Carter Ledyard secured the complete dismissal of all claims against firm client Dengrong Zhou for allegedly aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty by the officers and directors of iFresh, Inc. The case, Yan Deng v. Ping Zhou, et al., Index No. 712408/2022 (Sup. Ct. Queens Co., 2022), was brought by Yan Deng, the brother of ousted iFresh Chairman Long Deng, in connection with transactions that Long Deng previously challenged in litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery between Long Deng and the shareholders who removed him (led by Mr. Zhou). Carter Ledyard successfully prevailed on behalf of its clients in that action, titled Dengrong Zhou v. Long Deng at, al., 2022 WL 4367379 [Del Ch Ct, Sept. 20, 2022, C.A. No. 2021-0026-JRS], after a two-day trial.
In its June 29, 2023 decision, the New York Supreme Court held that all of the claims advanced by Yan Deng against Mr. Zhou were barred by the judgment in the Delaware action on res judicata grounds. Carter Ledyard’s Appellate victory on behalf of the client in November 2022 is described here.
The Carter Ledyard trial team was led by partners Stephen Plotnick and Alex Malyshev, with Matt Dunn and Meredith Spelman on the Delaware proceedings; and associates Nicholas Tapert and Meredith Spelman on the New York proceedings, with assistance of Carter Ledyard’s China Practice Group Chair Pang Zhang-Whitaker.