The recent Delaware Court of Chancery opinion in Evans v. Avande, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0454-LWW (Del. Ch. Sept. 23, 2021), provided much needed clarification for the rather unsettled nuance of indemnification under Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law regarding when indemnification can be proportionate to the extent that the party seeking indemnification was not 100% successful in the underlying litigation.

Brief Background:
This case involved a request for mandatory indemnification under DGCL Section 145 based on what the court described as a “novel theory of proportional indemnification.” The plaintiff argued that he should be indemnified for his “partial success” on fiduciary duty claims against him because the damages awarded to his former company were much less than the company originally sought.

Basic Principles:
The court provided a very helpful primer on the basics of indemnification under DGCL Section 145. In particular, the court explained that Section 145 grants corporations the discretion under subsections (a) and (b) to indemnify officers or directors where a minimum standard of conduct is met. The permissive language of Section 145(a) and Section 145(b) provides that indemnification may be available to an officer or a director if she is found to have acted in good faith.

By contrast, Section 145(c) contains mandatory language providing for an entitlement to indemnification. Under Section 145(c), whether an individual acted in good faith, or what she perceived to be in the best interest of the corporation, is irrelevant. The court explained that: “Section 145(c) is triggered when a covered person prevails in a proceeding that is covered by Section 145(a) or 145(b).”

The court further clarified that indemnification is compulsory where: “a present or former director or officer of a corporation has been successful on the merits or otherwise in defense of any action, suit or proceeding” (citing Section 145(c), and where that person was made a party to such action “by reason of the fact that the person is or was a director or officer . . . of the corporation.” (citing Section 145(a) – (b)).

The court emphasized that to satisfy the statutory prerequisite for mandatory indemnification “success” does not mean exoneration, and a corporate official “need not have been adjudged innocent in some ethical or moral sense.” See footnotes 39 and 40 and related text.

Highlights of Decision:
The most noteworthy aspects of this decision are the parts where the court addresses the standard for “proportionate indemnification” based on “partial success.”

The court observed that it was not aware of any authority where “partial success” was analyzed based on the percentages of damages the prevailing party recovered against an indemnitee. The court held that such an approach was “unworkable” in addition to being unprecedented; that is: to define partial success for indemnification purposes based on the proportion of damages recovered on a single claim. Such an approach would be untethered from the policy at the root of Section 145 because the overarching purpose of Section 145 is to encourage capable persons to serve as corporate directors knowing that expenses incurred by them will be borne by the corporation they serve. The court added that a director adjudged to have acted in bad faith in breach of his duty of loyalty can hardly assert that he is entitled to indemnification for a claim where the director’s integrity that the policy is intended to uphold while serving as a director, was found lacking.

Moreover, the court cited to other cases for the prevailing view that Delaware courts have made a determination on whether a person was successful for purposes of being entitled to indemnification “on a claim by claim basis,” as opposed to determining the percentage of damages that was awarded compared to the amount of damages that was initially sought. See footnotes 48 – 52 and accompanying text.

 

The current issue of the Delaware Business Court Insider includes an article on the titular topic by yours truly and my colleague Cheneise Wright. Courtesy of the good folks at the Delaware Business Court Insider, and with their permission, it appears below.

Chancery Declines to Follow First-Filed Rule in Advancement Case

By: Francis G.X. Pileggi*
and
Cheneise V. Wright**

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery opinion applied an exception to the general rule that Delaware courts will often exercise their discretion to dismiss or stay a Delaware action in favor of a first-filed action between the parties that is pending in another jurisdiction. In Lay v. Ram Telecom International, Inc., C.A. No. 2021-0631-SG (Del. Ch. Oct. 4, 2021), the court analyzed the nuances of the first-filed rule regarding an advancement case under Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law.

The first-filed rule, often referred to as the McWane doctrine, based on the Delaware Supreme Court decision in McWane Cast Iron Pipe Corp. v. McDowell-Wellman Eng’g Co., 263 A.2d 281, 283 (Del. 1970), provides that a Delaware court’s “discretion should be exercised freely in favor of the stay when there is a prior action pending elsewhere, in a court capable of doing prompt and complete justice, involving the same parties and the same issues.”

The background of the Lay case involves a demand letter sent in early June of 2021 seeking indemnification and advancement of fees and expenses incurred in defending an action the defendant had filed against the plaintiffs in the Superior Court of California. Instead of responding, five days after that letter was sent, the defendant amended their complaint in California to add a claim for declaratory relief, asking the California court to make a ruling on the indemnification and advancement issues. About a month later, the plaintiffs filed the Delaware suit seeking advancement for fees and costs incurred in the California Action.

