The New York Law Journal recently published, for the 9th consecutive year, my annual review of business divorce cases (read it here). Most of the cases discussed in the article have been mentioned in previous postings.
Here’s a rundown of the article’s choices for 2007’s most interesting business divorce cases, with links provided to the cases and to previous postings:
- Dissolution and Right of First Refusal: Matter of Schneck (R&J Components Corp.) (discussed here) and Matter of Schwimmer (El-Roh Realty Corp.), where two judges reached opposite results on the issue of whether the petitioner’s filing of a dissolution petition triggered a right of first refusal and mandatory buyback under the shareholders’ agreement.
- LLCs and Temporary Receivers: At the Airport, LLC v. Isata, LLC (discussed here) in which the court held that the LLC Law does not authorize the court to appoint a temporary receiver until after dissolution is ordered.
- Grounds for Dissolution: Matter of Cheung (Ho Foong Shiu Realty Corp.) and Matter of Livolsi (111 Glen Street Corp.) (discussed here) in both of which the courts denied dissolution petitions brought by 50% shareholders claiming oppression by the other shareholder.
- Restrictive Covenants: Matter of Autz (Ronald C. Fagan, M.D. and Arthur Lutz, M.D., P.C.) (discussed here) where the court ruled that the sale in liquidation of the company’s good will is a sale “under compulsion” and therefore does not trigger an implied covenant not to solicit customers.
- Pre-Conversion Agreements: Matter of Hochberg (Manhattan Pediatric Dental Group, P.C.) (discussed here) in which the court compelled arbitration of a dissolution case under an arbitration clause in a partnership agreement that pre-dated the conversion of the business to a professional corporation.
- Partner Limited Liability Shield: Ederer v. Gursky (discussed here) where New York’s top court interpreted Section 26(b) of the Partnership Law as not shielding partners in limited liability partnerships from personal liability against claims for breach of the partnership’s or partners’ obligations to each other.
If you’d like to read some of my previously published annual reviews, look under Links on the right sidebar of this blog’s home page where you’ll find links to my articles covering the years 2003 through 2006.
Next week, New York Business Divorce returns to Anatomy of a Dissolution Slugfest, Part III.