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Court in Southern District of New York Finds Attorney-Client Privilege is Broken Where Client Forwards Legal Advice to Third-Party Agent Who Was Uninvolved in Procuring the Legal Advice

Posted: / By: Categories: Attorney-Client Privilege, Discovery

The attorney-client privilege covers confidential communications between a client and attorney, and it is generally understood that a client waives the privilege by disclosing attorney-client communications to third parties. But what if a client must relay counsel’s advice to a third-party agent who must implement that advice? A court in the Southern District of New … Read more

Southern District of New York Holds Parent Company is Not Bound by Arbitration Agreement with Merger Advisor Engaged by the Target Company

Posted: / By: Categories: Arbitration, Contract Law, Declaratory Judgment

In XTI Aerospace, Inc. v. Chardan Capital Markets LLC, 1:24-cv-6590-GHW, 2025 WL 240973 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 17, 2025), the Southern District of New York held that a parent company is not bound by an arbitration agreement between a merger target and the target’s merger advisor, even post-merger. In March 2025, Travis J. Mock discussed commercial arbitration clauses with … Read more

Complaint Survives Dismissal Based on Detailed Allegations of Scheme to Poach Employees and Proprietary Information

Posted: / By: Categories: Tortious Interference, Torts

In Acrisure, LLC v. Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., 84 Misc. 1262(A) (PAE), 2024 WL 5329871 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cnty.), Supreme Court, New York County, held that a former employer adequately pleaded tortious interference, unfair competition, and aiding-and-abetting claims against a competitor who used wrongful means to poach employees, take company secrets, and attempt a sophisticated cover … Read more

Southern District of New York Rejects Kazakhstan’s Claim That Bank Records Concerning Its Assets Are Immune from Post-Judgment Discovery

Posted: / By: Categories: Civil Procedure, International Law

In Stati v. Republic of Kazakhstan, 19 Misc. 382 (PAE), 2024 WL 3442663 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 17, 2024), the Southern District of New York held that documents and information held by third-party banks relating to a foreign sovereign’s assets are not protected from disclosure in post- judgment proceedings. In 2013, Anatolie Stati and several related individuals … Read more

Email Service on Chinese Nationals Is Permissible Under Federal Rules When Physical Address Is Unknown After Reasonable Diligence

Posted: / By: Categories: Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction, Service of Process

Last year, we covered a decision in which the Southern District of New York permitted alternate service on defendants residing in China after plaintiffs were unable through the exercise of reasonable diligence to discover the defendants’ physical addresses.  (Analysis available HERE.) In Orient Plus International Ltd. v. Baosheng Media Group Holdings Ltd., 2024 WL 2317715 … Read more

Refusal to Negotiate SOWs Not a Breach of Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing Where Governing Contract Allowed, but Did Not Require, SOWs

Posted: / By: Categories: Contract Law, Good Faith & Fair Dealing

In Skanska USA Building, Inc. v. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 2024 WL 3214731 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 1, 2024), the Southern District of New York distinguished between master services agreements that contemplate future statements of work (“SOW”) and those that require them.  Under the former, refusal to negotiate future SOWs does not give rise to a claim for … Read more

Southern District of New York Treats Canadian Corporation-Partnership Hybrid as Partnership for Diversity Jurisdiction Purposes

Posted: / By: Categories: Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction

In MaxBounty, ULC v. Zocdoc Inc., 24-cv-3307 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 3, 2014), the Southern District of New York held that a Canadian “unlimited liability corporation” should be treated as a partnership for purposes of determining whether the court has diversity jurisdiction. The requirements for establishing federal diversity jurisdiction are well established when it comes to natural … Read more

New York Court of Appeals Rescues Shareholder Claim Under Scottish Law for Breach of Fiduciary Duty Against Corporate Directors

Posted: / By: , Categories: Conflict of Laws, Fiduciary Duties

In Eccles v. Shamrock Capital Advisors, LLC, 2024 WL 2331737 (N.Y. Ct. App. May 23, 2024), the New York Court of Appeals resuscitated a case dismissed by the Appellate Division, holding that plaintiffs—a group of over 100 common shareholders and founding members of FanDuel Ltd. (“FanDuel”), a Scottish online sports fantasy company—had sufficiently pled a breach of fiduciary claim under Scottish law against corporate directors.  Plaintiffs alleged that defendants had engaged in a scheme to benefit exclusively from the proceeds of a 2018 merger between FanDuel and the Dublin-based sports gambling company Paddy Power Betfair plc, and to eviscerate the interests of the common shareholders and founding members.  This case may have huge financial implications in that approximately two years later Flutter Entertainment plc acquired a 37.2% stake in FanDuel for $4.2 billion… Read more

Federal Court Finds No Alter Ego Even Though Parent Company Was “No Stranger” to Its Subsidiary’s Contract

Posted: / By: Categories: Contract Law, Tortious Interference

In Torricelli v. VB Asset Management, LLC, 23-CV-9176 (VEC), 2024 WL 1718820 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 22, 2024), the court applied two seemingly contradictory doctrines when dismissing an alter-ego based breach of contract claim under Delaware law and a claim for tortious interference with contract under New York law, each brought against an investment company concerning a contract with its wholly-owned subsidiary.  The court’s decision highlights the fact that courts will respect the twin realities of corporate separateness and a parent company’s role in overseeing its subsidiary… Read more

Alter Ego Liability Requires More than Dominion or Control

Posted: / By: Category: Piercing the Corporate Veil

In Aaron Richard Golub, Esquire, P.C. v. Blum, 23-cv-10102 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 1, 2024), the court dismissed a claim for quantum meruit asserted against an owner of the co-defendant corporation because the complaint failed to plead sufficiently that the owner’s alleged dominion over the defendant corporation caused the plaintiff’s alleged injury… Read more

Federal Court Declines to Exercise Jurisdiction Over New York Plaintiffs’ Class Action Against Foreign Corporation Where NY Subsidiary Was Principally Liable for Plaintiffs’ Alleged Injuries

Posted: / By: , Categories: Civil Procedure, Class Actions

In St. John v. Adesa, Inc., 22-CV-1257 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 21, 2023), the court dismissed plaintiff’s nascent class action under the Local Controversy Exception to CAFA jurisdiction, after joining defendant’s local subsidiary as a defendant… Read more