In early August, the defendant filed a motion seeking a stay or dismissal of the Delaware advancement case in light of the California Action. Briefing was completed on the motion to stay or dismiss by Sept. 27, 2021. The court distinguished prior Delaware decisions that stayed advancement actions in favor of a first-filed action in which the same indemnitee had already asserted advancement rights. See Johnston v. Caremark RX, Inc., 2000 WL 354381, at * 2-5 (Del. Ch. Mar. 28, 2000). In contrast, the court cited to its decision in Fuisz v. Biovail Technologies, Ltd., 2000 WL 1277369, at * 4 (Del. Ch. Sept. 6, 2000), in which the court denied a stay of an advancement action where the prior action was not filed by the indemnitee.

The Court of Chancery also applied the reasoning in the Fuisz case in which the plaintiffs sought advancement under Section 145(k) for a Virginia action in which they had already asserted their advancement rights as an affirmative defense, but notably did nothing to obtain any relief from the Virginia court on the basis of that defense. The court explained in Fuisz that “unless the person having such an entitlement first actively invokes the jurisdiction of a foreign tribunal and seeks an adjudication of that issue from it . . . this court will not regard the foreign action as ‘first-filed’ for purposes of McWane’s comity-based analysis.” Id. at * 1.

The court in the instant case supported its decision not to apply McWane by noting that the plaintiffs in this case did not select California as the forum and they made no effort to obtain an adjudication from the California court of any of the issues presented in this action. Rather, “it was the defendant in this action who sought a declaratory judgment in the California action concerning the plaintiff’s advancement and indemnification rights.”

The court emphasized the importance to its holding of the fact that the defendant amended the California Action to add a declaratory relief claim after the plaintiffs sent a demand for advancement and indemnification. The court underscored that it would be inequitable to allow any plaintiff that receives an advancement demand from a defendant to circumvent the right to a summary advancement proceeding in Delaware under Section 145(k) by simply amending its complaint in the other forum to add a declaratory relief claim on the advancement issue upon receiving a demand. Instead, the court ruled: “that is not our law.”

The court explained that the first-filed rule under the McWane doctrine does not apply because in this instance the California Action should not be considered a first-filed action.

The court also distinguished a very recent Chancery decision which stayed an advancement action in favor of a federal action even though the plaintiff in the federal action had not claimed advancement. See Harmon 1999 Descendants’ Trust v. CGH Investment Management, LLC, 2021 WL 4270220 at * 3 & n.12 (Del. Ch. Sept. 21, 2021). The court explained why the Harmon case was inapplicable. In Harmon, the court reasoned that the federal action was “in its penultimate phase” and an issue before the federal court was whether the person seeking advancement was a limited partner. That issue was a “material, factually rife, and disputed issue” in the advancement action. Therefore, the Court of Chancery held in that case that because the federal court was likely to resolve the factual issue before the Court of Chancery could, efficiencies would be gained by staying the Delaware suit in favor of the federal action.

In contrast, the pending motion to stay or dismiss did not identify any “material, factually rife and disputed issue” that had to be decided in the California Action before the question of advancement could be resolved in the Court of Chancery, nor does the motion to dismiss in Delaware argue that the California Action is in its “penultimate phase.”

In sum, the Court of Chancery held that the motion to stay or dismiss did “not present exceptional circumstances warranting a departure from the rule that claims under Section 145(k) for advancement of expenses should not be stayed or dismissed in favor of the prior pending foreign litigation that gave rise to them.” Thus, the Court of Chancery declined to stay the Delaware Action in favor of the California Action.

In a concluding footnote the court regaled readers with the entertaining linguistic observation that in addition to not being in its penultimate phase, the California Action did not appear to be in an antepenultimate or even a pre-antepenultimate phase.

____________________________________________________________________________
*Francis G.X. Pileggi is the managing partner of the Delaware office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, and the primary author of the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog at www.delawarelitigation.com.

**Chenesie V. Wright is a corporate and commercial litigation associate in the Delaware office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP

A recent Delaware decision addressed the request for a claw-back of legal expenses that a company was ordered to advance to an LLC manager in a prior Court of Chancery decision. In the case styled: New Wood Resources, LLC v. Baldwin, C.A. No. N20C-10-231-AML-CCLD, Order (Del. Super. Aug. 23, 2021), the Complex Commercial Litigation Division of the Delaware Superior Court determined that pursuant to the terms of an LLC Agreement (for which the Delaware LLC Act allows much greater latitude than Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law on this issue), the court determined that some of the amounts advanced were required to be returned.

