Delaware Business Litigation Report

Plaintiffs Adequately Pled Unjust Enrichment for Materially Deficient Disclosures

Buttonwood Tree Value Partners, L.P. v. R.L. Polk & Co. Inc., C.A. No. 9250-VCG (Del. Ch. Dec. 29, 2023)
To state a claim for unjust enrichment, a plaintiff must adequately plead: (1) an enrichment; (2) an impoverishment; (3) a relation between the enrichment and impoverishment; and (4) the absence of a justification. In this Court of Chancery action, the plaintiffs claimed that the defendants were unjustly enriched because the plaintiffs were induced to tender their shares for inadequate compensation as a result of materially misleading disclosures. In response, the defendants argued that the relationship between the company’s self-tender and the benefits that the defendants received from subsequent special dividends and the sale of the company were too attenuated to plead that defendants were aware of these future developments. The Court held, however, that the plaintiffs had adequately pled their claims for unjust enrichment because defendants allegedly knew the true sale value of the company and defendants caused the company to make materially deficient disclosures to increase the defendants’ equity.

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