Litigation developments: fundamental shareholder rights.
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
On January 24, 2023, Skadden presented the fourth and final part of our 15th Annual Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Update series, “Developments and Trends in Delaware Law: A Review of 2022 and What to Expect...more
For decades, Delaware courts have encouraged stockholders to use the “tools at hand” — before initiating lawsuits — by obtaining corporations’ books and records through 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220). As described in prior...more
In this issue we discuss how plaintiffs are finding creative ways to obtain books and records, and appraisal cases where Delaware courts held that fair value rose between signing and closing. Other articles describe how 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 past year, Proskauer’s private fund litigation blog highlighted a Delaware Chancery case adopting an expansive view in favor of parties seeking information from companies under Section 220 of the Delaware General...more
In an important decision, the Delaware Supreme Court, in AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. Lebanon Cty. Employees’ Ret. Fund, No. 60, 2020, 2020 WL 7266362 (Del. Dec. 10, 2020), ruled that stockholders may obtain access to a...more
IN THIS ISSUE - Illinois Federal Judge Finds COVID-19, Not TD Ameritrade, Responsible for Losses; Supreme Court to Address Scope and Application of Basic Presumption of Classwide Reliance in Securities Class Actions;...more
Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, 8 Del. C. § 220 (“Section 220”), permits a stockholder of a Delaware corporation to inspect corporate books and records upon a showing of a proper purpose. The Delaware...more
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court issued an important decision effectively broadening the scope of stockholder pre-litigation inspection rights. ...more
Murfrey v. WHC Ventures, LLC, App. No. 294, 2019 (Del. Supr. Jul. 13, 2020) - Drafters of alternative entity agreements frequently cite to, or quote, statutory language to describe the parties’ obligations. But, the...more
This issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between October 2019 and January 2020. ...more
In a prior alert, we discussed Delaware Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster’s Jan. 13, 2020, decision in Lebanon County Employees’ Retirement Fund v. AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a Section 220 books and records action brought...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
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
Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law affords stockholders a qualified right to inspect a corporation's books and records. A Section 220 inspection is a powerful stockholder right, and indeed, the Delaware...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
On August 7, 2019, in a decision authored by Justice Gary F. Traynor, the Delaware Supreme Court concluded that books and records produced to a stockholder under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law are not...more
The Delaware Supreme Court yesterday rejected a presumption of confidentiality for documents produced pursuant to books-and-records inspection requests under § 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. The decision in...more
In the recent decision of Tiger v. Boast Apparel, Inc., No. 23, 2019 (Del. Aug. 7, 2019), the Delaware Supreme Court held that conditioning the inspection of documents pursuant to a demand under 8 Del. C. § 220 on the...more
Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law permits stockholders to request inspection of a corporation’s books and records. This access is not unlimited. For example, the stockholder must demonstrate a proper...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
Delaware corporations have always been required to provide certain information to their stockholders under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), but the scope and form of that information has naturally...more
Since the start of 2018, state and, to a lesser extent, federal courts around the country, as well as state legislatures and Congress, have issued decisions or considered legislation having a substantial impact on corporate...more