Delaware Chancery Court Judge on Leave After Accident, Surgery

Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III, the second-longest-serving judge on Delaware’s Chancery Court, is taking a leave of absence to recover from emergency surgery after an accident at home.

The court issued a press release Thursday stating that Glasscock is “convalescing at home and is in good spirits” after being taken to the hospital Feb. 1. The statement, which didn’t specify the judge’s injury, said that “pressing matters will be reassigned” as necessary, while “cases lacking urgency” won’t.

“We are very pleased that Vice Chancellor Glasscock is doing well and are hoping for a speedy recovery,” Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s chief judge, wrote. “In the meantime, the Court of Chancery will be taking steps to ensure that court operations are not unduly affected.”

The injured judge said in the statement that he’s “committed to minimizing inconvenience to litigants” and looks forward to a speedy return.

Glasscock, who became a vice chancellor in 2011, is one of seven on the high-profile Chancery Court, which specializes in business disputes that often revolve in one way or another around allegations of wrongdoing by a corporate board of directors. Its judges hear cases without juries.

Because Delaware is home to more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies, the court is often the venue for blockbuster legal battles with billions of dollars at stake, such as litigation last year over Elon Musk’s attempt to walk away from buying Twitter Inc. That case, overseen by McCormick, settled on the eve of trial.

Some of Glasscock’s rulings in 2022 concerned a major Russian hack of cybersecurity business SolarWinds Corp., a $79 billion merger involving Time Warner Cable, a $5 billion acquisition by Chevron Corp., and a fight between private equity giants Bain Capital LP and Carlyle Group Inc.