Opinion ID: 2360224
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the contentions and issues on appeal

Text: As noted, the plaintiffs appeal only from the Court of Chancery's dismissal of their proxy disclosure claim, and only with respect to Mr. Harrison. They do not challenge the Vice Chancellor's determinations that plaintiffs' underlying breach of fiduciary duty claim was derivative, or that the majority of the JPMC board were independent and disinterested, or that the board's approval of the merger agreement, including its premium and succession provisions, was protected by the business judgment rule. The only claim presented to us is that the Court of Chancery reversibly erred by dismissing the proxy disclosure claim, because assuming the truth of plaintiffs' well-pled disclosure-related allegations, the plaintiffs were entitled to recover compensatory damages, or at the very least nominal damages, as a matter of law. In response, the appellee contends that even if the directors were found to have violated their duty of disclosure, that violation does not give rise to any legally cognizable claim for damages, whether compensatory or nominal, based on the facts alleged in the complaint. Thus, the issues we must decide are whether the Court of Chancery correctly determined that the alleged duty of disclosure violation fails to state a legally sufficient claim for either (1) compensatory or (2) nominal damages. Because those two types of damage claims rest on different theories that require separate analyses, we address each claim separately.