Most noteworthy, however, about this decision, is that the court determined that the undertaking to repay the amounts advanced did not apply to the “fees on fees” that the Court of Chancery had also required that the company pay in the prior advancement action. The court explained that the undertaking only applied to “funds advanced,” but that undertaking did not apply to the repayment of “fees on fees” because the court reasoned that “such sums constitute indemnification, rather than advancement.” Order at 12. [Readers should be aware that in Delaware, court decisions issued by Order may also be cited in briefs, even if the decision is not a formal opinion.] See footnote 43 (judge explains that even though the parties did not raise the distinction between advancement and indemnification in connection with the claw-back arguments, the court determined that: it was “compelled by principles of comity to raise the issue sua sponte about the “fees on fees” that the Court of Chancery ordered the company to pay which should be considered differently from the advancement ordered by the court and governed by the undertaking.”)

This post was prepared by Frank Reynolds, who has been following Delaware corporate law, and writing about it for various legal publications, for over 30 years.

The Delaware  Court of Chancery recently refused most of B. Riley Financial, Inc.’s motion to dismiss an ex-officer and director’s complaint for indemnification for his settlement of underlying breach-of-duty and fraud charges against him and companies he had founded and later sold to Riley in Wunderlich v. B. Riley Financial, Inc., et al., No. 2020-0453-PAF (Del. Ch. March 24, 2021).

In a March 24 letter ruling, Vice Chancellor Paul Fioravanti Jr. ruled that Riley’s dismissal bid cannot rely on the limits in its interpretation of an indemnification contract plaintiff Gary Wunderlich signed as part of his companies’ 2017 merger with that financial services firm, since it is not the only reasonable reading.

In addition, Wunderlich makes a plausible argument that Riley took over his investment and securities companies’ indemnification obligations when it made them subsidiaries, and Riley had been paying Wunderlich’s legal costs until the two parted ways in Nov. 2018 and Wunderlich was hit with a $10.5 million arbitration award, the vice chancellor said. The Chancery Court let Wunderlich continue to pursue his indemnification claim but dismissed as unripe a declaratory judgment count seeking to hold Riley separately liable for any judgment in the arbitration action.

The opinion could be of value to advancement and indemnification specialists in how it employs Delaware contract law principles to determine the scope of rights and responsibilities in the various indemnification agreements.

Background
Gary Wunderlich founded Wunderlich Investment Company, Inc. and parent Wunderlich Securities, Inc. in 1996 and sold them to Riley in May 2017 but two months later investment and merchant banking firm Dominick & Dickerman LLC brought an arbitration proceeding against Wunderlich and his two companies in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. At the time, he was an officer and director of his companies and Riley; Riley initially took over attorney selection and payment, the vice chancellor said.

After the April 2020 award of $10.5 million jointly and severally against Wunderlich and his companies, the claimants filed a petition to confirm the award in May and Riley petitioned to vacate it the next day in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Meanwhile, Wunderlich, in April 2020, formally demanded that B. Riley “confirm” that it would indemnify him for “all costs, expenses, awards, losses and liabilities incurred by reason of the fact that he was an officer or director” of B. Riley, WIC, and WSI.

Riley threatened to pursue claims against Wunderlich for actions relating to the Arbitration and to recover from Wunderlich amounts Defendants paid in the Settlement Agreement, and Wunderlich filed this indemnification action in June seeking indemnification from his two companies, and Riley under the merger agreement.

The suit includes claims for:
•Reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred in connection with defending against and pursuing vacatur of the Award and negotiating the terms of the Settlement
•Wunderlich’s fees and expenses incurred in this action, or “fees-on-fees.”
•A declaratory judgment obligating Defendants to indemnify Wunderlich for any contribution claim that Defendants “may seek to assert against him in connection with the Arbitration
•B. Riley’s alleged failure to tender payment in response to Wunderlich’s indemnification demand breached the Indemnification Agreement.

Declaratory judgment on contribution
The vice chancellor said “our courts will decline ‘to enter a declaratory judgment with respect to indemnity until there is a judgment against the party seeking it.’” quoting Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. AIG Life Ins. Co., 572 A.2d 611, 632 (Del. Ch. 2005). He said, “Defendants have not asserted a contribution action against Wunderlich, and Wunderlich does not presently owe any amounts to be paid in connection with the Settlement Agreement.” If the defendants do not assert a contribution claim against Wunderlich “judicial intervention may be unnecessary.”

Breach of the Indemnification Agreement
“Defendants principally argue that Wunderlich waived his indemnity rights when he executed the Severance Agreement,” the court said. “Central to this decision is whether the indemnification provisions in the bylaws are preserved through a carve-out in the Severance Agreement, which, in turn, requires the construction of the terms of the Merger Agreement.”

But ‘[d]ismissal, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), is proper only if the defendants’ interpretation[s] [are] the only reasonable construction[s] as a matter of law” and that is not the case here the court said. “Wunderlich has stated a claim for indemnification…because he has advanced a reasonable interpretation of the WIC Bylaws, the Merger Agreement, and the Severance Agreement.”

