The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday handed down a ruling that will allow a lawsuit filed by the founders of FanDuel to continue in a Manhattan Commercial District under Scottish law.
The 7-0 decision authored by Judge Madeline Singas said a lower court should not have dismissed a lawsuit filed in Scotland brought by 130 people, including founders and early employees of FanDuel, who claimed the mobile sports betting titan along with two private equity firms undervalued the worth of the company ahead of its 2018 merger with Paddy Power Betfair.
“Once a court determines that another jurisdiction's law governs, it has significant flexibility and discretion in deciding whether to take notice of that foreign law and apply it to the case at hand.
In the present case, the Appellate Division correctly concluded that Scots law applies to plaintiffs' claims and appropriately took judicial notice of its content in resolving defendants' motion to dismiss. We conclude, however, that plaintiffs have sufficiently pleaded causes of action for breach of fiduciary duty under Scots law. Accordingly, we reverse the Appellate Division order.” — Associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals Madeline Singas.