Some authors have noted that appraisal has become the disciplining remedy for the fiduciary duties of corporate managers. This may be true, regardless of the fact that appraisal is an independent and distinct remedy from fiduciary duty litigation. But sometimes the two are inextricably bound.
In late February 2018, the Delaware Supreme Court handed down a decision in Appel v. Berkman, No. 316, 2017, 2018 WL 947893 (Del. Feb. 20, 2018), wherein stockholder-plaintiffs brought an action against the corporate directors of Diamond Resorts, alleging breaches of fiduciary duties with respect to merger disclosures. In Appel the plaintiff alleged that, pre-merger, Diamond failed to disclose to shareholders the concerns of the board chairman (and founder of the company), who was also abstaining on the merger itself–what the Supreme Court described as “no common thing.”
In discussing the importance of the disclosures, the Court observed that the “founder and Chairman’s views regarding the wisdom of selling the Company were ones that reasonable stockholders would have found material in deciding whether to vote for the merger or seek appraisal …” And further, it observed that the lack of the disclosure in this case was not inactionable just because the stockholder plaintiff tendered his shares–concerns outside the disclosures, such as the costs of litigation and the fact that capital can be tied up in appraisal (subsequently mitigated in some respects by legislative changes providing for prepayment), may well motivate a shareholder.
Here we have an example of disclosure litigation and appraisal being intertwined. While appraisal is a post-closing remedy, and thus a shareholder seeking appraisal does so after the merger and with whatever disclosures were made as they are, the Supreme Court recognizes that the disclosures themselves, if fulsome and sufficient, may motivate investors to seek appraisal. When those disclosures are deficient, one of the impacts may be denying investors who have rightful appraisal remedies a fair chance to decide.
See the decision in Appel here.