Delaware encourages businesses to handle contract disputes privately, but that doesn’t allow for self-help when a breach has been alleged, Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III wrote in a Court of Chancery opinion Wednesday.

Following a three-day trial, the doctor who took matters into his own hands with a series of contract-skirting transactions when the company he ran wasn’t moving forward with their agreement quickly enough was found to have breached his fiduciary duties and ordered to pay $1 in damages.