Aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty claims are litigated frequently, and this blog has addressed them here and here. The Appellate Division, First Department, recently opined on aiding-and-abetting liability in Cont. Indus. Group, Inc. v. Ustuntas, 211 A.D.3d 601 (1st Dep’t 2022). As the court’s decision shows, aiding-and-abetting claims are readily susceptible to dismissal,…
All posts tagged Elements of Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Mohinani v. Charney:
Revisiting Derivative Claims and Damages in Real-Estate Investment Disputes
It is somewhat rare for a business dispute to be litigated all the way through trial. Protracted litigation is costly, time-consuming, and unpredictable. When that does happen, however, the results can be illuminating—especially when the trial court’s decision is upheld on appeal. That is what happened in the recent decision of the Appellate Division, First Department,…
Hahn v. Stone House Properties LLC: The Duty of Loyalty and Fiduciary Relationships
Loyalty is perhaps the quintessential characteristic of a fiduciary relationship. Indeed, someone who occupies the role of a fiduciary is expected to be loyal above all else. For that reason, the phrase “duty of loyalty” is often bandied about in relation to fiduciary-duty claims. In the abstract, merely stating that a fiduciary has a “duty of…
Manipal Educ. Americas, LLC v. Taufiq: Fiduciary Duties of Employees to Employers
Breach of fiduciary duty claims frequently arise within the employment context. As a general matter, employees owe their employers basic fiduciary duties in certain circumstances. A potentially fertile area of litigation involves employees who are disloyal to their employers. A recent decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, contains an informative analysis of fiduciary-duty claims…
Apollo Mgt., Inc. v. Cernich: The Flexibility of Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims
An interesting and easily overlooked decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, shows just how flexible fiduciary duty claims can be. In Apollo Mgt., Inc. v. Cernich, 202 A.D.3d 527 (1st Dep’t 2022), the court allowed the plaintiffs to seek money damages on a fiduciary-duty theory of liability for misconduct that really fell under an…