Episode 24: Corporate Oppression Doctrine Meets Sex Discrimination: A Conversation with Professor Meredith Miller
Episode 23: LLCs as They Approach the 50-Year Milestone: A Conversation with Professor Susan Pace Hamill
Litigation developments: core M&A and corporate governance doctrines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen GovCon Perspectives - Why Was My SWaM Certification Denied, and What Can I Do?
Episode 8: Minority Oppression in the LLC: Interview With Professor Douglas Moll
Episode 10: The Marketability Discount Revisited: Interview with Greg Barber
The M&A Word of the Day® from the Book of Jargon® – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Is Squeeze Out
The BVI and the Cayman Islands both have regimes in place to address unfair prejudice suffered by shareholders, although each jurisdiction approaches the issue differently. The threshold for successfully bringing an...more
In matters of corporate divorce, deadlock, majority oppression, or usurpation of corporate opportunities are all well-tread grounds for disputes between co-owners of closely held entities. These disputes often culminate in...more
When a minority shareholder petitions for dissolution of a corporation on the grounds of oppressive or illegal conduct (see BCL 1104-a), Section 1118 of New York’s Business Corporation Law allows the corporation or any other...more
In 1950, Sam Hoffman and his two sons, Hyman and Melvin, founded Brooklyn-based Cornell Beverages, Inc. to manufacture and distribute seltzer. Those were the days when “seltzer men” made weekly home deliveries of cases of...more
A minority shareholder petitioning for dissolution under BCL § 1104-a must establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the majority shareholders have engaged in “illegal, fraudulent or oppressive actions,” (BCL §...more
Section 1800 of the California Corporations Code provides a procedure for the involuntary dissolution of a corporation. The process begins with the filing of a verified complaint, but only those persons listed in the statute...more
In the last two years, fueled by a series of high profile cases involving media executives, entertainers, and other public figures, #MeToo has gained worldwide recognition as a symbol of the burgeoning movement against sexual...more
I’m very pleased to present my 11th annual list of this past year’s ten most significant business divorce cases. This year’s list includes four important appellate decisions, including one likely to stand as a landmark...more
When a minority shareholder petitions for judicial dissolution under § 1104-a of the Business Corporation Law based on the majority’s alleged oppressive conduct, looting, waste, or diversion of corporate assets, BCL § 1118...more
Last week, this blog wrote about a decision by Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Saliann Scarpulla in the burgeoning Yu family melee, in that case pitting one brother against the other and their sister over dissolution of...more
The Lowbet Realty saga, featuring the dissolution court’s rarely used authority to rescind an unauthorized sale of the corporation’s realty under Business Corporation Law § 1114, has finally ended after six years with a...more
This winter forever will be remembered in the Northeast as the winter of the “bomb cyclone,” which gets credit for the 6º temperature and bone-chilling winds howling outside as I write this. So in its honor, I’m accelerating...more
Over the years I’ve litigated and observed countless cases of alleged oppression of minority shareholders by the majority. Oppression can take endlessly different forms, some more crude than others in their execution, some...more
A business’s failure to pay state taxes can be a problem if the entity later wants to bring a lawsuit, or its non-controlling owners want to sue on the entity’s behalf....more
Article 11 of the Business Corporation Law governs dissolution of closely held New York business corporations. Article 11 has existed, more or less in its current form, for decades. Some of its provisions have been heavily...more
An earlier post on this blog, examining a post-trial decision in Matter of Digeser v Flach, 2015 NY Slip Op 51609(U) [Sup Ct Albany County Nov. 5, 2015], described the minority shareholder’s dissolution claim under Section...more
Welcome to another edition of Winter Case Notes in which I clear out my backlog of recent court decisions of interest to business divorce aficionados by way of brief synopses with links to the decisions for those who wish to...more