Defendants rely on Julian v. Julian for the proposition that the only rights that “arise under” a contract are those that exist within its four corners,” Vice Chancellor but “Julian is factually inapposite because the relevant language in the Merger Agreement and the Severance Agreement are different from the arbitration provision at issue in Julian. Julian v. Julian, 2009 WL 2937121 (Del. Ch. Sept. 9, 2009).

He said he cannot determine as a matter of law that the Severance Agreement only released the indemnification rights listed in the Merger Agreement to the exclusion of any indemnification rights but he doesn’t need to at this stage.

Fees on Fees
Wunderlich’s claim for fees-on-fees in enforcing his indemnification rights, need not be dismissed just because he has not identified any applicable indemnification provisions, the court said, because under Section 145 of the DGCL, “without an award of attorneys’ fees for the indemnification suit itself, indemnification would be incomplete” and Wunderlich’s indemnification requires WIC to provide indemnification “to the fullest extent permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law”.

A recent letter ruling from the Court of Chancery on a nuance of the law of advancement deserves to be remembered. The Court’s decision in Day v. Diligence, Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0076-SG (Del. Ch. May 7, 2020), is short but important due to its clarification of a finer point regarding the duty of a company to advance fees prior to the date of the undertaking required under DGCL Section 145(e).  The Court reasoned that an advancement obligation may cover fees incurred prior to the receipt of a requisite undertaking.

The multitude of highlights of advancement decisions that have appeared on these pages over the last 15 years provide extensive details about the intricacies of Section 145(e), as do the several book chapters I have written on the topic. This cursory post assumes a basic understanding of the Delaware law of advancement of fees for directors and officers pursuant to Section 145(e), and based on that assumption this pithy post provides the following quote from the Day case, that should be in the toolbox of every corporate litigator.

The Court held, after reciting DGCL Section 145(e), that:

Nothing in the language of the statute, or the policy implicit therein, limits advancement to sums incurred post-undertaking, to my mind. The Defendant, I note, has pointed to none. Nor has it cited to precedent….

The following article is reprinted with permission from the Jan. 15, 2020 edition of “The Delaware Business Court Insider”, (c) 2020 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.

By: Francis G.X. Pileggi and Chauna A. Abner

This is the 15th year that Francis Pileggi and various co-authors have created an annual list of important corporate and commercial decisions of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery. This list does not attempt to include all important decisions of those two courts that were rendered in 2019. Instead, this list highlights notable decisions that should be of widespread interest to those who work in the corporate and commercial litigation field or who follow the latest developments in this area of Delaware law. Prior annual reviews are available at this hyperlink.

This list focuses, with some exceptions, on the unsung heroes among the many decisions that have not already been widely discussed by the mainstream press or legal trade publications. Links are also provided below to the actual court decisions and longer summaries.

DELAWARE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Company Required to Produce Emails Among Management to Stockholders

The Delaware Supreme Court recently issued an opinion that clarifies the duty of a company to produce emails among its management in a Section 220 case. In KT4 Partners LLC v. Palantir Technologies, Inc., Del. Supr., No. 281, 2018 (Jan. 29, 2019), Delaware’s high court addressed a demand under Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) Section 220 by a stockholder for corporate books and records, including emails and electronically-stored information (ESI) among management, to allow the stockholder to investigate possible wrongdoing, such as the reasons behind amendments to an Investors’ Rights Agreement that severely reduced the original rights granted under that agreement. This opinion quoted from a law review article co-authored by Francis Pileggi on the intersection of DGCL Section 220 and ESI.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/01/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/company-required-to-produce-emails-among-management-to-stockholders/

Supreme Court Explains the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

A recent Delaware Supreme Court decision is must-reading for those who need to know the latest iteration of Delaware law on the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In Oxbow Carbon & Minerals Holdings, Inc. v. Crestview-Oxbow Acquisition, LLC, Del. Supr. No. 536, 2018 (Jan. 17, 2019), Delaware’s High Court provided the latest articulation of Delaware law on the multi-faceted doctrine of the implied covenant of good faith and fairing dealing. In connection with affirming in part and reversing in part a 176-page trial court opinion, which was highlighted on these pages, the Supreme Court agreed with the analysis of the trial court’s correct reading of the plain meaning of the LLC agreement at issue, but disagreed with the application by the trial court of the implied covenant.

 https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/01/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/supreme-court-explains-the-implied-covenant-of-good-faith-and-fair-dealing/

Delaware Supreme Court Clarifies Ab Initio Requirement for BJR Review

The Delaware Supreme Court recently clarified the “ab initio” requirement announced in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. case as part of the set of standards that would allow for the BJR standard to apply to a challenged merger. See Olenik v. Lodzinski, No. 392, 2018 (Del. Supr., rev. April 11, 2019).  The High Court determined that the requirement was not satisfied based on the facts of the instant case because the “economic bargaining took place prior to the date” when the protections announced in the Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. case needed to be in place.

