In Roth v. Foris Ventures, LLC, Nos. 22-16632, 22-16633, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 30081 (9th Cir. Nov. 13, 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit partially reversed the dismissal of a shareholder...more
11/20/2023
/ Appeals ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Enforcement Actions ,
No-Action Letters ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Remand ,
Section 16 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholders
In Anderson v. Magellan Health, Inc., No. 2021-0202, — A.3d —-, 2023 WL 4364524 (Del. Ch. July 6, 2023) (McCormick, C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed the circumstances under which the Court will award a...more
7/18/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Business Litigation ,
Corporate Governance ,
Delaware ,
Disclosure ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Mergers ,
Proxy Statements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In Lee v. Fisher, No. 21-15923, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 13521 (9th Cir. June 1, 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative complaint...more
In ZF Micro Solutions, Inc. v. TAT Capital Partners, Ltd., 2022 WL 4090879 (Cal. App. Aug. 8, 2022), the Fourth Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal decided, as a matter of first impression, that a...more
In Brookfield Asset Mgmt. v. Rosson, No. 406, 2020, 2021 Del. LEXIS 291 (Del. Sept. 20, 2021), the Delaware Supreme Court held that claims for wrongful equity dilution may be pursued only derivatively on behalf of the...more
In Heinze v. Tesco Corp., No. 19-20298, 2020 WL 4814094 (5th Cir. Aug. 19, 2020), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action suit under Section 14(a) of the...more
In Juul Labs, Inc. v. Grove, 2020 Del. Ch. LEXIS 264 (Del. Ch. Aug. 13, 2020) (Laster, V.C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that the “internal affairs doctrine” bars a stockholder of a Delaware corporation headquartered...more
Merger agreements involving acquisitions of private companies often contain terms creating post-merger obligations or “earnouts” in favor of certain classes of selling stockholders. To address potential claims that may arise...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
5/14/2020
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Burden of Proof ,
Demand Futility ,
Derivative Suit ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Local Rules ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pleading Standards ,
Pleadings ,
Quid Pro Quo ,
Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Section 220 Request ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In Jensen v. iShares Trust, 2020 Cal. App. LEXIS 61 (Cal. App. Jan. 23, 2020), a rare state court decision addressing claims under the Securities Act of 1933 (“1933 Act”), the California Court of Appeal rejected...more
2/4/2020
/ Appeals ,
Asset Tracing ,
BlackRock ,
Broker-Dealer ,
ETFs ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Institutional Investors ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Registration Statement ,
Secondary Markets ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders ,
Standing
In High River Limited Partnership v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., C.A. No. 2019-0403-JRS, 2019 WL 6040285 (Del. Ch. Nov. 14, 2019) (Slights, V.C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a stockholder’s mere disagreement...more
UPDATE: On August 5, 2020, the Delaware Supreme Court summarily affirmed the judgment of the Court of Chancery “on the basis of and for the reasons stated in its January 25, 2019 opinion.”
Section 220 of the Delaware...more
2/1/2019
/ Books & Records ,
Burden of Production ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Electronic Communications ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Email ,
Investigations ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Section 220 Request ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In City of North Miami Beach Gen. Employees’ Ret. Plan v. Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0227-AGB, 2018 WL 2473150 (Del. Ch. June 1, 2018), the Delaware Court of Chancery (Bouchard, C.) denied stockholders of Dr...more
In In re Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, No. 169, 2017, 2017 WL 6374741 (Del. Dec. 13, 2017), the Delaware Supreme Court limited the ability of directors to assert the stockholder ratification defense when...more
1/4/2018
/ Board of Directors ,
Business Judgment Rule ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Entire Fairness Standard ,
Equity Plans ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Ratification ,
Self-Dealing ,
Shareholder Approval ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In the case In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 855 F.3d 459 (2d Cir. 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court order subordinating the claims of former Lehman Brothers employees for...more
8/17/2017
/ Absolute Priority Rule ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debt Restructuring ,
Employee Stock Purchase Plans ,
Equitable Relief ,
Lehman Brothers ,
Lien Priority ,
Qualified Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) ,
Recharacterization ,
Restricted Stocks ,
Risk Allocation ,
Section 502 ,
Section 510 ,
Shareholders ,
Subordination Agreement
In Weingarten v. Monster Worldwide, Inc., C.A. No. 12931-VCG, 2017 WL 752179 (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2017), the Delaware Court of Chancery (Glasscock, V.C.) clarified when a plaintiff has standing to vitiate inspection rights...more
3/10/2017
/ Article III ,
Books & Records ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Demand Letter ,
Equitable Estoppel ,
Inspection Rights ,
Merger Agreements ,
Motion to Compel ,
Section 220 Request ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders ,
Standing ,
Stocks ,
Tender Offers
Stockholder claims alleging wrongful dilution are typically considered to be derivative in nature. Several decisions out of Delaware, however, have created exceptions to this general rule allowing stockholders to sue...more
1/20/2017
/ Aiding and Abetting ,
Appeals ,
Board of Directors ,
Breach of Contract ,
Breach of Duty ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Derivative Suit ,
Dilution ,
Direct Suit ,
Master Limited Partnerships ,
Mergers ,
Mootness ,
Parent Corporation ,
Partnership Agreements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reversal ,
Self-Dealing ,
Shareholders ,
Standing ,
Tortious Interference
In Hill International, Inc. v. Opportunity Partners L.P., No. 305, 2015, 2015 WL 4035069 (Del. July 2, 2015), the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s grant of injunctive relief as it recognized the...more
In Hill International, Inc. v. Opportunity Partners L.P., No. 305, 2015, 2015 WL 4035069 (Del. July 2, 2015), the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s grant of injunctive relief as it recognized the...more
A ruling last fall by the Delaware Chancery Court has prompted a wave of 8 Del. C. § 220 books and records inspection demands on (and threatened litigation against) Delaware corporations that have entered into credit...more
6/11/2015
/ Board of Directors ,
Books & Records ,
Change in Control ,
Credit Agreements ,
Debt Financing ,
Debt Securities ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Lenders ,
Proxy Put ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In the consolidated appeal In re Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., Stockholder Litigation and In re Zhongpin Stockholders Litigation, Nos. 564, 2014 and 706, 2014, 2015 Del. LEXIS 231 (Del. May 14, 2015), the Delaware Supreme...more
Two recent decisions, one from the Delaware Court of Chancery and one from the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, refused to apply bylaws that impaired a shareholder/member plaintiff’s ability to pursue...more
The Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Chancery Court’s decision that it lacked authority to impose the requested use restriction, noting that Section 220(c) authorizes the Chancery Court in the exercise of discretion to...more
In Arduini v. Hart, 2014 WL 7156764 (9th Cir. Dec. 17, 2014), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered whether the doctrine of issue preclusion prevents a stockholder from relitigating a prior...more
In Bricklayers & Trowel Trades Int’l Pension Fund v. Credit Suisse Sec. (USA) LLC, No. 12-1750, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8994 (1st Cir. May 14, 2014), the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a district...more