Catagory:Annual Meeting

1
Request for Attorneys’ Fees Denied Under Corporate Benefit Doctrine
2
Chancery Court Limits Access to Books and Records Based on Stockholder’s Failure to State Purpose in Section 220 Demand
3
CHANCERY COURT FINDS ORAL AGREEMENT TO SETTLE PROXY CONTEST BINDING AND ORDERS SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE OF THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
4
Are Partial Written Stockholder Consents Between Annual Meetings Sufficient to Fill Board Vacancies? Chancellor Bouchard’s Ruling in Elite Horse Investments Ltd. v. T3 Motion, Inc. Suggests “Yes”
5
Smollar v. Potarazu, C.A. No. 10287-VCN (November 19, 2014) (Noble, V.C.)

Request for Attorneys’ Fees Denied Under Corporate Benefit Doctrine

By: Annette Becker and Zack Sager

In Martin v. Harbor Diversified, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery denied the plaintiff’s request for attorneys’ fees under the corporate benefit doctrine because the corporate benefit produced by the litigation was “a mere externality” to the plaintiff’s ultimate, personal goal of achieving a buyout of his interest in the corporation.

Read More

Chancery Court Limits Access to Books and Records Based on Stockholder’s Failure to State Purpose in Section 220 Demand

By: James S. Bruce and Taylor B. Bartholomew

In KT4 Partners LLC v. Palantir Technologies, Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0177-JRS (Del. Ch. Feb. 22, 2018), in a post-trial ruling, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a stockholder limited rights to inspect a corporation’s books and records related to the stated purpose of investigating possible wrongdoing, but the Court denied the stockholder’s request to obtain other books and records related to the purpose of valuing its shares because its initial demand did not explicitly state a valuation purpose.

Read More

CHANCERY COURT FINDS ORAL AGREEMENT TO SETTLE PROXY CONTEST BINDING AND ORDERS SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE OF THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

By Josh Gaul and Caitlin Velasco

In Sarissa Capital Domestic Fund LP, et al. v. Innoviva, Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0309-JRS (Del. Ch. Dec. 8, 2017), the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled in favor of dissident stockholder plaintiffs, Sarissa Capital Domestic Fund LP, et al. (“Sarissa”) of Innoviva, Inc. (“Innoviva”), concluding that Sarissa and Innoviva entered into a binding, oral settlement agreement to resolve a proxy contest prior to Innoviva’s 2017 annual stockholder meeting and specific performance of the settlement agreement was warranted. Read More

Are Partial Written Stockholder Consents Between Annual Meetings Sufficient to Fill Board Vacancies? Chancellor Bouchard’s Ruling in Elite Horse Investments Ltd. v. T3 Motion, Inc. Suggests “Yes”

By Michelle Repp and Lauren Garraux

Ruling of Chancellor Andre Bouchard suggests that partial written stockholder consents between annual meetings may be sufficient to fill board vacancies and calls into question stockholder written consents not dated by hand.

Elite Horse Investments Ltd. (“Elite”) is a stockholder of T3 Motion, Inc. (“T3”), a Delaware corporation. T3’s bylaws provide for a seven-member Board of Directors. As of December 26, 2014, T3’s board had four vacancies, with the other three directorships occupied by T3’s CEO, William Tsumpes (“Tsumpes”), and two other individuals (collectively, the “Existing Directors”). On December 26, 2014 and January 20, 2015, Elite and other stockholders of T3 delivered to T3 two written consents relating to the composition of T3’s board, as follows: (i) on December 26, 2014, Elite and seven other stockholders holding more than 65% of the outstanding shares delivered a signed stockholder written consent dated December 17, 2014 (the “First Consent”) pursuant to which they filled the four vacancies with new directors (the “New Directors”); and (iii) on January 20, 2015, Elite and six other stockholders holding no less than 58% of the outstanding shares delivered a signed stockholder written consent dated January 15, 2015 that ratified and retook the actions reflected in the First Consent and removed Tsumpes and one of the other Existing Directors from T3’s Board (the “Second Consent”) (collectively, the “Consents”).

Read More

Smollar v. Potarazu, C.A. No. 10287-VCN (November 19, 2014) (Noble, V.C.)

By Lauren Garraux and Lisa Stark

In Smollar v. Potarazu, the Court of Chancery denied a stockholder’s request to expedite proceedings and to appoint a temporary receiver in connection with a challenge to an alleged impeding sale of VitalSpring Technologies, Inc. (“VitalSpring”) to an unidentified third-party.  Plaintiff Marvin Smollar, a VitalSpring stockholder, filed the complaint against defendant Sreedhar V. Potarazu (“Defendant”), VitalSpring’s chief executive officer and sole director, following Defendant’s announcement that VitalSpring would be sold pending approval by the Federal Trade Commission.  According to Defendant, the sale — which was projected to be completed around October 19, 2014 — was ultimately delayed pending further FTC guidance.

In his complaint, Plaintiff sought to enjoin the sale until VitalSpring released audited financial statements pursuant to an agreement with its stockholders and held an annual meeting of stockholders.  VitalSpring apparently had not held an annual meeting of stockholders for several years contrary to Delaware law.  According to Plaintiff, Defendant’s failure to hold annual meetings, to release audited financials and general lack of corporate transparency called into question the veracity of Defendant’s claims that a buyer for VitalSpring existed.

Read More

Copyright © 2024, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.