Much commentary has already been written about this case, so a lengthy summary is not provided here, but I refer to prior decisions that have applied the ab initio requirement, for background purposes, as noted on these pages.

 https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/04/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/delaware-supreme-court-clarifies-ab-initio-requirement-for-bjr-review/

Delaware Supreme Court Clarifies Appraisal Law

The Delaware Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision, recently determined that “deal price less synergies” was the appropriate determination of fair value in the appraisal action before it.  In Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc., C.A. No. 11448-VCL (Del. Apr. 16, 2019), the Court reversed the Court of Chancery’s holding that “unaffected market price” was the fair value on the date of the merger. This case is the third in a recent trilogy of precedent-setting Delaware appraisal cases, preceded by DFC Global Corp. v. Muirfield Value Partners, L.P., 172 A.3d 346 (Del. 2017) and Dell, Inc. v. Magnetar Global Event Driven Master Fund Ltd, 177 A.3d 1 (Del. 2017).  This case has been the subject of extensive commentary by scholars and practitioners.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/04/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/delaware-supreme-court-clarifies-appraisal-law/

Delaware Supreme Court Addresses Independence of Directors

In Marchand v. Barnhil, CA. No. 2017-0586-JRS (Del. Ch. June 18, 2019), the Delaware Supreme Court addressed the meaning of the words “independence” and “disinterestedness” in the context of adequately pleading pre-suit demand futility as a prerequisite for pursuing a derivative claim against corporate directors. The court reversed the Court of Chancery’s dismissal of the case for failure to establish demand futility. This issue is one of the most nuanced and challenging in Delaware corporate litigation as indicated by the disagreement on the outcome among the experienced jurists deciding this case.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/06/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/delaware-supreme-court-addresses-independence-of-directors/

Delaware Supreme Court Instructs on Standards of Deposition Conduct

A recent Delaware Supreme Court opinion provides a tutorial on the standards imposed on Delaware lawyers when a deponent, who is the lawyer’s client, engages in inappropriate conduct during a deposition. In Shorenstein Hays-Nederland Theaters LLC Appeals, Nos. 596, 2018 and 620-2018 (Del. June 20, 2019), Delaware’s High Court issued its first decision on this specific issue, as compared to the rather abundant guidance that has existed for many years regarding the consequences when lawyers themselves engage in errant conduct during a deposition.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/09/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/delaware-supreme-court-instructs-on-standards-of-deposition-conduct/

Confidentiality Agreement Not Always Required for Section 220 Demands

For the first time, the Delaware Supreme Court decided that in a lawsuit in which a stockholder demands corporate books and records pursuant to Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, although it is typical to condition the production of records on entering into a confidentiality agreement, that the statute does not strictly require such a condition for production. The court also explained in Tiger v. Boast Apparel, Inc., No. 23, 2019 (Del. Aug. 7, 2019), that a party need not show exigent circumstances for a court to grant something less than indefinite confidentiality, and the inspection of records pursuant to Section 220 is not subject to a presumption of confidentiality.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/08/articles/delaware-supreme-court-updates/confidentiality-agreement-not-always-required-for-section-220-demands/

COURT OF CHANCERY DECISIONS

Chancery Clarifies Director’s Right to Corporate Records

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision addressed the important issue of the right of directors to be given access to corporate records. In Schnatter v. Papa John’s International, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0542-AGB (Del. Ch. Jan. 15, 2019), Delaware’s court of equity considered a claim under Section 220(d) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) by the founder and largest stockholder of the Papa John’s pizza chain who was forced out as the CEO but retained his position as a director.  He sought to obtain books and records in his capacity as a director to support an investigation that the other directors breached their fiduciary duties by improperly ousting him for unjustified reasons.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/01/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-clarifies-directors-right-to-corporate-records/

Chancery Finds Usurpation of Corporate Opportunity

Delaware case law is well-established regarding the aspect of the fiduciary duty of loyalty that prohibits a corporate director from usurping a corporate opportunity. A recent decision from the Delaware Court of Chancery applies that well-settled prohibition in a flexible manner to a set of facts that have apparently not been squarely addressed in prior precedent.  In Personal Touch Holding Corp. v. Glaubach, C.A. No. 11199-CB (Del. Ch. Feb. 25, 2019), the court awarded damages for the breach of this subset of fiduciary duty, as well as for other breaches of fiduciary duty.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/03/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-finds-usurpation-of-corporate-opportunity/

