previously, which invalidated a forfeiture-for-competition provision as an unreasonable restraint of trade. The Ainslie et al. v....more
On December 19, 2022, Chief Justice Seitz issued an opinion for a unanimous Delaware Supreme Court, sitting en banc, reversing and remanding the Delaware Court of Chancery’s decision in Bandera Master Fund LP v. Boardwalk...more
In In re GGP Stockholder Litigation, 2022 WL 2815820 (Del. July 19, 2022), an M&A transaction split the merger consideration into two parts: an oversized pre-closing dividend totaling over $9 billion, followed by a nominal...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
In Coster v. UIP Companies, Inc., No. 49-2020, 2021 WL 2644094 (Del. June 28, 2021), the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Court of Chancery ruling, No. 2018-0440-KSJM, 2020 WL 429906 (Del. Ch. Jan. 28, 2020) (McCormick,...more
Delaware Court of Chancery Allows Stockholder Litigation to Proceed Against Viacom-CBS Over $30B Merger; Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal with Prejudice of Securities Class Action Against Tesla; Second Circuit Affirms...more
Delaware Supreme Court reinstates case alleging fiduciary breach for failure to disclose CEO’s post-merger compensation discussions. Deal negotiators should take care not to negotiate their own post-closing compensation...more
On March 18, 2020, in a landmark ruling in Salzberg v. Sciabacucchi, No. 346, 2019 (Del. Mar. 18, 2020), the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the validity of provisions of corporate articles of incorporation that require...more
The decision is a positive development for Delaware corporations seeking to reduce duplicative state court litigation arising from public securities offerings. On March 18, 2020, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its...more
In a significant and likely influential decision, the Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed a lower court decision and held that the insured's intent—not that of the victim—controls whether or not bodily injury is an...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
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
An unbroken sequence of Delaware trial court decisions have reflected strong pro-policyholder leaning in insurance cases in furtherance of the state’s pro-business model. Following the most recent of these pro-policyholder...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
This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis. Brief summaries of each decision appear below with links to more robust discussions. ...more
A director’s duty to make a good faith effort to oversee the operations and management of a Delaware company is well-established. In a recent case, Marchand v. Barnhill, the Delaware Supreme Court provided guidance to boards...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 June 18, 2019, in a decision authored by Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr., the Delaware Supreme Court en banc reversed the dismissal of a stockholder derivative suit against the directors and officers of Blue Bell...more
On June 18, 2019, in Marchand v. Barnhill, the Delaware Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Leo E. Strine, Jr. on behalf of a unanimous court, issued a decision reversing the Court of Chancery’s dismissal of...more
On May 2, 2019, Justice Traynor authored a unanimous opinion in which the Supreme Court of Delaware, sitting en banc, reversed a decision by Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery awarding Leaf Invenergy...more
The Delaware Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC1 fashioned a powerful defense in post-closing money damages cases for boards of directors by finding that business judgment deference applies...more
Recently, Delaware corporations faced with demands for books and records under 8 Del. C. § 220 have increasingly been forced to contend with demands for electronic communications, such as emails. Historically, the Delaware...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently issued its highly anticipated decision in the Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc. appraisal action. In a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court reversed the Delaware...more