Due to time constraints, I will only summarily mention 2 recent Chancery Court cases. Full copies of the opinions can be downloaded at the court’s website, the link for which is listed below this post.
In Weil v. Morgan Stanley DW, Inc., the Chancery Court rejected the claim that a transfer of customer accounts for profit, pursuant to contractual rights and disclosure, somehow breached a fiduciary duty. The Chancery Court reasoned that to recognize such a claim would be an improper use of the fiduciary tool to rework a voluntary contractual relationship, and would invent a “equitable duty” of boundless scope when there is no inequity justifying such a result, and when such innovation “would undermine the economic fairness and efficiency that result from the freedom to contract.”
In Sergeant v. Schneller, the Chancery Court refused to find that an oral agreement for the sale of land existed, and even so, the court ruled that no partial performance was evidenced such that it would avoid the Statute of Frauds. The full opinions are available at this link.