Chancery Applies Corporate Advancement Case Law to LLC Context

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision interpreted the advancement provisions of an LLC Agreement by applying case law interpreting DGCL Section 145 in the corporate context.  In Freeman Family LLC v. Park Avenue Landing LLC, C.A. No. 2018-0683-TMR (Del. Ch. Apr. 30, 2019), the court reviewed the applicability of “defined phrases” that are familiar prerequisites for advancement in the corporate context pursuant to DGCL Section 145, and analyzed that same language that was used in an LLC agreement provision granting advancement.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/05/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-applies-corporate-advancement-case-law-to-llc-context/

Chancery Instructs on DGCL Merger Requirements

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery opinion began by describing the complaint as reading like a law school exam designed to test the knowledge of a student regarding the requirements in the DGCL that must be satisfied in connection with a merger, and the court commented that the company would not have done well on the exam.

In Mehta v. Mobile Posse, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0355-KSJM (Del. Ch. May 8, 2019), the court identified the six primary issues in this case as follows:

(1) Whether DGCL Section 262 was not complied with in connection with the failure to notify stockholders of their appraisal rights within the required timeframe;

(2) Whether DGCL Section 228 was not complied with due to the failure to send prompt notice of the written stockholder consents;

(3) Whether the merger agreement, or documents it incorporates, failed to comply with DGCL Section 251 by not including the amount of cash the preferred stockholders would receive for their shares;

(4) Whether the stockholder consents did not enjoy the ratifying effect under DGCL Section 144;

(5)  Whether the director defendants breached their fiduciary duty of disclosure; and

(6) Whether the director defendants breached the fiduciary duty of loyalty because the merger was a self-dealing transaction and not entirely fair.  With one small exception, the court found that the statutory violations were sufficiently established at the early procedural stage of a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/05/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-instructs-on-dgcl-merger-requirements/

Chancery Grants Advancement on Counterclaims

A recent decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery clarifies those instances where a defensive counterclaim against a former officer and director may be covered by advancement rights. In a bench ruling in Dodelson v. AC Hold Co., Inc., C.A. No. 2019-009-SG (Transcript) (Del. Ch. May 21, 2019), the court interpreted the charter provision that included within the coverage for “indemnified parties” both former directors and officers. Notably, bench rulings may be cited as authority in briefs before the Delaware Court of Chancery.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/06/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-grants-advancement-on-counterclaims/

Chancery Orders Mandatory Indemnification per DGCL Section 145(c)

The recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision in Brown v. Rite Aid Corporation, C.A. No. 2017-0480-MTZ (Del. Ch. May 24, 2019), clarified the perennial issue of how the word “success” is defined for purposes of mandatory indemnification under Section 145(c) of the Delaware General Corporation Law–even if all of the arguments in the underlying litigation were not successful.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/06/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-orders-mandatory-indemnification-per-dgcl-section-145c/

Chancery Determines Valid LLC Managers; Rejects Bump-Out Theory of Board Replacements

The Delaware Court of Chancery left no doubt in a recent ruling that the “bump-out theory” of replacing LLC managers is not recognized in Delaware. In Llamas v. Titus, C.A. No. 2018-0516-JTL (Del. Ch. June 18, 2019), the court explained that incumbent managers need to be removed before their replacements can validly “take their seats.” The court interpreted the counterpart to DGCL Section 225, which is Section 18-110(a) of the Delaware LLC Act.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/07/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-determines-valid-llc-managers-rejects-bump-out-theory-of-board-replacements/

Advancement Granted for Post-Termination Use of Confidential Information

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery opinion in Ephrat v. medCPU, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0052-MTZ (Del. Ch. June 26, 2019), will remain a noteworthy decision for two reasons: (1) It provides and anthology of prior Delaware decisions granting advancement to former directors or officers that defend claims regarding the use of confidential information acquired in a prior corporate capacity; and (2) It adds nuance to the existing abundant case law interpreting the threshold phrase “by reason of the fact,” which is one of the statutory prerequisites that must be satisfied for advancement claims to prevail pursuant to DGCL Section 145.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/07/articles/chancery-court-updates/advancement-granted-for-post-termination-use-of-confidential-information/

Chancery Addresses Personal Jurisdiction Over Co-Conspirator

In Clark v. Davenport, C.A. No. 2017-0839-JTL (Del. Ch. July 18, 2019), the court provided a noteworthy explanation of the important nuances that need to be understood when personal jurisdiction is contested, and this opinion provides an excellent analysis of the requirements for opposing personal jurisdiction based on the Delaware Long Arm Statute.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/08/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-addresses-personal-jurisdiction-over-co-conspirator/

