Supreme Court of Delaware

Judgment for defendant on all claims in a derivative action brought on behalf of the Walt Disney Company against a former president and directors of the company challenging a severance payout is affirmed where the factual findings and legal rulings were correct in connection with a finding that defendants did not breach their fiduciary duties or commit waste.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/08/2006
• Published 06/12/2006

Judges

• JACOBS, Justice., Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND, BERGER, JACOBS and RIDGELY, Justices, constituting the Court en Banc.

Court

• Supreme Court of Delaware

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Joseph A. Rosenthal and Norman M. Monhait, Esquires, of Rosenthal, Monhait, Gross & Goddess, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware;  Seth D. Rigrodsky, Esquire, of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, Wilmington, Delaware;  Of Counsel:  Steven G. Schulman (argued), Joshua H. Vinik, Jennifer K. Hirsh, John B. Rediker and Laura H. Gundersheim, Esquires, of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, New York, New York;  for Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Lawrence C. Ashby, Richard D. Heins and Philip Trainer, Jr., Esquires, of Ashby & Geddes, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware;  Of Counsel:  Gary P. Naftalis (argued), Michael S. Oberman, Paul H. Schoeman and Shoshana Menu, Esquires, of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP, New York, New York;  for Appellee Eisner., David C. McBride and Christian Douglas Wright, Esquires, of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, Wilmington, Delaware;  Of Counsel:  Mark H. Epstein (argued), Bart H. Williams and Jason L. Haas, Esquires, of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Los Angeles, California;  for Appellee Ovitz., Jesse A. Finkelstein, Gregory P. Williams (argued), Anne C. Foster, Lisa A. Schmidt, Evan O. Williford, and Michael R. Robinson, Esquires, of Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware;  for Appellees Bollenbach, Russell, Nunis, Poitier, Stern, Walker, Watson, Wilson, Bowers, Lozano, Mitchell, O'Donovan, and Murphy., Robert K. Payson, Stephen C. Norman and Kevin R. Shannon, Esquires, of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, Wilmington, Delaware;  for Appellee Litvack., A. Gilchrist Sparks, III and S. Mark Hurd, Esquires, of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, Wilmington, Delaware;  Of Counsel:  Stephen D. Alexander and Susan C. Chun, Esquires, of Bingham McCutchen LLP, Los Angeles, California;  for Appellees Disney and Gold., Andre G. Bouchard and Joel Friedlander, Esquires, of Bouchard Margules & Friedlander, Wilmington, Delaware;  for Appellee The Walt Disney Company.