The intent of this blog is to highlight key business cases primarily from the Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court, as well as related issues such as legal ethics and electronic discovery. When the volume of cases published by the Court and my workload at any given time, both collide, instead of providing extensive summaries, I may just list the names of the cases and the issues that they address. I am currently obtaining the cases from the Court’s website, and often the opinions do not appear on the website until a week or more after the date of the opinion. The following recent opinions are available for downloading at the Chancery Court’s website.
In Re Prime Hospitality, Inc. Shareholders Litigation,
Chancellor Chandler’s opinion in this matter explains why he declined to approve a consolidated class action settlement.
In Re General Motors (Hughes) Shareholder Litigation,
Chancellor Chandler dismissed a 97-page Revised Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint which alleged claims that included breach of the fiduciary duty of disclosure, because, inter alia, the facts alleged did not overcome the business judgment rule, and many other reasons explained in the 83-page opinion.
In Imo Industries, Inc. v Siemens Demag Delaval Turbomachinery, Inc., Chancellor Chandler applied New York law to cross-motions for summary judgment involving interpretation of an agreement among several parties related to the sale of assets.
In Finkelstein v. Liberty Digital, Inc., Vice Chancellor Strine addressed a limited issue in an appraisal proceeding that did not involve the valuation of a whole company. Instead the issue decided was limited to “whether and to what extent the fair value of shares of common stock should be increased as a result of any value arising out of or attributable to [a particular agreement].” The opinion also includes a discussion of the applicable interest to be applied.