Court of Chancery Denies Damages Request, Requires Hearing
Summary
The Delaware Court of Chancery denied a plaintiff's request for damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in Bobby Sarnevesht v. Triller Group Inc. The court found the plaintiff's calculation of damages based on the 'New York Rule' questionable and insufficient for an award on the paper record, necessitating an evidentiary hearing.
What changed
The Delaware Court of Chancery, in the case of Bobby Sarnevesht v. Triller Group Inc. (C.A. No. 2025-0979-LWW), has denied the plaintiff's request for an entry of judgment on the papers for damages totaling approximately $248 million to $256 million. The plaintiff sought these damages following a default judgment related to Triller Group Inc.'s failure to promptly file an SEC registration for shares issued during a 2024 merger. The court found the applicability of the 'New York Rule' to the facts questionable, citing differences from precedent cases involving securities registration failures, and also raised concerns about the plaintiff's methodology for calculating damages based on the highest intermediate stock price.
An evidentiary hearing is now required to determine the appropriate damages. This decision implies that regulated entities facing similar post-default judgment damage claims, particularly those involving securities registration failures, must be prepared to provide a robust evidentiary basis for their calculations. Failure to do so, or relying on precedents that do not closely match the specific harm alleged, could lead to the denial of damages on paper and necessitate a full hearing.
What to do next
- Prepare for evidentiary hearing on damages calculation
- Review applicability of 'New York Rule' to specific securities registration failure scenarios
Source document (simplified)
COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
Richard P. Rollo, Esquire Travis S. Hunter, Esquire Danielle I. Bell, Esquire Richards Layton & Finger, P.A. 920 North King Street Wilmington, Delaware 19801 RE: Bobby Sarnevesht v. Triller Group Inc., f/k/a AGBA Group
Holding Limited, C.A. No. 2025-0979-LWW
Dear Counsel,
I write regarding the plaintiff’s request for damages following this court’s
entry of a default judgment. The plaintiff seeks an entry of judgment on the papers, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. As explained below, I cannot award these damages on the limited paper record supplied. An evidentiary hearing is needed. This lawsuit stems from Triller Group Inc.’s failure to promptly file a registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering 54,077,698 shares of common stock issued to former convertible noteholders at the time of a 2024 merger. Plaintiff Bobby Sarnevesht, acting as the stockholder representative, 1
Verified Compl. (Dkt. 1) ¶¶ 9-10, 13, 14, 19; id. at Ex. A § 4.12. 1 LORI W. WILL LEONARD L. WILLIAMS JUSTICE CENTER 500 N. KING STREET, SUITE 11400 VICE CHANCELLOR WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 19801-3734
Page 2 of 5 sued for breach of contract and obtained a default judgment. As a result of that 2 default judgment, all factual allegations in the complaint were deemed admitted. 3 The plaintiff now seeks damages based on the “New York Rule,” which
applies when “stock or propert[y] of like character were converted, not delivered
according to contractual or other legal obligation, or otherwise improperly He calculates damages ranging from approximately $248 million to 4manipulated.” $256 million by multiplying the entire block of shares by the peak post-merger stock price of $4.75 per share. In doing so, he assumes the unregistered shares currently 5 hold a value of either $0 or $0.15. 6 This damages request is denied, at present, for several reasons. First, the applicability of the New York Rule to these facts is questionable.
The plaintiff’s cited cases involve fundamentally different harms:
Id. ¶¶ 25-28; see Dkts. 6, 12, 14. 2 See Carlton Invs. v. TLC Beatrice Int’l Hldgs., Inc., 1996 WL 426501, at *1 (Del. Ch. 3July 24, 1996) (“The effect of a default is simply to admit all of the well-pleaded
allegations of the complaint.”).
