CA1: stock option period strictly enforced
Mariasch v. Gillette Company, 07-1549. An employee got some stock options from his employer. He says he gets to exercise them late. There is a choice of law issue, but the First says that this is really a matter of internal corporate governance, and therefore the state of incorporation of the corporation (Delaware) provides the rule of decision. Applying First Marblehead Corp. v. House, 473 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2006) (our coverage here), the First says that the option exercise period must be strictly enforced. An equitable estoppel argument fails, because at a deposition he said some things that foreclosed it.
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