Plaintiffs frequently seek to pierce the corporate veil of companies against whom judgments may be or have been obtained in an attempt to extend liability to the defendants’ principals. Is piercing the corporate veil a viable cause of action separate from the underlying claims that seek to impose liability on the defendant entity? When can a piercing the corporate veil claim be asserted?...
In the world of commercial litigation there is an unavoidable complication that often arises during disputes: how to handle sensitive and proprietary information. When parties to business-centered disputes resort to litigation to solve their dispute, the information that is exchanged between the parties often includes sensitive financial material, such as documents, reports, trade secrets,...
If your client is in default on a loan and lender’s counsel suggests stipulating to the appointment of a receiver, be aware of the potential pitfalls of doing so. You may be exposing the company’s owners and management to a lawsuit for breach of fiduciary brought by the receiver. The following recent Court of Appeals decision illustrates the perils of such a decision.
In Coppola v. Manning,...
Neuman Anderson shareholder Stephen McKenney recently finalized a settlement of a property tax appeal. The settlement involved one of the firm’s clients who owns a large retail shopping center in Waterford Township. The matter was pending before the Michigan Tax Tribunal and was scheduled for a hearing before the Entire Tribunal this summer.
The settlement represented a compromise between the...
Litigation over promissory notes and related loan documents tends to be formulaic. Frequently, a borrower in clear default of some of the material terms of those documents (usually the obligation to repay the money borrowed) will tell his or her attorney that the loan documents were signed in reliance on a variety of representations the lender has since ignored or repudiated, giving rise to...
When lender and borrower relationships break down – especially where the borrower defaults in payments owed to the lender – the borrower often feels (and perhaps justifiably so) that the lender is treating them unfairly or is acting contrary to certain oral promises that may have been made at an earlier time. For instance, at the beginning of a lending relationship, the lender may tell the...
For those of you who thought shareholder oppression cases could be tried to a jury, think again. It is true that the Michigan shareholder oppression statute, MCL 450.1489(f) of the Business Corporation Act, states that “if the shareholder establishes grounds for relief, the circuit court may make an order or grant relief as it considers appropriate, including, without limitation, an order...
Whether or not you are on Facebook or are a devoted user of social media apps, as a litigator you have to be, at the very least, aware of how technology affects discovery and can potentially lead to a gold mine of information. Moreover, some knowledge of how technology affects litigation is essentially mandatory now. Comment 8 to Rule 1.1 of ABA Model Rule regarding competent representation...
As more practitioners file cases in the Business Courts, it is predictable that they will have to grapple with jurisdictional issues involving multiple claims. One issue that litigators should be aware of is that business courts have ‘supplemental’ jurisdiction over claims that are not themselves business court claims, but that are related to business court claims.
Under MCL...
Keeping Clients’ Confidential Information Out of the Public Record
In the world of commercial litigation, there is an unavoidable complication that often arises during disputes: how to handle sensitive and proprietary information. When parties to business-centered disputes resort to litigation to solve their dispute, the information that is exchanged between the parties often includes...
