The Five Worst Delaware Cases: A Comment

We posted on this Blog our view of the five most anti-shareholder cases issued by Delaware courts in 2007.  We rarely point out a comment on a post but it is worth reading the note left by Francis Pileggi who writes on the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog, a blog I consult on a regular basis.  The comment takes issue with our list and offers a counter list.  The comment also appears as a post on his Blog. 

Two of the cases that he mentions, Melzer v. CNET Networks Inc., 2007 WL 4146237 (Del. Ch., Nov. 21, 2007) and In re: infoUSA, Inc. Shareholders Litigation, 2007 WL 2332543 (Del. Ch., Aug. 13, 2007) (revised on Aug. 20, 2007) (go here, here, here, here, and here) have made appearances on this Blog. 

While we don't share the same view of all of these opinions, we would add one to Mr. Pileggi's list.  Ryan v. Gifford, 918 A.2d 341   (Del. Ch. 2007), the first of the backdating cases issued by the Delaware Chancery Court, is a thoughtful and well done piece of legal reasoning by Chancellor Chandler, written in a dispassionate legal tone.  Were we to rank the five best opinions of 2007, it would be at the top of our list.