PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
In the recent Wigdor v Facebook Canada Ltd. and Meta Platforms, Inc., 2025 ONSC 4051 decision (the “Decision”), which has not yet been reported, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice upheld the enforceability of restricted...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently clarified the scope of the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (MNAA). In Susan Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., the SJC held the MNAA does not apply where a...more
In Thompson Street Capital Partners IV, L.P. v. Sonova United States Hearing Instruments, LLC,1 the Delaware Supreme Court recently adopted a complex framework for determining when noncompliance or partial compliance with a...more
Although the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act expressly excludes nonsolicitation agreements from its definition of “noncompetition agreements,” the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently responded to a...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has ruled that a forfeiture clause triggered by a breach of a non-solicitation agreement is not a "forfeiture for competition agreement" under the Massachusetts Noncompetition...more
Imagine you’re a private equity firm. You buy a company, and you want to retain and incentivize key employees, so you give them some equity in the form of incentive units. You also want to prevent them from running off and...more
In North American Fire Ultimate Holdings, LP v. Alan Doorly, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that the restrictive covenants included in an incentive unit grant agreement were unenforceable when the units received by the...more
On Monday, March 3, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) heard argument in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., regarding whether the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act, G. L. c. 149, § 24L (the...more
In 2021, LKQ Corporation (LKQ) filed suit against Robert Rutledge, its former plant manager, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. LKQ alleged that Rutledge’s working for a competitor within nine...more
There has been a rash of lawsuits recently challenging how forfeitures are used in retirement plans. (Forfeitures are the amounts remaining when the unvested portion of a participant’s account is forfeited.) The novel theory...more
Less than two months after the Delaware Supreme Court provided the employers, investment partners and other business leaders that trust in the stability of Delaware law to protect their critical business interests with the...more
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court decision that we wrote about previously, which invalidated a forfeiture-for-competition provision as an unreasonable restraint of trade. The Ainslie et al. v....more
Conditions Precedent- In this appeal, the Eighth Appellate Court affirmed in part the trial court’s determination that Defendant breached its contract with Plaintiff disagreeing with Defendant-appellant that Plaintiff failed...more
A commercial lease co-tenancy clause conditions a retail tenant’s opening for business or continuing operations at the designated property upon another tenant opening for business or continuing operations at the same...more
Avid readers will have seen our previous blog (https://www.ukrealestatelawblog.com/2020/03/24/uk-covid-19-commercial-tenants-to-be-given-three-months-protection-from-forfeiture/) on the government’s proposals to protect...more
Although company voluntary arrangements have stolen the headlines this year, there are many other tenants, particularly those in the retail sector that are not seeking to reduce their rents but simply falling into arrears. ...more
Some years ago, a judge in New York wrote that “the reported cases for replevin of a pet dog are few, in part because of the legal expense involved in maintaining such an action.” Webb v. Papaspiridakos, 889 N.Y.S.2d 884...more
On May 20, 2016, the Texas Supreme Court issued two opinions dealing with the home-equity lending provisions in article XVI, section 50 of the Texas Constitution. In Wood v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., ___ S.W.3d ___, 2016 WL...more
On May 20, 2016, the Supreme Court of Texas (the "Court") issued its opinions in two cases involving Texas home equity lending – Garofolo v. Ocwen Loan Servicing and Wood v. HSBC Bank USA. The decisions are important for the...more