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Breach of Duty Breach of Contract Board of Directors

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Court of Chancery Dismisses Aiding And Abetting Fraud Claim Against Corporate Officers And Directors On Grounds That A Corporation...

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Urvan v. AMMO, Inc., Consol. C.A. No. 2023-0470 PRW (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2024, corrected Mar. 14, 2024) - It is an axiom of Delaware law that a corporation acts through its human agents. This principle informs the causes of...more

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Supreme Court Upholds Contractual Voidness Provision in LLC Agreement

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Holifield v. XRI Investment Holdings, LLC, No. 407, 2022 (Del. Sept. 7, 2023) - This decision concerned the disputed transfer of a member's LLC units. Below, the Court of Chancery held that the disputed transfer was...more

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Entire Fairness Standard Applied to Transaction Benefitting Controllers of Controllers

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Tueza v. Lindon, C.A. No. 2022-0130-SG (Del. Ch. Apr. 27, 2023) - Because controlling stockholders of Delaware corporations owe fiduciary duties to both the corporation and to its minority stockholders, the Court of...more

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Chancery Rules That Moving Situs of Trust to Delaware Supports Personal Jurisdiction Under the State’s Long-Arm Statute

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Harris v. Harris, C.A. No. 2019-0736-JTL (Del. Ch. Jan. 12, 2023) - Three children filed suit against their mother and her associates, alleging they had seized control of a family-owned corporation and engaged in...more

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Delaware Corporate and Commercial Case Law Year in Review - February 2023

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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

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Shareholder Actions: Direct Vs. Derivative Suits

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When it comes to protecting their interests – or the interests of the corporation – shareholders have unique rights to take legal action. They can file suit either on behalf of the corporation itself, known as a derivative...more

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Chancery Resolves Section 225 Dispute and Declines to Invalidate Written Consents

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Zhou v. Deng, C.A. No. 2021-0026-JRS (Del. Ch. Apr. 6, 2022) - When deciding a summary proceeding regarding a disputed corporate office under Section 225 of the DGCL, the Court of Chancery may consider whether an election,...more

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Delaware Chancery Court Dismisses Cigna Derivative Suit Over Failed Anthem Merger

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Delaware Chancery Court Dismisses Cigna Derivative Suit Over Failed Anthem Merger; The PCAOB Sanctions Former KPMG Vice Chair Of Audit For Failure To Supervise Senior Members Of KPMG's Audit Practice; Ninth Circuit Affirms...more

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Chancery Finds Former Directors Bringing Wrongful Termination Claims Were Not Entitled to all Privileged Communications During...

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SerVaas v. Ford Smart Mobility LLC, C.A. No. 2020-0909-LWW (Del. Ch. Nov. 9, 2021) - With limited exceptions, directors normally have “unfettered” access to corporate information. This decision indicates, however, that the...more

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Chancery Dismisses Time-Barred Complaint Against Zillow

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Chertok v. Zillow, Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0849-LWW (Del. Ch. Oct. 18, 2021) - Plaintiffs, a former co-founder and director of NMD Interactive (“Chertok”) and an LLC that he managed, brought a breach of contract action against...more

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Chancery Dismisses Derivative Breach of Contract Claim Against Directors for Alleged Violations of Certificate of Incorporation

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Lacey v. Mota-Velasco, C.A. No. 2019-0312-SG (Del. Ch. Feb. 11, 2021) - A corporate charter represents a contractual agreement between the corporation and its stockholders. In Lacey, the Court of Chancery addressed...more

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Rhode Island Federal Court Dismisses Securities Class Action Against CVS Arising From Statements Made After Omnicare Acquisition

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Rhode Island Federal Court Dismisses Securities Class Action Against CVS Arising From Statements Made After Omnicare Acquisition; SEC Division of Corporation Finance Suggests Companies Issue Additional Disclosures When...more

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Chancery Resolves Dispute Between Competing Special Committees, Finding Second Committee Could Not Voluntarily Dismiss Suit...

