Board Member’s Vote for Disputed Conduct Not Deemed Bias for Demand in Derivative Action

Often, litigation involving a corporation will be framed as a derivative action meaning, that the shareholder that is suing is doing so on behalf of the corporation but not individually. A prerequisite for a derivative action is the suing shareholder’s demand on the board to act on behalf of the corporation. However, one way to avoid this demand, is to demonstrate to a judge that because the entity’s board members are biased against the demand, any demand would be futile. Upon such a showing, the demand will be waived.

In a case involving Life Medical Technologies, Inc., Suffolk County commercial division judge, Elizabeth Emerson, held that a board member’s vote for the conduct in question did not equate to bias so that a demand may not have been futile. That meant that just because the board member agreed to take the action that is now the subject of the lawsuit did not mean that a demand on that board member to sue would be useless. The court held that the board member, when faced with a demand, could change his or her mind.

I suppose.

The brief facts here involve the company’s failure to take steps to recover certain stock grants to a consultant and company officer (both of whom sat on the company’s board). There was no dispute that the other board members voted in favor of the grants and failed to take action to recover them.

When the shareholder commenced a derivative action against the company and board members, he alleged that any demand to the board to act on behalf of the company would have been futile and he was thus relieved from making the demand. The Court disagreed, finding that while the two that received the shares would be deemed interested and biased, the other board members, notwithstanding their votes in favor, would not be automatically biased against a demand to recover the grants. Therefore, the allegation that a demand would have been futile was denied, and the case was dismissed.

This decision highlights the fine line often present in derivative litigation, and whether or not to make a demand must be carefully considered. Do not act alone in making that decision, as the dismissal of an otherwise meritorious lawsuit may result.