Delaware Business Litigation Report

Court Of Chancery Denies Power To Eliminate Board Seats

Kurz v. Holbrook, C.A. 5019-VCL  (February 9, 2010)

This significant decision holds that you cannot eliminate a director by amending the bylaws to reduce the number of seats on the board of directors.  Of course, this only came up in the odd context of a stockholder who could not vote for directors and hence could not vote to eliminate them as well. Nonetheless, it is interesting as a limit on the power to amend bylaws

Perhaps more importantly, the decision explains the complicated and often misunderstood ways in which proxies are obtained to vote the shares of public companies. Those shares are mostly held in the name of Cede & Co., a depository for brokers and banks.  Getting the proxy from Cede, and then to the brokers and then to the actual beneficial owners has proved cumbersome in fast proxy battles. This decision helps that process by letting the records of Cede act as a list of owners.

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