The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed corporate mismanagement and breach of fiduciary duty claims filed by a dissenting stockholder, but ordered that the surviving corporation in a merger was required to pay the merger consideration to the dissenting stockholder when the statutory appraisal period expired.
Plaintiffs Ram and Neena Mehta (“Plaintiffs”) owned shares of Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, which had declared bankruptcy in 2009 and, post-bankruptcy, merged with Rock-Tenn Company in 2011. Plaintiffs made a timely demand for appraisal after the merger announcement but never perfected their statutory rights. In fact, Plaintiffs withdrew their appraisal demand roughly a year after making it, and no other stockholder filed an appraisal petition. Rock-Tenn, however, refused to pay the merger consideration to Plaintiffs unless Plaintiffs agreed to broad settlement terms.
Continue Reading Delaware Chancery Requires Payment of Merger Consideration to Dissenting Stockholder After Expiration of Appraisal Period