Cavalier Oil Corp v. Harnett

In Cavalier Oil Corp v. Harnett, 564 A.2d 1137 (Del 1989), a shareholder dissented to a merger and asserted appraisal rights pursuant to the Delaware dissenters' rights statute. See DelCodeAnn title 8, 262 (1991 & Supp 1998). Like SDCL 47-6-46, the Delaware statute required payment of fair value for the shares. Id. The court stated that, "the application of a discount to a minority shareholder is contrary to the requirement that the company be viewed as a 'going concern.'" Cavalier Oil, 564 A.2d at 1145. The court continued on, stating that "to fail to accord to a minority shareholder the full proportionate value of his shares imposes a penalty for lack of control, and unfairly enriches the majority shareholders who may reap a windfall from the appraisal process by cashing out a dissenting shareholder, a clearly undesirable result." Id.