Justia Delaware Court of Chancery Opinion Summaries

A group of companies that are frequently sued in asbestos litigation brought an action against several settlement trusts and a claims processing facility. These trusts were established as part of bankruptcy reorganizations by former asbestos manufacturers to handle and pay out current and future asbestos-related claims. The plaintiffs rely on information held by these trusts—specifically, data about claimants’ other asbestos exposures—to defend themselves in ongoing and anticipated lawsuits. In January 2025, the trusts announced new document retention policies that would result in the destruction of most existing claims data after one year, which the plaintiffs argued would severely impair their ability to defend against asbestos claims and seek contribution or indemnification from the trusts.Previously, the trusts notified claimants of the impending data destruction, and the plaintiffs, upon learning of this, requested that the trusts not implement the new policies. When the trusts refused, the plaintiffs filed suit in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, seeking a declaratory judgment that the trusts have a duty to preserve the claims data and a permanent injunction to prevent the destruction of this information. The trusts moved to dismiss, arguing that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction, that the plaintiffs lacked standing, and that the complaint failed to state a claim.The Court of Chancery denied the motions to dismiss. It held that it had subject matter jurisdiction because the plaintiffs sought injunctive relief and because the case fit within the court’s traditional equitable powers, including the authority to grant a bill of discovery to preserve evidence for use in litigation. The court found that the plaintiffs had standing, as they faced a concrete and imminent injury from the threatened destruction of data essential to their defense and contribution claims. The court also held that the complaint stated a claim for relief, allowing the case to proceed beyond the pleading stage. View "DBMP LLC v. Delaware Claims Processing Facility, LLC" on Justia Law

The plaintiff, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, initially filed a lawsuit in Puerto Rico against the defendants, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment. The Puerto Rico court dismissed the case, citing a forum selection clause in the agreement between the parties that mandated litigation in Delaware.Following the dismissal, the plaintiff filed a new lawsuit in Delaware. The defendants counterclaimed, alleging breach of the forum selection clause and seeking damages for the expenses incurred in the Puerto Rico litigation. The plaintiff moved to dismiss this counterclaim, arguing that the defendants could not recover these expenses.The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware reviewed the case. The court held that the defendants could indeed seek damages for breach of the forum selection clause, measured by the expenses incurred in the Puerto Rico litigation. The court referenced the Delaware Supreme Court's decision in El Paso, which allowed for the recovery of such damages. The court also clarified that the American Rule, which generally requires parties to bear their own litigation costs, does not preclude the recovery of damages measured by litigation expenses when those expenses are the direct result of a breach of contract.The court further noted that the forum selection clause created a contractual right for the defendants to be free from litigation in any forum other than Delaware. The court rejected the plaintiff's argument that the defendants should have sought these expenses in the Puerto Rico court, affirming that the defendants were entitled to enforce their contractual rights in Delaware.Ultimately, the Court of Chancery denied the plaintiff's motion to dismiss the counterclaim, allowing the defendants to pursue their claim for damages resulting from the breach of the forum selection clause. View "Namdar v. Fried" on Justia Law

A motor vehicle collision occurred in Sussex County, Delaware, involving Joanne Dudsak, a New Jersey resident insured by New Jersey Manufacturers (NJM), and Christopher Koester, a Maryland resident insured by Allstate Insurance Company. NJM paid Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits to Dudsak and sought inter-company arbitration in Delaware to recover these costs. Allstate opposed, arguing that NJM's policy, being from New Jersey, did not qualify for arbitration under Delaware law, which requires the vehicle to be registered in Delaware for PIP subrogation rights.The arbitrator ruled in favor of NJM, awarding the full amount and rejecting Allstate's jurisdictional challenge. Allstate then filed a Petition to Vacate the Arbitration Award in the Delaware Chancery Court, arguing that the arbitrator exceeded his authority. NJM moved to dismiss the petition, claiming the issue was moot because Allstate had agreed to tender its policy limits, which would extinguish NJM's subrogation rights under Delaware law.The Delaware Chancery Court denied NJM's Motion to Dismiss, finding that a real dispute remained. The court then addressed the merits of Allstate's Motion for Summary Judgment. The court applied the standard of review under 10 Del. C. §5714(a)(5), which allows vacating an arbitration award if the arbitrated claim was barred by limitation and the objection was raised from the outset. The court found that §2118 of the Delaware PIP statute applies only to vehicles required to be registered in Delaware and does not cover out-of-state policies like NJM's. Consequently, the arbitrator exceeded his authority by accepting jurisdiction over the case. The court granted Allstate's Motion for Summary Judgment, vacating the arbitration award. View "Allstate Insurance Co. v. New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co." on Justia Law

