Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that the firm represented Vermillion Inc., a medical diagnostic company, and current and former directors in successfully defeating a shareholder lawsuit challenging the board’s decision to reduce its size in the face of a threatened proxy contest.

The lawsuit was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery by shareholders/plaintiffs Gyorgy Bessenyei and Robert S. Goggin III. Plaintiffs claimed Vermillion’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty by reducing the company’s board from seven to six members in the face of Plaintiffs’ hostile proxy bid. The Paul Hastings team discovered and confirmed during depositions that court documents submitted by Bessenyei had been falsely notarized by a notary in Goggin’s law offices. The documents in question purported to have been notarized “before the notary” in Pennsylvania and thus indicated that Bessenyei had appeared in person before the notary, when in fact Bessenyei was outside the United States at the time of the notarizations. Defendants moved to dismiss this action, and the motion was granted on the basis that Plaintiffs had engaged in litigation misconduct and failed to comply with Delaware Court of Chancery Rules by falsifying notarizations of the court documents.

Palo Alto partner Peter M. Stone, of counsel Edward Han and associate Janelle Sahouria of Paul Hastings LLP represented Vermillion in the case.

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