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Epstein Becker & Green

Making the Lawyer-Client Relationship Work in Challenging Litigation – Speaking of Litigation Video Podcast

Sometimes, challenging clients need to be challenged. Whether encouraging candid client conversations or reining clients in during depositions, it’s important to keep the ultimate goal in mind: success. In this episode of...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Did Chancery Court Just Crack Open the Door to Equitable Dissolution of LLCs?

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Delaware Chancery Court’s contractarian approach to all things LLC, embedded statutorily in Section 18-1101(b) of the Delaware LLC Act (“It is the policy of this chapter to give the maximum effect to the principle of freedom...more

Stikeman Elliott LLP

Recent Québec Court of Appeal Decision Highlights the Importance of Clear Drafting for Earnouts

Stikeman Elliott LLP on

Ambiguous drafting of earnout provisions in M&A agreements is a perennial source of post-closing disputes. What may have seemed clear to parties in the heat of negotiations can often become less so as time passes,...more

Mayer Brown

Do reasonable endeavours require accepting non-contractual performance to reach a reasonable outcome?

Mayer Brown on

In the UK Supreme Court's judgment in RTI Ltd v MUR Shipping BV [2024] UKSC 18, which was handed down last week, it considered what obligations the words “reasonable endeavours” placed on a party, in the context of a force...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Crossing the Hudson: Recent Business Divorce Decisions from Yonder States

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Folks who’ve been following this blog for years know that periodically I like to venture beyond New York’s borders to find and report on interesting decisions from other states in business divorce cases....more

Mayer Brown

Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Forfeiture-for-Competition Provision in Limited Partnership Agreement

Mayer Brown on

On January 29, 2024, in Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. v. Ainslie, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court holding that a forfeiture-for-competition provision in a limited partnership agreement was unenforceable as an...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Enforcing the Guardrails on Transactions Involving Interested Directors of Close Corporations

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In my business divorce practice I deal with many closely held corporations that have only a few or perhaps just two shareholders, each of whom is actively involved in running the business. Within that category are many...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

A Lifeline for the Stale “Schedule A”

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

One need not peruse the pages of this blog for long to learn that its authors strongly advise against entering into an owners’ agreement that calls on the members to “annually” (or worse, “regularly”) update a critical aspect...more

Freiberger Haber LLP

Third-Party Beneficiaries and Contract Interpretation

Freiberger Haber LLP on

In Stagen v. Neu, 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 06105 (1st Dept. Nov. 28, 2023), the Appellate Division, First Department addressed an issue of contract interpretation involving a word in a settlement agreement that most readers would...more

Gray Reed

Fifth Circuit Punts Postproduction Cost Question to Louisiana Supreme Court

Gray Reed on

The question in Self v, BPX Operating Company is how to balance the Louisiana Civil Code Art 2292 principle of negotiorum gestio against Louisiana’s conservation statutes....more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Dissolution Defined: The First Department’s Recent Guidance on Interpreting Operating Agreements

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

The owners’ agreement is the backbone of the closely-held business.  In intracompany LLC disputes, few things are more important than what the operating agreement has to say on the subject.  As a consequence, the pages of...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

EDVA Judge Grants Emergency Motion to Stay Pending Arbitration Until Issue of Arbitrability Resolved

Troutman Pepper Locke on

On June 12, Judge Hudson granted an emergency motion to stay arbitration proceedings, pending the court’s resolution of the issue of arbitrability in a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of...more

Carlton Fields

Fifth Circuit Affirms Denial of Arbitration, Rejects Arbitration Provisions in “Battle of the Forms” Between Buyer and Seller in...

Carlton Fields on

The case involved the sale of mist eliminators (demisters) from MECS Inc. to Axiall Canada Inc., an owner of a Canadian manufacturing facility. A key issue involved the terms of the parties’ contractual relationship as formed...more

Gray Reed

How to Lose Your Working Interest in 26 Annual Steps

Gray Reed on

Can a non-operating working interest in a Texas oil and gas lease be adversely possessed? The Amarillo Court of Appeals said yes in PBEX II, LLC v. Dorchester Minerals, L.P....more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Business Divorce and Restrictive Covenants

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Closely-held business owner breakups often defy easy categorization. What seem at first blush to be traditional business divorce cases sometimes end up treading far into other legal practice areas. Other disputes blur...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

First Department Recognizes Cause of Action for Specific Performance of LLC Member Voting Agreement

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In 1941, two of the three shareholders of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. entered into an agreement stating that they would vote their combined 630 of the outstanding 1000 shares of Ringling Bros. stock...more

Gray Reed

More Force Majeure Fallout From Uri

Gray Reed on

MIECO, LLC v. Pioneer Natural Resources presented a challenge to a force majeure defense in a dispute arising from Winter Storm Uri. The defense carried the day....more

Gray Reed

Reserved Royalty Interest is “Floating”

Gray Reed on

Texas courts continue to address the “fixed or floating” non-participating royalty interest question. The El Paso Court of Appeals’ answer in Bridges v. Uhl et al. was floating, based on the language in that particular...more

Robinson & Cole LLP

Buyer Beware: Delaware Court of Chancery Declines to Blue-Pencil Restrictive Covenant in M&A Transaction

Robinson & Cole LLP on

On October 6, 2022, in Kodiak Building Partners, LLC v. Philip D. Adams, C.A. No. 2022-0311-MTZ (Oct. 6, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery found that a restrictive covenant entered into in connection with an asset...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

And a Time to Every Purpose Under . . . the Operating Agreement?

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

It’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that King Solomon prophesied the standard for judicial dissolution of LLCs, but there it is: under New York’s judicially construed standard for involuntary dissolution under Section 702 of...more

Gray Reed

Beware Assignor: Own the Leases Before You Reserve the Override

Gray Reed on

Let’s begin with a quiz. Armour purchases non-recourse mortgage notes, becoming a lienholder in 99 oil and gas leases and 13 wells; fails to record the transfer documents in the real property records; assigns the leases to...more

Patton Sullivan Brodehl LLP

Does an Operating Agreement’s Arbitration Clause Apply to a “Purported” LLC Member?

If an LLC’s Operating Agreement contains a sufficiently broad arbitration clause, most disputes raised by the LLC’s members relating to the LLC will be sent to arbitration (instead of the court system) for resolution. But...more

Ruder Ware

Resolving Business Disputes

Ruder Ware on

In a perfect world, business owners could spend all of their time and money focusing on a singular task:  running their business.  Despite the best laid plans, however, at some point ancillary concerns will arise and...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

The Operating Agreement Controls, Unless Public Policy Says Otherwise

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Two principles often guide courts’ interpretation and enforcement of contracts.  First, courts respect parties’ freedom of contract, mostly.  So long as an agreement is not illegal or violative of a strong public policy,...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

A Two-Act Play of LLC Default Rules and Manager Removal

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

“Except as provided in the operating agreement. . . ” - By my count, this phrase and its close relative, “unless otherwise provided in the operating agreement,” appear 59 times in New York’s LLC Law, most often to...more

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