The case involves a dispute over the funding of Delaware's public schools. The plaintiffs, non-profit organizations with an interest in Delaware's schools, filed a lawsuit in 2018, alleging that the state's public schools were not providing an adequate education for students from low-income households, students with disabilities, and students whose first language is not English. They argued that one of the problems was a broken system for funding the schools, which relied on property taxes. The plaintiffs contended that the three counties in Delaware were using decades-old property valuations, which violated state law and the state constitution.The case was initially heard in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. During discovery, the plaintiffs served requests for admission to the counties, asking them to admit that their decades-old assessments resulted in a lack of uniformity in property taxes and violated state law. The counties denied these requests. At trial, the court found in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that the counties' assessments violated state law and the state constitution. The court also found that the plaintiffs had proved the facts that were the subject of the requests for admission that the counties had denied.The plaintiffs then requested an award of expenses under Court of Chancery Rule 37(c), which allows the court to order a party to pay the expenses that another party incurred in proving a fact that should have been admitted. The court granted the plaintiffs' request, awarding them expenses of $337,224, which included attorneys’ fees and out-of-pocket costs. Each county was ordered to pay a prorated share of $112,408. View "In re Delaware Public Schools Litigation" on Justia Law

In the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, the plaintiffs Dennis Palkon and Herbert Williamson, shareholders of TripAdvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc., filed a lawsuit against the directors of the companies. The directors had resolved to convert the companies from Delaware corporations into Nevada corporations, a decision approved by controlling stockholder Gregory B. Maffei. The plaintiffs argued that Nevada law offers fewer litigation rights to stockholders and provides greater litigation protections to fiduciaries, alleging that the directors and Maffei approved the conversion to secure these protections for themselves.The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that it failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted. The court denied the motion except regarding the plaintiffs' request for injunctive relief. The court held that the conversion constituted a self-interested transaction effectuated by a stockholder controller, and conferred a non-ratable benefit on the stockholder controller and the directors, triggering entire fairness review.The court found it reasonably conceivable that the conversion was not substantively fair, as the stockholders would hold a lesser set of litigation rights after the conversion. It also found it reasonably conceivable that the conversion was not procedurally fair, as the stockholder controller and the board did not implement any procedural protections. The court concluded that the plaintiffs had stated a claim on which relief can be granted. However, the court stated that it would not enjoin the companies from leaving Delaware, as other remedies, including money damages, could be adequate. View "Palkon v. Maffei" on Justia Law

In a contractual dispute between Blueacorn PPP, LLC and Paynerd LLC, Paynerdier LLC, Matthew Mandell, and Taylor Hendricksen, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware denied the defendants' motion to dismiss Blueacorn's complaint for negligent misrepresentation. The defendants argued that there was no equity jurisdiction because there was no fiduciary or special relationship between the parties, and the relationship was governed by commercial contracts negotiated and performed at arms' length. However, Blueacorn claimed that Pay Nerd had a pecuniary duty to provide accurate information which they breached by supplying false information, and Blueacorn suffered a pecuniary loss due to reliance on that false information.The court found that Blueacorn had sufficiently alleged misrepresentation by claiming that the defendants' false statements were made with the intention of inducing a buyer to form a new company to engage in business with the seller. The court also noted that Blueacorn's claim of negligent misrepresentation had been pled with enough particularity as required by Rule 9(b). However, the court also expressed reservations about whether Blueacorn had pled a pecuniary interest strong enough to invoke equity jurisdiction based on negligent misrepresentation, noting that nearly every party involved in a business contract dispute would have a pecuniary interest in the transaction. Despite this, the court decided not to dismiss the claim at this stage, citing the interest of judicial economy. The court left open the possibility of revisiting the motion to dismiss at the conclusion of the trial. View "Blueacorn PPP, LLC v. Pay Nerd LLC" on Justia Law

