The Delaware Supreme Court decision against TransPerfect Global co-CEO Philip Shawe yesterday is no surprise. The DSC is dominated by Leo Strine (who picked his own protege, Andre Bouchard, to fill the vacancy he left in Chancery) and his bullying of the other justices is well-known in Dover (he’s turned over the entire bench –meaning made them all quit — in a 2-year period). Having read the briefs, it is my opinion that C.J Seitz didn’t write the brief that bears his name, and the real author was Strine — but it seems that may be the way to avoid appearances of improprieties in the Delaware Judiciary. Once again in this case, it smells like backroom business as usual in our small state. A couple of observations:
* Kudos for the only real jurist on the bench with the nerve to stand up to Strine, Karen Valihura, whose Dissent should be heralded as one of Delaware’s most brilliant pieces of legal work of our time. Unfortunately, it’s the minority, but it is a blueprint for Legislators and the Bar Association to fix the obvious ambiguity in the law that the Chancellor slithered through to commit this travesty of justice. Valihura could have just gone along with the pack, but she didn’t. Her Dissent is 35 pages of brilliant legal analysis backing up Shawe’s position, and vindicating what I and others have been saying all along.
* Shame on Strine for, instead of drawing any real legal conclusions, just reciting the same, tired witness-less and fictional narrative of Bouchard. And, for acting like a child during the oral arguments. And, for not having the courage and decency to put his own name on papers he most likely wrote.
* Shame on the other 3 DSC justices for, in my opinion, letting themselves be pushed into Strine-following zombies, when they must know Valihura’s Opinion is correct and far superior.
* Shame on Bouchard for, what I view as, his obvious corruption in this decision. He should read Valihura’s reversal of his decision to figure out how he is supposed to do his job. He hasn’t a clue. The job of a judge isn’t to pay back your friends; it isn’t to make peace with Strine to get him off your back; it’s only one thing, the dispassionate administration of justice — and it’s not what happened in the TransPerfect case. Bouchard makes his pack of parasite pals richer and richer each each passing day by scuttling settlement possibilities, stuffing TransPerfect to the gills with lawyers and consultants all charging between $700 and $1,400 per hour. $15 million a year is being stolen from TransPerfect by a legal ruling that reeks of corruption, and DSC has put it’s stamp of approval on this. It makes me want to vomit.
More on this decision, and it’s dark and shady origin to come. But to leave things on a positive note: Hooray for Delaware Supreme Court Justice Karen Valihura, one of two Republicans on the bench. I salute her for brushing off what must have been tremendous pressure from Strine and the establishment to go along with wrongly supporting Bouchard — and more importantly — for being a honest champion of Delaware Law, holding true to what the Legislature intended in our statues- honoring the separation of powers, respecting the Delaware and U.S. Constitutions, restoring what little faith I now have in our cronyism-based legal system, and having the courage to speak the truth.
Strine has had his day and shown his true colors with the TransPerfect case: Karen Valihura should be the Chief Justice!
