Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster has leveled a nearly $690 million decision against a pipeline holding company Friday, finding unitholders were shortchanged when the proper channels weren’t followed in executing a 2018 acquisition.

The deal, Laster wrote following a four-day trial held via Zoom, was predicated on a general partner company and unidentified outside counsel stretching the terms of a partnership agreement past the boundaries that would allow such a transaction in order to take Boardwalk Pipeline Partners private quickly.