The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware has selected the Friedlander Team as lead counsel and the NYC/Oregon Funds as lead plaintiffs in a derivative lawsuit against Fox Corporation. After the 2020 presidential election, Fox News broadcasted statements accusing two voting machine companies of facilitating election fraud, leading to defamation lawsuits against the network. Fox Corporation paid $787.5 million to settle one lawsuit, with another still pending. As a result, various stockholders filed derivative complaints, seeking to shift the losses from the corporation to the directors and officers allegedly responsible for the harm. The court was required to choose between two competing teams of attorneys to lead the consolidated actions. After evaluating the teams according to recently amended Rule 23.1, which identifies factors for consideration when resolving leadership disputes, the court selected the Friedlander Team and the NYC/Oregon Funds. The court noted the deliberate, client-driven process through which these entities were chosen, their resources and expertise, and the legitimacy conferred by the involvement of public officials. View "In re Fox Corporation Derivative Litigation" on Justia Law

The Court of Chancery granted Petitioner's petition to hold Respondents - Hone Capital LLC and CSC Upshot Ventures I, L.P. - in contempt for failing to comply with an order to advance expenses (the advancement order), holding that coercive contempt sanctions can be used to enforce an advancement right.At issue before the Court of Chancery was whether contempt sanctions could be used to enforce the advancement order in this case where contempt is not generally available to enforce a money judgment. The Court of Chancery held (1) due to the harm that a covered person faces, the holder of an advancement right is not relegated to collection mechanisms; and (2) Petitioner was entitled to relief on her request of a daily fine to coerce compliance until Respondents comply with the advancement order. View "Gandhi-Kapoor v. Hone Capital LLC" on Justia Law

The Court of Chancery granted Defendants' motion to dismiss the amended complaint against them under Court of Chancery Rule 12(b)(2) for lack of personal jurisdiction, holding that this Court lacked personal jurisdiction.To establish personal jurisdiction, Plaintiffs relied on sections 3104(c)(1) and 3014(c)(3) of Delaware's Long-Arm Statute and the conspiracy theory of jurisdiction. The Court of Chancery dismissed the claims without prejudice, holding (1) both theories of jurisdiction required a forum-related act or omission; (2) Plaintiffs did not adequately allege a forum-related act or omission; and (3) Plaintiffs' interpretation of section 3014(c)(3) was unsupported by caselaw. View "SDF Funding LLC v. Fry" on Justia Law

The Court of Chancery granted Plaintiffs' motion to compel the production of documents and denied Defendants' motion for a retroactive extension in the time to respond, holding that Defendants are required to product all documents responsive to the requests for production of documents within fourteen days.Through Heartland Family Group, LLC, Alexander Burns controlled Southport Lane, L.P. and its affiliates (the Southport Entities). Plaintiffs sued Burns and Heartland, arguing that certain transactions rendered two companies acquired by the Southport Entities insolvent. Plaintiffs served requests for production of documents on Defendants. In response, Defendants invoked the Fifth Amendment. Plaintiffs then moved to compel the production of documents and responses to interrogatories. Defendants moved for a retroactive extension. The Court of Chancery granted Plaintiffs' motion to compel and denied the motion for a retroactive extension, holding that Defendants' invocation of the Self-Incrimination Clause is overruled. View "Wood v. U.S. Bank National Ass'n" on Justia Law