The recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision in Salladay v. Lev, No. 2019-0048-SG (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2020), addressed the standards the Court may apply to review the conduct of directors in a contested transaction, and determined that the entire fairness standard applied, based on the facts of this case, resulting in a denial of a motion to dismiss.
Key Points:
This decision is must reading for those who want to be familiar with the latest iteration of Delaware law regarding the analyses the court employs to review a challenged transaction to determine whether fiduciary duties were fulfilled.
In this case, the court determined that the business judgment rule did not apply. The court provides a practical, educational elucidation of why the efforts to “cleanse” the transaction did not revive the business judgment rule, in light of the failure to satisfy the prerequisites discussed in Corwin v. KKR Holdings, LLC, 125 A.3d 304 (Del. 2015); Kahn v. M & F Worldwide (MFW), 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014); and In re Trados, Inc. Shareholders Litigation (Trados II) 73 A.3d 17 (Del. Ch. 2013).
The court also discusses the recent Delaware Supreme Court cases which clarified “where or when the line is drawn” for the “cleansing” criteria to be considered as being imposed “ab initio,” such that a deal will earn the deferential BJR review standard, in Flood v. Synutra International, Inc., 195 A.3d 754 (Del. 2018), as well as Olenik v. Lodzinski, 208 A.3d 704 (Del. 2019).