News Category: case law analysis


Supreme Court Unanimously Includes Life Insurance Proceeds Intended for Redemption of a Shareholder in the Value of the Corporation in the Estate

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 6, 2024, that “[a] corporation’s contractual obligation to redeem shares is not necessarily a liability that reduces a corporation’s value for purposes of the federal estate tax.” Let's take a closer look at this ruling. Read more >>

A Smorgasbord of Valuation Issues

Where to start with the delicious buffet of valuation issues presented in Fair v. Fair , a Louisiana Court of Appeals divorce case. The primary issue in the case was the valuation of the husband’s community estate business known in the case as SIS. The business sells surgical medical equipment GE made. Read more >>

Meet Jim Alerding BVR's New Legal Editor

Hi, I am Jim Alerding, CPA/ABV. Many of you know me from my presentations and articles over the years. I have over 40 years of experience in business valuation and litigation services. I started in 1980 in the BV and testimony arenas. Since my first case was a valuation for a divorce case in which I then testified, I started in BV and Litigation Support at the same time. Read more >>

Caesars Entertainment sues over COVID-19-related economic damages

On March 19, Caesars Entertainment joined the long list of businesses that have filed lawsuits against their insurance companies for refusing to pay business interruption losses stemming from COVID-19-related government shutdowns of economies across the nation and world. Whether Caesars, which asserts that losses its various business entities incurred may exceed $2 billion, succeeds where a lot of other plaintiffs have failed will be worth monitoring. Read more >>

2019 Key Business Valuation and Damages Cases

At the end of every year, BVLaw takes stock of valuation and damages cases that have dominated the conversation among financial experts by making law or influencing in some other way attitudes on key valuation issues. Here is our selection of 2019 cases by Sylvia Golden, Esq., BVR’s executive legal editor. Read more >>

Avoiding Ethics Violations When Working on Divorce (or Other) Cases

At the recent AAML/BVR divorce conference, held May 8-10 in Las Vegas, one of the sessions that best conveyed the advantages of an interdisciplinary discussion was on ethics. The topic was “Ethics Violations: How to Avoid the Letter No One Wants to Receive,” and the speakers were Marie Ebersbacher (CBIZ MHM LLC), an appraiser and financial forensics expert, and Lawrence Moskowitz (Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz LLP), a family law attorney. Read more >>

2018 key valuation and damages cases

At year-end, Sylvia Golden, BVR’s executive legal editor, provides a roundup of the key business valuation and damages cases. Here are her choices for 2018. Some of the courts’ decisions have changed the legal landscape and are must-know cases. Other rulings are confined to the specific case, but they contain important lessons for appraisers of how to, and, more often, how not to, perform as a financial expert. Read more >>

Three different court rulings on the use of discounts in the divorce context

Case law matters. Every month, BVLaw analyzes the most noteworthy court decisions dealing with valuation and damages issues. Subscribers should check out digests of three recent divorce rulings different state courts issued. All the cases dealt with the issue of whether it was appropriate to discount the owner-spouse’s interest in a closely held business. Read more >>

Top five business valuation tips from recent training webinars

As a busy business valuation professional, you may not always have the time to attend training events. We’ve compiled the top five tips from recent BVR webinars on the most timely and important topics in the profession. Read more >>

BVLaw Case Update

Every month, BVLaw analyzes and digests federal and state court decisions (including opinions from the United States Tax Court) that focus on valuation and damages issues and feature expert testimony. A BVLaw subscription is an efficient way for financial experts to keep up with developments in their areas of expertise and with the various courts’ takes on valuation methodology, Daubert and the art of presentation, and policy concerns. Read more >>

Damages testimony undergoes Daubert treatment in class certification stage

Class actions have their own rules, including when it comes to expert testimony. An unresolved issue is whether damages expert testimony is subject to a Daubert inquiry at the class certification stage, before the court has approved the request to proceed as a class action. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to give clear guidance, but defendants are increasingly proactive and move to exclude the testimony at the beginning of the litigation in an attempt to thwart class certification and knock the case out early. Read more >>

Tennessee dissenters claim Delaware block method is passé

The use of the Delaware block method in Tennessee recently came under attack in a case involving a closely held Nashville, Tenn.-based media company whose controlling shareholders had pursued a squeeze-out merger and later asked the trial court for a judicial appraisal of the dissenting shareholders' interest. Read more >>

Flop film poses unique valuation challenge

A recent bankruptcy-related case in front of the California Court of Appeal raises important questions about how one quantifies the value of a dated piece of art, a film, for which there never was a market in the first place. Read more >>

Guidance for valuators on Washington state double dip jurisprudence

Double dipping is a tricky issue because different states have developed different approaches to it. Valuators specializing in divorce issues must know the controlling case law in the state in which they practice. A recent decision by the Washington state Court of Appeals clarifies its state's analytical framework in a case featuring a successful management consulting business the husband had set up and grown during the marriage. Read more >>

Chancery relies on income approach to determine fair value in problematic bank merger

In a statutory appraisal action, the Delaware Court of Chancery recently found the deal price did not reflect fair value because the sales process was suboptimal. Certain other methods the parties' experts used also were inadequate to the task, the court said. Read more >>

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