Hill International, Inc. v. Opportunity Partners L.P.,  Del. Supr., 305, 2015 (Del. July 2, 2015). This Delaware Supreme Court opinion should be read by anyone interested in the latest iteration of Delaware law on advance notice bylaws. A few bullets points about this decision should help readers decide if they want to read the whole ruling linked above.

  • The original notice of the annual meeting did not provide a precise date; rather, it described the meeting to be held “on or about” June 10.
  • Not until a date certain was made public, were various timetables and deadlines triggered–especially because the actual date certain of June 9 was different than the first date given as “on or about June 10”
  • The Supreme Court based its analysis on contract interpretation principles applied to the applicable provisions of the bylaws, which of course are treated as a contract within the framework of the Delaware General Corporation Law.
  • The procedural posture was an appeal from the Court of Chancery’s grant of a mandatory injunction preventing the company from conducting business at the annual meeting other than adjourning the meeting, which allowed the court to consider more fully the arguments that the company improperly refused to consider nominees for two director positions that the company argued were not timely submitted in accordance with the advance notice bylaws
  • No security was required by the Court of Chancery when the mandatory injunction was imposed and the last footnote of this opinion “dodges” that issue in some respect by finding that the issue was not adequately presented in order for it to be considered on appeal. Nonetheless, in dicta  Delaware’s high court, in a panel decision, observed that, in essence, the Court of Chancery was not in error on that point for reasons explained in the final footnote of the decision.
  • After the June 5 injunction was ordered, based on a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction filed on May 14, the Court of Chancery granted a partial final judgment under Rule 54(b) on June 16, at which time an expedited appeal was filed with the Supreme Court, which held oral argument on July 1. This decision of July 2 affirming the Chancery decision deserves to be exalted as an example of very fast decision making in a formal written opinion, after full briefing, on complicated issues of corporate litigation (by both the Court of Chancery and the Supreme Court.)