JACOBS, Justice: The appellant, Sagarra Inversiones, S.L. ("Sagarra"), a Spanish corporation, is a minority shareholder of Corporaci n Uniland S.A. ("Uniland"), also a Spanish corporation. Sagarra brought a Court of Chancery action to rescind the sale, by Cementos Portland Valderrivas ("CPV"), of Giant Cement Holdings, Inc. ("Giant"), to Uniland. CPV was the controlling stockholder of both Giant and Uniland. Sagarra purported to sue derivatively on behalf of a wholly-owned Delaware subsidiary...
JACOBS, Justice: Defendants below Dana Companies ("Dana") and Zoom Performance Products ("Zoom") appeal from a Superior Court order denying their post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, for a new trial. A Superior Court jury found those defendants partially liable for asbestos-related mesothelioma suffered by the decedents, Bruce Henderson ("Bruce") and his mother, Elizabeth Henderson ("Elizabeth") (collectively, the "Hendersons"). The trial court denied the...
JACOBS, Justice: Ernesto Espinoza ("Espinoza"), the appellant and plaintiff-below, brought this action under 8 Del. C. 220 to inspect certain books and records of the defendant-below appellee, Hewlett-Packard Company ("HP"). 2 More specifically, Espinoza sought to inspect one document that HP refused voluntarily to disclose: an interim report (the "Covington Report" or the "Report") prepared by Covington & Burling, HP's outside counsel. The Covington Report was prepared in connection with...
STEELE, Chief Justice. A real estate agent served as the seller's agent for two sales of the same house. The initial purchaser submitted a bid for the house and, the same day, hired the initial seller's agent to serve as seller's agent for the second sale. A few days later, the agent convinced the initial seller to accept the initial purchaser's bid without disclosing his conflict of interest or the purchaser's interest in flipping the house. After one day of trial concerning the initial...
STEELE, Chief Justice: Police arrested Dechanta Knox on August 5, 2008 and charged her with three counts of issuing a bad check greater than $1,000. After a jury convicted Knox of all offenses, the trial judge learned that Juror No. 8 was a victim in a pending criminal trial being prosecuted by the same Deputy Attorney General. Without examining the juror in court, the trial judge denied Knox's motion for a new trial. When a juror serving on a criminal trial is an alleged victim of a crime and...
STEELE, Chief Justice: This is a proceeding, under Article IV, Section 11(8) of the Delaware Constitution and Supreme Court Rule 41, on a question of law certified to, and accepted by us, from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The certified questions arise from two similar cases— Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. v. Joseph Schlanger 2006 Insurance Trust (Schlanger) and PHL Variable Insurance Co. v. Price Dawe 2006 Insurance Trust (Dawe). 1 In both cases, an...
STEELE, Chief Justice: This is a proceeding, under Article IV, Section 11(8) of the Delaware Constitution and Supreme Court Rule 41, on a question of law certified to, and accepted by us, from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The certified questions arise from two similar cases— PHL Variable Insurance Co. v. Price Dawe 2006 Insurance Trust (Dawe) and Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. v. Joseph Schlanger 2006 Insurance Trust (Schlanger). 1 In both cases, an...
STEELE, Chief Justice: The police arrested Marcellous Jones at a private party in Newark, Delaware for drug related offenses. Based on evidence seized on the night of Jones's arrest, a magistrate issued a warrant to search his home. Executing this warrant, police discovered drugs and firearms in Jones's residence. Jones attempted to suppress all the items seized as fruit of an illegal seizure and invalid search warrant. A Superior Court judge denied Jones's motions to suppress, rejecting both...
STEELE, Chief Justice: CML V, LLC (CML), a junior secured creditor of JetDirect Aviation Holdings, LLC, sued JetDirect's present and former officers directly and derivatively for breaching their fiduciary duties. The Vice Chancellor dismissed all four of CML's claims. Because CML, as a JetDirect creditor, lacked standing to sue derivatively on JetDirect's behalf, we affirm. I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY JetDirect Aviation Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, was a private...
STEELE, Chief Justice: Central Mortgage Company sued Morgan Stanley after mortgages for which CMC purchased servicing rights from Morgan Stanley began to fall delinquent during the early financial crisis in 2007. CMC made a variety of claims, and the Vice Chancellor 1 dismissed all of those claims with prejudice, except for its breach of contract claims which he dismissed without prejudice. CMC now appeals the dismissal of its breach of contract and implied covenant of good faith and fair...
