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Derivative Suit Fiduciary Duty Business Litigation

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court of Appeal Holds That Derivative Litigation Settlement Procedural Rules Apply Even In Intra-Shareholder Suits in...

In Norman v. Strateman, No. A170356, 2025 WL 1802786 (Cal. App., 1st Dist., June 20, 2025), the California Court of Appeal held that a settlement of derivative claims reached among all shareholders of a close corporation was...more

PilieroMazza PLLC

Managing Litigation Risk During the Business Lifecycle, Part 3: Derivative Actions

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While litigation risk is an unavoidable aspect of running a business, business owners can limit such risks with early planning. In this third installment of PilieroMazza’s blog series, “Managing Litigation Risk During the...more

Baker Botts L.L.P.

Texas Corporations Gain New Governance Tools and Increased Predictability in Shareholder Disputes

Baker Botts L.L.P. on

Last week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Texas Senate Bill 29, which includes a comprehensive package of amendments to the Texas Business Organizations Code aimed at reinforcing and revitalizing the governance...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

A(nother) Cautionary Tale on the Importance of Operating Agreements

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To practitioners familiar with internal disputes involving closely held companies, the allegations in Lafayette Village Pub, LLC v. Burnham, 2025 NCBC 8, are nothing new. The member running the business (allegedly) made bad,...more

Frost Brown Todd

Legislature Takes Steps to Ensure Texas Remains the Most Business-Friendly State in the Union

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On February 27, 2025, Senator Bryan Hughes (R-Tyler) filed Senate Bill 29 (S.B. 29), proposing several corporate reforms designed to ensure that Texas remains the premier business-friendly jurisdiction in the nation. If...more

Balch & Bingham LLP

In ‘Case’ You Missed It: Alabama Supreme Court issues opinion clarifying the rules controlling nonprofit corporation governance

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If you have ever been to the Flora-Bama, chances are you have passed by the Caribe Resort in Orange Beach, AL. The Caribe, like many beach resorts, is a condominium building containing individually owned residential units...more

DarrowEverett LLP

LLC's Failure to Execute Operating Agreement Opens Legal Trapdoor

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While entity distinctness is a bedrock principle of corporate law, it may often appear redundant and unnecessary for a limited liability company (“LLC”) to sign its own operating agreement. That was likely the thinking of the...more

Allen Matkins

Court Finds Usurpation Of LLC Opportunity To Be Derivative

Allen Matkins on

My last few posts have been devoted to the Court of Appeal's opinion in Tuli v. Specialty Surgical Center of Thousand Oaks, LLC, 2024 WL 4499271 (Oct. 16, 2024).  The case relates to the plaintiff's "decade-long litigation...more

Allen Matkins

Does Personal Animosity Vitiate The Business Judgment Rule?

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Under the business judgment rule, "a director is not liable for a mistaken business judgment which is made in good faith and in what he or she believes to be in the best interest of the corporation, where no conflict of...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty: A More “Lenient Standard” for Damages?

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

If Sisyphus were a judge, he’d be assigned the Fuks case. Fuks began on December 26, 1996. Fire up your mental time machine, travel back in time, and picture what was going on in your life those many years ago....more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Limo Company Shareholders Can't Hitch a Ride in Derivative Litigation

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Closely-held business entities come in all shapes and sizes. By definition, under Partnership Law § 10, it takes “two or more” owners to form a general partnership. But corporations and LLCs have no such impediment, ranging...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Supreme Court Holds MFW Is Applicable To Controlling Stockholder Transactions Even Outside Of Freeze-Out Context

A&O Shearman on

On April 4, 2024, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz, Jr., the Supreme Court of Delaware sitting en banc held that the framework articulated in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp., 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014)...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Derivative into Direct and Waived into Preserved: The Transformative Power of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

The distinction between direct and derivative claims pervades business divorce litigation.  Whether a dissident owner’s claim against his or her co-owners is a direct claim (one that the owner can assert in their individual...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Can One 50% Shareholder Sue the Other in the Company Name on the Company Dollar? Answer: It Depends

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In the menagerie of closely held companies, those owned and controlled by 50/50 business partners pose unique benefits and challenges. On the benefit side, co-equal ownership and control can foster cooperation,...more

Robson & Robson, P.C.

Pennsylvania’s Alternative Path For Minority Shareholders Who Can’t Pass Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 23.1’s “Adequate...

Robson & Robson, P.C. on

When shareholders of a company believe the leaders of the company have breached their fiduciary duties to it, they can bring a lawsuit against those leaders in one of two ways. Shareholders can bring the suit in their own...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

A Recurring Business Divorce Feature: Usurpation of Corporate Opportunity

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

One of the earliest signs that a closely-held business is headed for divorce lies in how its owners treat new opportunities. When the relationship among the owners reaches a certain level of distrust, an owner presented with...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

The “Conflict of Interest” Defense to Shareholder Derivative Standing

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In shareholder derivative litigation, defendants occasionally argue that the plaintiff – who ostensibly sues on behalf of the company and its owners in a fiduciary capacity – has some form of conflict of interest with the...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Business Divorce, Brooklyn Style

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

The pictured architectural rendering of the sunlit Kings County Supreme Courthouse at 360 Adams Street, completed in 1957, doesn’t quite capture the reality of its dour, hulking presence in downtown Brooklyn. Its design...more

Patton Sullivan Brodehl LLP

Derivative Claim Standing: Both Contemporaneous And Continuous Membership Required

When an LLC suffers primary harm that also indirectly harms the LLC’s members, the cause of action generally belongs to the LLC, not its members. Only if the LLC (through its duly authorized management) fails to pursue the...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

But What of the Equitable Accounting?

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

I can’t say what the number is, but my own experience tells me that a significant percentage of lawsuits by a minority owner of a closely-held company against those in control of the company include a demand for an...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

The Minority Shareholder’s Arrows Are Still Sharp in the Quiver: Claims Available to Oppressed Minority Shareholders under Texas...

The seven-year anniversary of the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Ritchie v. Rupee has come and gone, and the court’s holding from 2014 remains the law: Minority shareholders in Texas private companies do not have a cause...more

Morris James LLP

Delaware Corporate and Commercial Case Law Year in Review

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Our 2021 Top 10 list summarizes decisions from the Delaware courts likely to affect business transactions and business litigation going forward. Our criteria for selection are that the decision either meaningfully changed...more

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

Qualcomm Escapes Diversity Suit

Another diversity-based derivative suit was dismissed this week by a federal district court, joining a list of decisions that have rejected similar shareholder allegations. ...more

Winstead PC

Litigating Minority Shareholder Rights - Presentation

Winstead PC on

David F. Johnson presented his paper “Business Divorce: Minority Shareholder Rights In Texas” to the State Bar of Texas’s Business Disputes Course on September 2-3, 2021. This presentation addressed shareholder oppression...more

Goodwin

Massachusetts Superior Court BLS Finds No Duty To Disclose Alleged Preliminary Merger Discussions

Goodwin on

Massachusetts Superior Court BLS Finds No Duty to Disclose Alleged Preliminary Merger Discussions, Northern District of California Declines to Dismiss Oracle Fraud Class Action Suit, SCOTUS Hears Oral Argument in Goldman...more

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