Fully-Executed Contract Ruled Unenforceable

In Kotler v. Shipman Associates, LLC, C.A. No. 2017-0457-JRS (Del. Ch. Aug. 21, 2019), the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion that should be read by all lawyers who seek to avoid the risk of a fully-executed contract being ruled unenforceable due to a court later finding, perhaps surprisingly, that the agreement did not accurately express the understanding of the parties.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/08/articles/chancery-court-updates/fully-executed-contract-ruled-unenforceable/

Chancery Explains Step-Transaction Doctrine and Defines “Affiliate”

An important concept known as the step-transaction doctrine, which treats the agreements in a series of formally separate but related transactions involving the transfer of property as a single transaction if all the steps are substantially linked, was explained in the recent Delaware Court of Chancery opinion in PWP Xerion Holdings III LLC v. Redleaf Resources, Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0235-JTL (Del. Ch. Oct. 23, 2019) and should be consulted by anyone who needs to understand the components of this important doctrine.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/10/articles/chancery-court-updates/chancery-explains-step-transaction-doctrine-and-defines-affiliate/

Delaware Forum Selection Clause Controls Over Foreign Exclusive Jurisdiction Statute

The recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision in AlixPartners, LP v. Mori, No. 2019-0392-KSJM (Del. Ch. Nov. 26, 2019) rejected an effort to dismiss a Delaware action notwithstanding the provision in an agreement that provided for a forum in a foreign country, and the apparent law of that foreign country that also supported exclusive jurisdiction in that country.

https://www.delawarelitigation.com/2019/12/articles/chancery-court-updates/delaware-forum-selection-clause-controls-over-foreign-exclusive-jurisdiction-statute/

In a rare example of the Court of Chancery denying a a former corporate officer’s advancement claim–after an initial decision granting it–the court changed its prior opinion, after a complaint in the underlying case was amended to limit the underlying claims at issue to post-employment breach of contract claims, and based on that amendment the court determined that the challenged actions, as amended, were not taken by the claimant as a former officer or former director, and therefore the duty for advancement was not triggered. See Carr v. Global Payments, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0565-SG (Del. Ch. Dec. 11, 2019), in which the Court also noted that confidential information was not alleged to have been misused after the role as former officer ended.

The focus of the amended complaint was an alleged violation of a non-compete agreement, which this and other cases have viewed as primarily an employer/employee dispute–not an advancement matter. Also noteworthy was the court’s analysis of the provisions of the LLC agreement granting advancement–which relied on different wording than that contained in DGCL Section 145. The court expressed initial skepticism, as have other cases, when an attempt is made to amend an underlying complaint solely for purposes of evading an otherwise valid advancement obligation. This case proved different.

This case should be compared with the recent decision highlighted on these pages styled Ephrat v. medCPU, Inc., which provided a comprehensive analysis of Delaware case law involving advancement claims related to confidential data taken by a former officer and director–but primarily misused after the role of director and officer ended. See also Charney case highlighted on these pages, with a similar denial for post-employment activity.

Notably, the Carr case involved an acknowledgement that, despite this ruling, advancement was still required for underlying claims for breach of fiduciary duty.

A  more comprehensive review of this case, prepared by veteran corporate law writer Frank Reynolds, appears on these pages.

 

This post was prepared by Frank Reynolds, who has been following Delaware corporate law, and writing about it for various legal publications, for over 30 years.

A recent Court of Chancery opinion reversed an earlier advancement decision in favor of Heartland Payment System LLC ex-CEO Robert Carr after finding buyer Global Payments Inc.’s amended complaint narrowed its underlying suit against him to post-employment breach of non-compete contract claims, in Carr v. Global Payments Inc., et al., C.A. No. 2018-0565-SG, memorandum opinion (Del. Ch. Dec. 11, 2019).

Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III’s December 11 memorandum opinion granted Global’s motion to modify his October 31, ruling, which, he acknowledged, wrongly ordered the electronic payment processer to pay Carr’s legal bills based on his “substantial error of fact,” about the amended charges.

No longer pertains

After withdrawing that ruling on November 5 and agreeing to hear re-argument, he said in the December opinion that the amended complaint no longer “pertains” to Carr’s corporate officer status regarding the breach-of-contract charges and is now strictly an employer/employee matter.

He said the new complaint is not the result of “artful re-pleading” of the same alleged wrongs and now clearly sets out a new basis for breach-of-contract charges that steer clear of misuse of confidential information and actions taken before stepping down as CEO.

The advancement ruling is noteworthy because instead of focusing on the application of Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, it interpreted an advancement agreement patterned on Section 145 that was part of a limited liability company’s merger pact.

