Justia Delaware Court of Chancery Opinion Summaries

A group of minority investors sued the manager of an LLC for damages, arguing that the manager breached his contractual and fiduciary duties. The court concluded that the manager's course of conduct beached both his contractual and fiduciary duties. Using his control over the LLC, the manager took steps to deliver the LLC to himself and his family on unfair terms. Therefore, the court entered a remedy, taking into account the distribution received by plaintiffs at the auction, and adding interest, compounding monthly at the legal rate, from that time period. Because the manager had made this litigation far more cumbersome and inefficient than it should have been by advancing certain frivolous arguments, the court awarded plaintiffs one-half of their reasonable attorneys' fees and costs under the bad faith exception to the American Rule. View "Auriga Capital Corp., et al. v. Gatz Properties, LLC, et al." on Justia Law

In a shareholder derivative action brought in the name of Sunpower, plaintiff claimed that the directors and certain officers of SunPower breached their fiduciary duties by failing to implement or to monitor an effective internal control system, which caused the company to misstate, and then to restate, its financial statements for 2008 and 2009. That restatement also led to related actions in federal court accusing the company and its directors and senior management of violating federal securities laws (Securities Class Action). Plaintiffs sought indemnification for whatever losses the company ultimately incurred from the Securities Class Action and recovery of other damages directly caused by the restatement itself. Defendants moved to stay the derivative action pending resolution of the Securities Class Action. The court found that practical considerations made simultaneous prosecution of both cases unduly complicated, inefficient, and unnecessary. Therefore, the court granted defendant's motion to stay the derivative action. View "Brenner v. Albrecht, et al." on Justia Law

This matter involved a request for books and records under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. Plaintiff owned stocked in the defendant corporation and was also a plaintiff in a California state plenary state derivative action, in which it alleged that the defendant directors were liable to the corporation for a breach of their fiduciary duties. Because of the unusual procedural posture of this case, which included statements by the California Court appearing to endorse this action, the court ordered certain records produced. Defendants made production and plaintiffs subsequently filed a motion to compel, arguing that the production was insufficient. The court found that the issue was moot because plaintiff failed to file a third amended complaint before defendants filed and the parties briefed, a demurrer to the second amended complaint in the California action, and because, to the extent plaintiff needed expedited action on this motion to compel in order to file a third amended complaint, it failed to seek it. Defendant's demurrer had been submitted to the California court, which had stated that there would be no amendments to the now-completed briefing and that the second amended complaint would stand or fall with prejudice. Therefore, plaintiff no longer had a proper purpose. View "Amalgamated Bank v. NetApp, Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a former corporate officer, sued defendant, his former employer, for advancement and indemnification in connection with several proceedings that arose out of regulatory and criminal investigations at the defendant corporation following defendant's distribution of oversized morphine sulfate tablets into the market. The dispute centered around whether plaintiff succeeded on the merits of any of the proceedings at issue, thus entitling him to indemnification as a matter of law, or whether additional discovery was required to determine whether plaintiff acted in good faith, in which case he would be entitled to indemnification under the Indemnification Agreement. The court found that plaintiff was not entitled to advancement for the Jail Records Matter; was not entitled to mandatory indemnification for the Criminal Matter or the HHS Exclusion Matter; was entitled to mandatory indemnification for the FDA Consent Decree Matter; and that the evidence relevant to plaintiff's claims for permissive identification was limited to plaintiff's conduct, and the facts related to that conduct, underlying the proceedings for which indemnification was sought. View "Hermelin v. K-V Pharmaceutical Co." on Justia Law

This action involved claims by plaintiffs (Paron and, together with McConnon and Lyons) against defendant. McConnon, Lyons, and defendant co-founded Paron to manage client accounts using a software-based futures trading strategy defendant had developed. Plaintiffs accused defendant of fabricating records and making other false statements concerning the trade software, fraudulently inducing McConnon and Lyons to form Paron, and breaching fiduciary duties to Paron. This memorandum opinion addressed several outstanding procedural issues raised after trial concerning the post-trial briefing and the exhibits to be considered as part of the record. The court overruled in part and sustained in part Crombie's various objections to a number of plaintiffs' trial exhibits; denied Crombie's motion to reopen the record and admit additional evidence; denied Crombie's request that the court disregard plaintiffs' post-trial brief and award sanctions against them; denied Crombie's recent motion for involuntary dismissal; and considered the matter fully submitted and ripe for a final determination on the merits. View "Paron Capital Mgmt, LLC, et al. v. Crombie" on Justia Law

