In re Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation Derivative Litigation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting en banc, overruled its prior decision in Blasband v. Rales that applied an...more
Harper v. Sievert, C.A. No. 2022-0819-SG (Del. Ch. May 31, 2024). A stockholder plaintiff brought derivative claims alleging that current and former directors of T-Mobile US, Inc. were liable for aggregating customers’...more
In Clem et al. v. Skinner, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion Caremark claims against the directors of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.’s for failure to plead demand futility. The court found that demand was not...more
Twenty-four years ago, the Delaware Supreme Court clarified that de novo review was the appropriate standard of review for the Court of Chancery’s dismissal of a derivative case for failure to plead demand futility. Brehm v....more
The power to bring a claim for breach of duty causing injury to a Delaware corporation resides with the board of directors. It is part of their duty under Section 141(a) of the Delaware General Corporation Law to manage the...more
Clem v. Skinner, et al., C.A. 2021-0240-LWW (Del. Ch. Feb. 19, 2024) - This Caremark decision involved the retail pharmacy company, Walgreens, and concerned billing practices for a particular insulin pen product that gave...more
On February 19, 2024, Vice Chancellor Lori Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a derivative breach of fiduciary duty action against nominal defendant Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (the “Company”) and its board...more
City of Hialeah Emps. Ret. Sys. v. Insight Venture Partners, C.A. No. 2022-0846-MTZ (Del. Ch. Dec. 28, 2023) - A venture capital fund invested in two different entities. One of the entities then acquired the other. In the...more
Joel Newman v. KKR Phorm Investors, L.P., et al. C.A. No. 2022-0310-NAC (Del. Ch. Aug. 31, 2023). At the motion to dismiss stage, Delaware courts will consider the facts alleged in the complaint as well as the documents...more
The Delaware courts issued a range of decisions this quarter, addressing topics from mootness fees to demand futility. Two key opinions addressed compliance with Delaware statute and court orders. In Seidman, the court...more
In Newman v. KKR, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a shareholder suit against Transphorm, Inc.’s Board and KKR, the largest shareholder, for failure to plead demand futility. The plaintiff alleged that the Board...more
City of Coral Springs Police Officers' Pension Plan v. Dorsey, C.A. No. 2022-0091-KSJM (Del. Ch. May 9, 2023) - A terrible business decision does not ensure the Court of Chancery will sustain a derivative claim. A...more
In Lebanon County Employees’ Retirement Fund v. Collis, C.A. No. 2021-1118-JTL (Del. Ch. Dec. 15, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss as untimely a derivative action against a pharmaceutical...more
The opioid crisis has garnered nationwide attention for decades and has resulted in thousands of lawsuits, subjecting pharmaceutical distributors to billions of dollars in damages. AmerisourceBergen (“Amerisource”) — one of...more
Last month, we tackled Pennsylvania’s “universal” demand requirement. As a refresher, unlike many states, Pennsylvania will not excuse the shareholder of a company who wants the company to sue its executives or directors from...more
Attorneys that represent shareholders of publicly traded companies in securities litigation are intimately familiar with the pre-suit demand required by the corporate law of many states. ...more
On December 15, 2022, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss claims as untimely in a derivative action brought by stockholders against the officers and directors of...more
In Construction Industry Laborers Pension Fund v. Bingle, (C.A. No. 2021-0940-SG (Del. Ch. Sept. 6, 2022)) (SolarWinds), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss a derivative suit against the directors of...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery, in In re Carvana Co., No. 2020-0415-KSJM (Del. Ch. June 30, 2022), applied the recently adopted Zuckerberg test for demand futility and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. The court found...more
In City of Detroit Police & Fire Ret. Sys. on Behalf of NiSource, Inc. v. Hamrock, No. CV 2021-0370-KSJM, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss duty of oversight claims against an energy company’s...more
Schoenmann v. Irvin, C.A. 2021-0326-SG (Del. Ch. Jun. 2, 2022) - After the plaintiff filed his direct and derivative claims in April 2021, the defendants – the company and its controller – circulated in June 2021 a written...more
City of Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System v. Hamrock, C.A. No. 2021-0370-KSJM (Del. Ch. June 30, 2022) - Stockholder plaintiff filed a derivative suit on behalf of an energy company alleging that certain of the...more
On June 30, 2022, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss derivative claims for breach of fiduciary duty brought by a stockholder of an energy company (the...more
On June 30, 2022, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss stockholder derivative claims for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty against the CEO/Chairman of an...more
Earlier this spring, yet another lawsuit alleging a company failed to adequately promote diversity was dismissed for a failure to properly allege demand futility. In City of Pontiac Police & Fire Ret. Sys. v. Jamison, the...more