Delaware Supreme Court Upholds ‘Entire Fairness’ of a Tesla Acquisition
In re Tesla Motors Stockholder Litig., 2023 This was an appeal of an April 2022 Chancery Court opinion. At issue was the 2016 stock acquisition of SolarCity Corp. by Tesla Inc. Tesla’s shareholders claimed that Elon Musk caused Tesla to overpay for SolarCity through...
Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Denies Employee Members of ESOP Claims Against Debtors
Bennetti v. Oxford Restructuring Advisors LLC 2023 The Bankruptcy Court did not err in disallowing claims against debtors based on rights in an ESOP. The ESOP, an S corporation, was only obligated to provide ESOP members with the right to have distributions in cash....
Bankruptcy Court Determines Fair Value Under Asset Approach With ‘Limited Evidence’ Available to It
Herremans v. Fedo (In re Herremans), 2023 This case in Bankruptcy Court involved a court determination of the fair value of a 50% interest in a Ponderosa restaurant in Michigan. The two 50% owners who founded the restaurant 27 years ago had a falling out and set about...
Fair Value Decision Analyzes Valuation Issues
Rosenthal v. Erber, 2023 Ted Rosenthal and Jeffrey Erber each owned 50% of 87th Street Optical Corp. Erber ran the store, Jeffrey’s Manhattan Eyeland, while Rosenthal was a passive investor. Rosenthal filed a petition for dissolution on Feb. 3, 2021. Erber elected to...
U.S. District Court (New York) Rules Interest Rates on Loans Are Not Usurious
Golock Capital, LLC v. VNUE, Inc., 2023 “Golock Capital, LLC (Golock) and DBW Investments, LLC (DBW; together, Plaintiffs) issued seven loans in the form of convertible promissory notes to VNUE, Inc. (VNUE). Golock and DBW have sued VNUE for breach of its...
U.S. District Court Excludes Expert’s Testimony on Critique of Plaintiffs’ Damages but Allows Same Expert Testimony on His Damages Calculation
Rieves v. Town of Smyrna, 2024 Before the court in this economic damages case was the plaintiffs’ motion to exclude the testimony of the defendants’ retained expert, Robert Vance, CPA. The defendants sought to have Vance testify as an expert regarding the calculation...
Bankruptcy Court Decides on Debtor Qualification as a ‘Small Business’ Under Chapter 11
In re Hillman, 2023 In this bankruptcy, ULM challenged the filing by the debtor, Michelle Corbin Hillman, that “the Debtor is ineligible to elect to proceed with her case under Subchapter V of Chapter 11 … because she is not a ‘person engaged in commercial or...
Iowa Court of Appeals Affirms Value of Husband’s Business Determined by Wife’s Expert and Includes Total Value as Marital Property
In re Marriage of Marasco, 2023. The property division provisions of their marital dissolution decree of the district court was appealed by the husband and cross-appealed by the wife. The appellate court affirmed the appeal as modified and affirmed the cross-appeal....
U.S. District Court Overturns Jury Award for Consequential Damages
Endless River Techs. LLC v. Trans Union LLC, 2023 The parties had entered into a development agreement and contract for services for “the joint development and commercialization of a method for providing insurers on-line, real time comparison price quotes to...
New Hampshire Supreme Court Affirms in Part and Vacates in Part and Remands Divorce Trial Court—Husband Fails to Provide Support for Expenses
In re Hebert, 2024 The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in this divorce case appeal, vacated the trial court’s property division and alimony awards but affirmed the trial court’s findings regarding the value of the husband’s business, Microelectrodes Inc., the value of...