Pl.’s Feb. 10, 2026 Letter Regarding Calculation of Damages (Dkt. 13) 2 (citing Diamond 4Fortress Techs., Inc. v. EverID, Inc., 274 A.3d 287, 306 (Del. Super. 2022)). Id. at 4-5. 5 Id. at 4. 6
Page 3 of 5 • Duncan v. Theratx, Inc. involved a temporary suspension of an active registration statement, freezing shares that were already registered and actively trading. 7
Diamond Fortress Technologies, Inc. v. EverID, Inc. concerned a total
failure to deliver cryptocurrency assets to the plaintiff. 8Comrie v. Enterasys Networks, Inc. addressed an abandoned initial
public offering and the breach of an alternative contract to issue equivalent replacement options or pay a cash amount if the offering did not occur. 9Paradee v. Paradee centered on a breach of fiduciary duty regarding a
life insurance policy. 10 None of these cases deal with the appropriate remedy for a failure to initially register securities where the shares were delivered to the plaintiff. Second, even if the New York Rule applies, I have concerns about the
plaintiff’s approach to damages. For instance, it is not clear that the “highest
intermediate price . . . during a reasonable time at the beginning of the restricted Duncan defines the period” is equivalent to the highest stock price post-closing. 11
“reasonable time” for finding the highest intermediate price as the period when
775 A.2d 1019, 1023 n.9, 1029 (Del. 2001) (explaining that “the issuer’s breach at least 7in some sense is a temporary ‘conversion’ of the shares[]”). 274 A.3d at 308-09. 8 837 A.2d 1, 20-21 (Del. Ch. 2003). 9 2010 WL 3959604, at *13 (Del. Ch. Oct. 5, 2010). 10 Duncan, 775 A.2d at 1020, 1029. 11
Page 4 of 5 shares could be sold “without depressing the market.” Liquidating over 54 million 12 shares at the peak without causing the price to crash seems improbable. Contract 13 damages protect expectation interests. They do not credit a plaintiff with perfect 14 15“market prescience.” Further, contract damages must not provide a windfall. Although the 16 plaintiff assumes that the restricted shares are effectively worthless, unregistered Id. at 1023 n.9. 12 See Brown v. Matterport, Inc., 2024 WL 2745822, at *17 (Del. Ch. May 28, 2024) 13
(explaining that a “higher participation rate [i.e., the volume of shares a trader would rationally sell in the market as a percentage of total trading volume] poses an increased risk of negatively affecting the stock price, particularly when a large trade relative to a stock’s
average volume is executed[,]” because “market participants react to a trader’s injection of additional shares into the market”), aff’d, rev’d in part on other grounds, 340 A.3d 1149
(Del. 2025) (TABLE). E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. v. Pressman, 679 A.2d 436, 445 (Del. 1996) 14(“Historically, damages for breach of contract have been limited to the non-breaching
parties’ expectation interest.” (citing Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 347 (A.L.I. 1981))); Vivint Solar, Inc. v. Lundberg, 2024 WL 2755380, at *31 (Del. Ch. May 30, 2024) (explaining that damages are ordinarily “based on the injured party’s
expectation interest”).
Duncan, 775 A.2d at 1023-24 & n.12 (“[T]he issuer should not bear the risk of all 15subsequent share price increases because it is impossible to know whether and when the
stockholders actually would have sold their shares during the restricted period.” (citing Madison Fund, Inc. v. Charter Co., 427 F. Supp. 597, 608 (S.D.N.Y. 1977) (“This [c]ourt simply cannot credit plaintiff with market prescience.”))).
See Paul v. Deloitte & Touche, LLP, 974 A.2d 140, 146 (Del. 2009) (“Contract damages 16are designed to place the injured party . . . in the same place as he would have been if the
contract had been performed. Such damages should not act as a windfall.” (citation omitted)); see also Diamond Fortress, 274 A.3d at 307 (explaining that the New York Rule
“is careful to avoid windfall awards to injured parties”).
Page 5 of 5 shares may hold value and be sold in private transactions. Granting the peak price assumes an unproven total loss. Given the magnitude of the requested award and issues outlined above, an evidentiary hearing on damages is required. The plaintiff must brief why the New 17 York Rule, rather than standard expectation damages, applies to a failure to file a registration statement. He must also offer evidence to support his request, including:
expert analysis on how long it would realistically take to sell
54,077,698 shares on the open market without depressing the price, using the volume weighted average price or daily trading volume; and 18evidence of the actual fair market value of the restricted shares currently
held, which must be deducted from the calculated loss. IT IS SO ORDERED. Sincerely yours,
/s/ Lori W. Will
Lori W. Will Vice Chancellor cc: Triller Group, Inc. I am in receipt of the plaintiff’s letter regarding competing creditors purportedly 17attempting to attach the defendant’s remaining assets. See Pl.’s Mar. 25, 2026 Letter Regarding Update (Dkt. 15). I understand the urgency of the plaintiff’s collection efforts. But a defendant’s financial distress does not relieve a plaintiff of the burden to prove damages with reasonable certainty. An unsupported judgment is not the appropriate procedural vehicle for emergency asset preservation. See Matterport, 2024 WL 2745822, at *15-20. 18
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