Litigation developments: fundamental shareholder rights.
For decades, Delaware has been widely regarded as the leading forum for incorporation in the United States. More than half of all publicly traded U.S. companies, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500, have made...more
Wong Leung Revocable Tr. v. Amazon.com Inc., C.A. No. 2023-1251-BWD (Del. Ch. May 1, 2024) - In order to inspect books and records under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, a stockholder-plaintiff must...more
2023 was a busy year, with both the Delaware courts and others, including the U.S. Supreme Court, weighing in on shareholder and M&A litigation issues. The Delaware Court of Chancery issued several notable decisions on issues...more
In this issue, we discuss recent Delaware court developments regarding officer liability, who can recover “lost-premium” damages, and trends in books and records actions, among other topics....more
As discussed in prior articles, stockholder plaintiffs have increasingly sought to obtain companies’ books and records under 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220) and the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act’s analogous provision,...more
Wei v. Zoox, Inc, C.A. No. 2020-1036-KSJM (Del. Ch. Jan. 31, 2022) - Often, stockholders who suspect corporate wrongdoing in connection with M&A transactions demand to inspect the company’s books and records under Section...more
In a derivative action In re Boeing Company Derivative Litigation, Boeing’s stockholders obtained approval from the Delaware Court of Chancery for a landmark US$237.5 million settlement of derivative claims targeting the...more
Below is our Corporate / M&A decisions update covering decisions in the third quarter of 2021. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis. The...more
This top ten list summarizes significant decisions of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery over the past calendar year. Our criteria for selection are that the decision either meaningfully changed...more
The Supreme Court of Delaware recently affirmed a decision by the Court of Chancery that ordered a corporation to produce certain books and records to a shareholder, and which granted leave to the shareholder to take a...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in In re: Mindbody Inc. Stockholders Litigation is important reading for lawyers whose practices include evaluating, addressing and — when necessary — litigating potential...more
Woods v. Sahara Enterprises, Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0153-JTL (Del. Ch. July 22, 2020) - This decision concerning statutory inspection rights under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law clarifies the requirements...more
Martinez v. GPB Capital Holdings, LLC, C.A. No. 2019-1005-SG (Del. Ch. June 9, 2020) - The Delaware Court of Chancery largely entered judgment on the pleadings in favor of GPB Capital Holdings, LLC (“Defendant”), the...more
Rule 23.1 of the Delaware Court of Chancery Rules requires a plaintiff asserting a shareholder derivative action to plead “with particularity the efforts, if any, made by the plaintiff to obtain the action the plaintiff...more
In Salladay v. Lev, the Delaware Chancery Court elaborated on how early a corporate board must take protective measures to shield a conflicted transaction from entire fairness review. Salladay involved a motion to dismiss a...more
In High River Ltd. P’ship v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., No. CV 2019-0403-JRS, 2019 WL 6040285 (Del. Ch. Nov. 14, 2019), the Court of Chancery of the state of Delaware recently refused to hold that Section 220 books and...more
Lebanon County Employees’ Retirement Fund v. AmerisourceBergen Corp., C.A. No. 2019-0527-JTL (Del. Ch. Jan. 13, 2020). Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) provides stockholders seeking information...more
In a recent post-trial opinion, Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an important decision regarding stockholder books and records demands under Section 220(b) of the Delaware General Corporation...more
Consistent with trends in recent years, in 2019 Delaware corporation law largely was shaped by post-closing suits for money damages against directors who had approved mergers and acquisitions. Two Delaware Supreme Court...more
On January 13, 2020, the Delaware Court of Chancery (Laster, V.C.) ordered AmerisourceBergen Corp. to turn over formal board materials to stockholder plaintiffs regarding its compliance with laws and regulations relating to...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
In 2019, Delaware’s Court of Chancery and Supreme Court expanded the potential fruits of a “books and records” demand under 8 Del. C. § 220 to reach the electronic communications among board members and other corporate...more
Bucks Cty. Employees Ret. Fund v. CBS Corp., C.A. No. 2019-0820-JRS (Del. Ch. Nov. 25, 2019). A stockholder seeking books and records in Delaware states a proper purpose for inspection by demonstrating a credible basis to...more
Following Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings and other Delaware cases that have reinforced the standards that stockholder suits must meet to survive dismissal, would-be litigants have increasingly invoked Section 220 of the...more
On October 1, 2019, Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion in In re Clovis Oncology, Inc. Derivative Litigation, in which he found that stockholder plaintiffs had stated a claim...more