Court of Chancery Judicially Validates Company’s Ratification of Defective Corporate Acts, Therefore Rejecting Bid to Unwind Merger
By Holly Hatfield and B. Ashby Hardesty, Jr.
In Charles Almond, et al. v. Glenhill Advisors LLC, et al., C.A. No. 10477-CB, Chancellor Bouchard ruled in favor of the defendants, directors of furniture company Design Within Reach Inc. (the “Company”) and Glenhill Capital Management LP (“Glenhill”), on all of the plaintiff-investors’ claims relating to the 2014 acquisition of DWR by Herman Miller, Inc. (“Herman Miller”). In doing so, Chancellor Bouchard judicially validated certain measures taken by Herman Miller to rectify an error that had diluted its ownership stake in the Company. Chancellor Bouchard also dismissed claims challenging transactions through which the Company’s board members received additional equity in the Company before the merger, holding that because these claims were derivative in nature, the plaintiffs’ standing to bring such claims were extinguished because of the merger.