May 2021 – Delaware Docket

Delaware Chancery Court reaffirms need for factual particularity in assessing demand futility and granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss

May 28 2021

In a letter opinion, Mark Gottlieb, et al., v. Jonathan Duskin, et al, Civil Action No. 2019-0639-MTZ (Del. Ch. November 20, 2020), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint in its entirety for failure to satisfy, with enough factual particularity, that a demand that the board of directors pursue the corporate claim would have been futile under Rule 23.1.

If a Contract Claim Walks and Talks like a Contract Claim, It is a Contract Claim

May 05 2021

By Scott E. Waxman and Terrina G. LaVallee

In Transdev on Demand, Inc. v. Blackstreet Investment Holdings, LLC, C.A. No. 2019-0912-SG (Del. Ch. 2020), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted in part and denied in part the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the defendant’s counterclaims. The court denied two counts of the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss because it held it was inappropriate at this pleading stage to determine whether the agreement compelled specific performance and whether a breach of contract claim should have been an indemnification claim. In contrast, the court granted the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss one counterclaim because the defendant attempted to “bootstrap” a claim seeking damages for breach of contract, which was contractually prohibited, to a tort claim for fraud.

Chancery Court Sustains Derivative Action Alleging Caremark Claims

May 04 2021

By Scott Waxman and Claire Suni

In Teamsters Local 443 Health Services & Insurance Plan, et al. v. John G. Chou, et al., C.A. No. 2019-0816-SG (Del. Ch. August 24, 2020), the Delaware Court of Chancery (the “Court”) held that stockholders of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (“ABC”), a pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution company, adequately pled facts supporting the inference that certain ABC officers and directors breached fiduciary duties and acted in bad faith to consciously disregard a variety of red flags of illegal activity in connection with ABC’s packaging and distribution of cancer medications. The Court denied in full the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for relief.

Archive:May 2021