Episode 155 -- Tom Fox and Michael Volkov Discuss the Blue Bell Creameries Enforcement Action
The role of the Board of Directors has always been a key part of any best practices compliance program. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have consistently said that a Board’s role...more
Over the past couple of blog posts, we have considered the guilty pleas by Blue Bell Creameries to charges that they distributed adulterated ice cream products and paid a criminal fine and forfeiture amount totaling $17.25...more
Board oversight of significant company risk areas and legal compliance deserves renewed attention, as the Delaware Supreme Court recently ruled that monitoring practices that have previously been considered acceptable may...more
The Situation: Directors of Blue Bell Creameries USA, Inc. ("Blue Bell") were sued for breach of fiduciary duty following a lethal listeria outbreak in its ice cream facilities. Applying the duty of oversight first...more
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
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
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
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
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
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