Arizona — YF Bethanny Inc. v. 16 Bethany Station LLC, No. 1 CA-CV 18-0183, decided February 19, 2019. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled the fact that a lessee converted from a corporation to an LLC had no bearing on whether it was a proper party to bring a suit for breach of the lease. An entity that converts from a corporation to an LLC remains the same entity with the same rights it had before the conversion.

Florida — Pansky v. Barry S. Franklin & Assoc., P.A., No. 4D16-1353, decided February 13, 2019. The Florida Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court went beyond what the Florida LLC law authorizes when it ordered the transfer of a judgment debtor’s ownership interests in an LLC to the law firm that was the debtor’s judgment creditor. A charging order was the law firm’s sole remedy to satisfy the debt out of the debtor member’s LLC interests.

New York — Kaminski v. Sirera, NY Slip Op 01067, decided February 13, 2019. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division ruled that a purchaser of an LLC interest from a previous member could not bring a derivative suit on the LLC’s behalf against the LLC’s attorneys. Only a member has the right to bring a derivative suit and because the purchaser failed to obtain the consent of the other members to become a member, he lacked standing.

Delaware — KT4 Partners LLC v. Palantir Technologies Inc., No. 281, 2018, decided January 29, 2019. The Delaware Supreme Court ruled that a shareholder was entitled to inspect emails where they were necessary to satisfy a request under Sec. 220 of the General Corporation Law.

New York — Aybar v. Aybar, 2019 N.Y. Slip Op 00412, decided January 23, 2019. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division held that a foreign corporation does not consent to the general jurisdiction of New York courts by virtue of having registered to do business in New York and appointed a local agent for service of process.

Arizona — Rohan Management, Inc. v. Jantzen, No.1 CA-SA 18-0231, decided January 22, 2019. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that Sec. 29-785(a) of the Arizona LLC law does not limit venue in an action for judicial dissolution of an LLC to the county in which the LLC’s known place of business is located.

Federal — New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira, No. 17-340, decided January 15, 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court held (1) it is up to the court, not an arbitrator to determine whether the exclusion of Sec. 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act for contracts of employment of certain transportation workers applies and (2) the term “contract of employment” includes contracts for workers who are independent contractors.

Federal — Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc., No. 17-1272, decided January 8, 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court held that when the parties’ contract delegates the threshold arbitrability question to an arbitrator a court may not override the contract even if it thinks the arbitrability claim is wholly groundless. The Federal Arbitration Act does not contain a wholly groundless exception and the Court cannot rewrite the statute.

Louisiana — State v. Blackwell, No. 18-KA-116, decided December 27, 2018. The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction and prison sentence of the defendant for violating a Louisiana statute which prohibits any person from engaging in the business of contracting without an active contractor’s license.

California — Datta v. Fidelity National Title Company, B283800, decided 12/24/18. The California Court of Appeal rejected the plaintiff’s argument that because a foreign corporation was not qualified to do business when it was appointed as nominee in a deed of trust in 2005 the deed was void, as was its assignment of the deed in 2011. The court stated that the failure to qualify does not void transactions.