Litigation

Court of Chancery Explains McWane Exceptions

By Morris James LLP

Choice Hotels International Inc. v. Columbus-Hunt Park DR BNK Investors LLC, C.A. 4353-VCP (October 15, 2009)

Delaware courts frequently must decide if a case filed in Delaware should be stayed in favor of another action filed elsewhere. While we wonder why anyone would want to leave Delaware, it happens. This decision carefully reviews when even "summary" proceedings filed in Delaware may be stayed in favor of another litigation. When a "summary" proceeding seeks to determine who is in change of a Delaware entity, there is a policy against staying the action because of the need to promptly resolve that important issue.

This is a case where that policy did not overcome the rule that a first filed action should proceed even over a Delaware case. Of course, given that the plaintiff in Delaware had filed first in Maryland, that hurt its claim to proceed in Delaware. The use of a status quo order also mitigated against the need to move quickly in Delaware.

Full post as published by Delaware Business Litigation Report on October 15, 2009 (boomark / email).