IIs the claim derivative or direct? The question has vexed courts and practitioners in Delaware and elsewhere as they have sought to clarify the “often murky distinction” between the two types of corporate law claims.[1]� The hazy line between the claims can become even more indistinct when it is understood that the same facts can give rise to both a derivative claim and a direct claim. Yet as Vice Chancellor Leo Strine’s recent decision in Akins v. Cobb illustrates,[2]� characterizing a claim as derivative or direct carries important procedural and substantive law consequences, and may determine whether the claim may proceed at all.
What Is at Stake