STEELE, Chief Justice: Linda Thompson appeals from a Superior Court judgment reversing the determination of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board that good cause existed for Thompson's voluntary resignation and granting her unemployment benefits. Thompson contends that: (1) good cause existed for voluntarily terminating her employment, (2) she exhausted her administrative remedies, and (3) substantial evidence in the record supported the UIAB's decision. Because we find that substantial...
JACOBS, Justice: This appeal arises out of a contest for control of Trans-Resources, Inc. ("Trans-Resources"), a Delaware corporation. The Trump Group, whose members are the plaintiffs-below appellees, 1 brought a Court of Chancery action under 8 Del. C. 225 2 against Arie Genger ("Genger"), the defendant-below appellant, 3 to determine which stockholder group possessed the majority voting interest entitled to elect the Trans-Resources board of directors. In two separate opinions and a...
STEELE, Chief Justice for the Majority: Patricia Price appeals from a Superior Court order denying her Motion to Amend her household asbestos exposure complaint as futile. Because the allegations in Price's amended complaint amount to a claim against DuPont for nonfeasance, and the complaint does not allege any "special relationship" between Price and DuPont, her proposed amendments, if allowed, would be futile. Therefore, we affirm. I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Bobby Price worked as a...
STEELE, Chief Justice: The Appellants in this derivative action, Linda Kahn and Alan Spiegal, who are shareholders of Primedia, Inc., appeal the Court of Chancery's decision granting the Primedia Special Litigation Committee's Motion to Dismiss claims arising out of a series of alleged violations of fiduciary duty by defendants, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., Primedia, Inc., and other Primedia officers and directors. Because we do not agree with the Court of Chancery's interpretation of a...
STEELE, Chief Justice: On June 30, 2010 after a stipulated bench trial, the trial judge found Michael Holden guilty of Carrying a Concealed Deadly Weapon. The trial focused on the propriety of the police seizure of the weapon before Holden "carried." Because the objective evidence failed to establish a reasonable belief that Holden was armed and dangerous before the police searched him and seized the weapon, the trial judge erroneously denied Holden's motion to suppress the illegally obtained...
CONSOLIDATED STEELE, Chief Justice. Julia Stearns 1 appeals from Family Court orders granting Division of Family Services petitions for the termination of her parental rights in her four minor children. On appeal, Stearns argues that the Family Court erroneously denied her Rule 41(b) Motion to Dismiss and failed to address the requisite best interest of the child factors when terminating her rights. Because we conclude that the Family Court correctly denied Stearns' Motion to Dismiss and...
STEELE, Chief Justice: The Mayor and Town Council (collectively, the Panel) of the Town of Elsmere terminated Liam Sullivan's employment as Chief of Police. Sullivan appealed his termination to the Superior Court, which affirmed the Panel's decision. Sullivan now appeals the Superior Court judgment. Because the Panel's failure to recuse a biased member could not be cured by the votes of the remaining Panel members, the Panel violated Sullivan's due process rights. Therefore, we reverse. I....
STEELE, Chief Justice. In March 1993, a jury convicted Robert Jackson of first degree murder. In October 1995, after a second penalty hearing, the trial judge sentenced Jackson to death. This appeal follows a Superior Court judge's denial of Jackson's second Motion for Postconviction Relief. Jackson argues that sidebar commentary his attorney made to the trial judge during a pretrial hearing created an unlawful "appearance of impropriety," violated his due process rights, and denied his Sixth...
JACOBS, Justice: This case arises from new legislation enacted by the General Assembly following this Court's 2009 decision in Smith v. Gordon ( "Smith I" ), 2 which involved the same dispute between the same parties. Respondent-below appellant, Lynn M. Smith ("Smith"), appeals from an April 23, 2010 Family Court order awarding joint custody of ANS, a minor child, to petitioner-below appellee, Carol M. Guest ("Guest"). The Family Court granted custody to Guest based on the new legislation...
STEELE, Chief Justice: James E. Sheehan filed a personal injury action under 10 Del. C. 8145, the Child Victim's Act, against several institutional defendants, including the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and Salesianum School, for the alleged sexual abuse he suffered in 1962 by Father Francis Norris, a teacher at Salesianum. The Child Victim's Act (CVA), enacted in 2007, abolished the civil statute of limitations for claims of childhood sexual abuse and created a two year window to allow...