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In re WeWork Litigation, C.A. No. 2020-0258-AGB (Del. Ch. Dec. 14, 2020) - This decision addresses a matter of first impression arising out of a dispute pitting two special committees of the same company, WeCompany...more

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Chancery Sustains CEO’s Contract Claims in WeWork Litigation

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In re WeWork Litig., Consol. C.A. No. 2020-0258-AGB (Del. Ch. Oct. 30, 2020). A company facing a liquidity crisis (the shared working space company, WeWork), its outgoing CEO (Adam Nuemann), and two related SoftBank...more

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Chancery Holds That Management Does Not Have Unilateral Authority to Preclude a Director From Obtaining the Company’s Privileged...

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In Re WeWork Litig., Consol. C.A. No. 2020-0258-AGB (Del. Ch. Aug. 21, 2020) - In October 2019, The We Company’s (the “Company”) board of directors established a special committee (the “Special Committee”) to evaluate a...more

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Chancery Rejects Bid to Jettison USACafes and its Holding That, Absent Agreement to the Contrary, the Controllers of a Corporate...

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Fannin v. UMTH Land Development, L.P. (In re: United Development Funding III, L.P.), C.A. No. 12541-VCF (Del. Ch. Jul. 31, 2020). The Court of Chancery has concluded that in certain situations, equity will, by default,...more

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Chancery Construes LLC Agreement as Imposing Only the Managerial Duty to Act in Good Faith and Dismisses Claims for Failure to...

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MKE Holdings v. Schwartz, C.A. No. 2018-0729-SG (Del. Ch. Sept. 26, 2019). Under Delaware law, the managers of a limited liability company owe the entity and its members the traditional common law fiduciary duties of care...more

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Court of Chancery Finds Agreements Unenforceable for Lack of Assent, Dismisses Remaining Claims for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

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Eagle Force Holdings, LLC v. Campbell, C.A. No. 10803-VCMR (Del. Ch. Aug. 29, 2019). Parties to a contract must provide evidence of an overt manifestation of assent for a contract to be enforceable under Delaware law....more

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Court of Chancery Addresses Stockholder Standing to Enforce Corporate Contracts, Declines to Dismiss Claim for Breach of...

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Ark. Teacher Ret. Sys. v. Alon USA Energy, Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0453-KSJM (Del. Ch. Jun. 28, 2019). Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, an anti-takeover statute, prohibits a target from entering into a...more

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Chancery Addresses Earn-Out Dispute Involving Alleged Breaches of Fiduciary Duty and the Implied Covenant

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Glidepath Ltd. v. Beumer Corp., C.A. No. 12220-VCL (Del. Ch. Feb. 21, 2019). Contingent payments based on an acquired business’s future performance are a frequent feature in M&A transactions. In this case, after selling...more

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Court of Chancery Addresses the Scope of Summary Control Disputes and Effectiveness of Written Consents

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Brown v. Kellar, C.A. No. 2018-0687-MTZ (Del. Ch. Dec. 21, 2018) - Control disputes, like those under Section 225 of the DGCL, are summary, narrow proceedings limited to the issues regarding title to office. The Court of...more

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Court of Chancery Addresses Contract Formation

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CSH Theatres L.L.C. v. Nederlander of San Francisco Associates, C.A. No. 9380-VCMR (Del. Ch. July 31, 2018) - This drama arises from a dispute involving the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. The decision mostly deals with...more

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Delaware Supreme Court Confirms that Dilution Claims Typically Are Derivative and Are Extinguished After a Merger

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

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Delaware Law Updates – Board’s Adoption of a Plan of Dissolution Held Not to Be a Breach of the Directors’ Fiduciary Duties

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In The Huff Energy Fund, L.P. v. Gershen, C.A. No. 11116-VCS (Del. Ch. Sept. 29, 2016), the Delaware Court of Chancery dealt with the issue of whether a company’s decision, approved by its board of directors and its...more

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Court of Chancery Explains Notice Required Before Directors Act

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This decision concerns a soap opera with bizarre facts and alleged witness tampering that hopefully will never be repeated. It does have a good discussion on what notice the board of directors must give to a controller before...more

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