This action was before the court on a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin the consummation of a proposed restructuring of a mortgage loan secured by certain resorts properties in Mexico and the Bahamas. Holders of more senior participations claim that the proposed transaction unfairly benefited the junior holder at the expense of the more senior holders in direct contravention of the terms of the agreements controlling the debt. The senior holders further claimed that if the proposed transaction was allowed to close, they would suffer irreparable harm through the loss of certain rights and guaranties under the new terms of the loan. The court concluded that the senior holders have stated colorable claims and made a sufficient showing that they would suffer imminent harm if the proposed transaction were allowed to close. Further, the court found that this potential irreparable harm outweighed the harm that would result to the junior holders by delaying the closing for a few weeks until a preliminary injunction could be heard. Accordingly, the court granted the TRO. View "Trilogy Portfolio Co., LLC, et al. v. Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners, et al." on Justia Law

This case involved the dispute between Gila Dweck, the CEO, director, and 30% stockholder in Kids International Corporation (Kids) and Albert Nasser, the Chairman and controlling stockholder of Kids. Dweck and Nasser accused each other of breaching their fiduciary duties and Nasser asserted third-party claims for breach of fiduciary duty against Dweck's colleagues Kevin Taxin, Kids' President, and Bruce Fine, Kids' CFO and corporate secretary. The court found that Dweck and Taxin breached their fiduciary duties to Kids by establishing competing companies that usurped Kids' corporate opportunities and converted Kids' resources; Dweck further breached her fiduciary duties by causing Kids to reimburse her for personal expenses; Fine breached his fiduciary duties by abdicating his responsibility to review Dweck's expenses and signing off on them wholesale; Dweck, Taxin, and Fine breached their duties by, inter alia, transferring Kids' customer relationships and business expectancies to their competing companies; and Dweck, Taxin, and Fine were liable to Kids for the damages they caused by their breaches of duty. The court largely rejected Dweck's breach of fiduciary duty claims against Nasser. Nevertheless, Nasser failed to carry his burden of proving that it was entirely fair for Kids to pay him a consulting fee that compensated him equally with Dweck when he performed no work for kids. Nasser was liable to Kids for those fees. Dweck also established her entitlement to an accounting from Nasser for some of the amount in cash that Kids had on hand at the time of the split. View "Dweck, et al. v. Nasser, et al." on Justia Law

When Morgan Joseph Holdings, an investment bank in which Petitioners held preferred stock, merged with another investment bank, Petitioners demanded appraisal instead of exchanging their shares. At issue was (1) the correct interpretation of Morgan Joseph's certificate of incorporation and whether the automatic redemption of the stock under the certificate was a mandatory redemption that was not subject to a requirement that Morgan Joseph have excess cash available; and (2) whether the automatic redemption right afforded to the stock holders was irrelevant to the fair value analysis in an appraisal. The Chancery Court granted Petitioners' motion for partial summary judgment, holding (1) under the certificate, automatic redemptions were not subject to an excess cash requirement; and (2) the automatic redemption was relevant to the Court's determination of fair value in an appraisal proceeding. View "Shiftan v. Morgan Joseph Holdings, Inc." on Justia Law

Petitioners argued that defendants - who were the then-parent company and directors of Aristotle Corporation - breached their fiduciary duties by not disclosing all material facts in connection with a short-form merger under 8 Del. C. 253. At issue was whether petitioners, who already had the right to seek appraisal in connection with a section 253 merger, could add an additional claim alleging that the directors breached their fiduciary duty to disclose the material facts necessary for the stockholders to determine whether to seek appraisal when the only purpose of pressing the disclosure claim was to give petitioners the redundant right of a "quasi" version for something that they already possessed? Because petitioners have not alleged that they have suffered any cognizable injury that gave rise to standing, and because they were therefore asking in these unique circumstances for an improper advisory decision, the court granted defendants' motion to dismiss. View "In Re: Appraisal Of The Aristotle Corp." on Justia Law

This derivative suit was brought against the Grupo Mexico subsidiary that owned Minera, the Grupo Mexico-affiliated directors of Southern Peru, and the members of the Special Committee, alleging that the Merger at issue was entirely unfair to Southern Peru and its minority stockholders. The court concluded that the transaction was unfair and remedied the unfairness by ordering the controller to return to the NYSE-listed company a number of shares necessary to remedy the harm. The court applied a conservative metric because of plaintiff's delay, which occasioned some evidentiary uncertainties and which subjected the controller to lengthy market risk. View "In re Southern Peru Copper Corp. Shareholder Derivative Litigation" on Justia Law