The Delaware Court of Chancery - Wow!
As a Delaware business attorney for many years, one of the courts I appear in is the Delaware Court of Chancery. You may have read about this Court from time to time because a lot of lawsuits with national implications are filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Recently, for example, a retirement fund known as County of York Employees Retirement Plan filed a lawsuit in our Chancery Court seeking to stop the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America.
According to its website, "The Delaware Court of Chancery is widely recognized as the nation's preeminent forum for the determination of disputes involving the internal affairs of the thousands upon thousands of Delaware corporations and other business entities through which a vast amount of the world's commercial affairs is conducted. Its unique competence in and exposure to issues of business law are unmatched."
One of the things that makes the Court of Chancery interesting is that at the same time the Court is being asked to stop the $50 billion sale of Merrill Lynch, it’s also resolving disputes that pale by comparison in terms of national implications but which are just as important to the people involved. What kind of cases are these? Well, in the last few months, the Court of Chancery issued formal opinions dealing with:
(1) 2 partners who sold their restaurant and were fighting over how the proceeds of sale should be divided between them
(2) 1 neighbor sues another neighbor seeking an injunction requiring compliance with deed restrictions
(3) the alleged financial exploitation of a Vietnam veteran by a marijuana dealer with whom he shared a close friendship
The Court of Chancery is known as a court of equity. More on this in a future article.