After Global bought Heartland in 2015 it had its new subsidiary file suit in federal court in New Jersey claiming Carr breached his fiduciary duty by giving his girlfriend inside information about the merger and used business secrets to form a competing company shortly after leaving.

Initially entitled

When Carr sued in the Delaware Chancery Court in July 2018 to force Heartland to pay for his defense of those charges, the vice chancellor initially found he was entitled to advancement under the merger pact, but the underlying New Jersey action was stayed during a criminal investigation in Connecticut.

When the stay was lifted in May 2019, Heartland and Global filed an amended complaint in New Jersey that dropped the initial misuse of confidential information charge and focused on breach of the non-compete and non-solicitation aspects of Carr’s conduct after he left Heartland.

One month later, they moved to modify the vice chancellor’s advancement order with regard to the breach-of-contract charge, arguing that that claim arose solely from Carr’s actions when he was no longer a Heartland officer and director and thus ineligible for advancement.

Vice Chancellor Glasscock initially found in favor of Carr but after agreeing to hear re-argument, he said a re-examination of the amended charges caused him to find that they “moot the advancement dispute by removing any claims that would trigger an advancement right.”

Not mere relabeling

He said he came to that conclusion despite being “wary of artful attempts at…mere relabeling of claims” and keeping in mind that “any ambiguities in advancement cases are required to be resolved in favor of enforcing the advancement right.”

He noted that the merger agreement’s drafters promised advancement rights for litigation that “arises out of or pertains to” Carr’s corporate officer status; he decided that “arises out of” and “pertains” were equally broad in scope, but “pertains” had the force of “part of” or “related to”.

Therefore, the suit’s remaining breach of duty and fraud charges warrant advancement because they pertain to his CEO duties the parties agreed, but Global argued  that claims for breach of a non-compete agreement are by nature an employer/employee dispute and thus not indemnifiable.

The vice chancellor said Delaware case law says such litigation involving post-separation use of confidential information gained while still in a corporate position “pertains” to his officer status and qualifies for advancement–but he said without that misuse, it would not, citing Brown v. LiveOps, 903 A.2d 324 (Del. Ch. 2006).

The first amended complaint clearly does not qualify for advancement because it “effectively erases all mention of confidentiality from the breach of contract claim…and focuses solely on his post-employment competition and solicitation activity,” he said, granting the motion to modify the advancement order.

 

The recent Delaware Chancery Court opinion in Ephrat v. medCPU, Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0052-MTZ (Del. Ch. June 26, 2019), remains noteworthy for two reasons, notwithstanding the large number of advancement decisions interpreting DGCL Section 145 appearing on these pages over the last 14 years:

(1)        It provides an anthology of prior Delaware decisions granting advancement to former directors or officers to defend claims regarding the use of confidential information acquired in their prior corporate capacity; and,

(2)        The opinion adds nuance to the existing abundant case law interpreting the threshold phrase “by reason of the fact”, which is one of the statutory prerequisites that must be satisfied for advancement claims to prevail.

Key Takeaways:

  • Despite the conduct at issue taking place post-termination, the “by reason of the fact” requirement of § 145 was satisfied because the underlying case involved the use of “Confidential Information” acquired while the former D&O was acting in his corporate capacity. (Although some conduct did not qualify and, thus, only partial advancement was granted).
  • This opinion compiles and discusses all the reported Delaware decisions that address the above circumstances in the § 145 context, and distinguishes one case, Lieberman, that does not grant advancement. See footnotes 42, 52, 56 and 69. See also page 19 which explains why Lieberman should be distinguished and why it is contrary to the great weight of authority on this issue.
  • The court also contrasts disputes relating to covenants-not-to-compete, and explains why those employer v. employee disputes typically involve personal disputes not in one’s corporate capacity–citing cases so holding. See footnote 74.

Adding to the multitude of Delaware decisions featured on these pages involving the right of corporate directors and officers to advancement of their fees incurred to defend claims against them, pursuant to DGCL Section 145, or by agreement, we offer highlights of Sider v. Hertz Global Holdings, C.A. No. 2019-0237-KSJM, Order (Del. Ch. June 17, 2019), a recent Delaware Court of Chancery ruling. Our highlights appear in the form of an article published in the current edition of The Delaware Business Court Insider, co-authored by yours truly and my colleague Chauna Abner. This decision comes in the form of an Order, but regular readers know that Orders and transcript rulings from the bench may be cited in Delaware briefs as authority.

In Sider, the Court denied a motion for interlocutory appeal of a decision granting advancement, reasoning that one of the requirements for such an appeal was not met: “that there is no just reason for denying the appeal.” Other basic but important advancement principles, and nuances, are recited by the court, with copious citations in robust footnotes.