Raleigh, NC – The North Carolina Business Court has granted Hatteras Investment Partners’ motion to dismiss an amended derivative complaint brought against it by a shareholder plaintiff. The investment firm has now secured three favorable decisions in North Carolina, each building on its initial win that marked the state's first application of a key test in shareholder derivative litigation.

Commonly known as the Zuckerberg test, it reaffirmed that shareholder-plaintiffs in North Carolina must clear a high bar to pursue derivative claims on behalf of Delaware businesses — the legal home for many businesses operating in North Carolina and nationwide.

Before proceeding to discovery in a shareholder derivative suit on behalf of a Delaware company, a prospective plaintiff must either serve a formal pre-suit demand on a company's leadership, or allege with specificity that serving a demand would have been futile (a concept known as "demand futility"). Because pre-suit demands are rare, the "demand futility" analysis often determines the outcome of derivative suits. Before 2021, courts often struggled to apply the "demand futility" test with consistency. In United Food & Commercial Workers Union v. Zuckerberg, the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a refined test for analyzing demand futility. After Zuckerberg, a shareholder plaintiff must allege with specificity that it satisfied one of the three prongs of the Zuckerberg test before it can proceed with any derivative claims.

In the lawsuits Hatteras Investment Partners faced in North Carolina, Business Court judges ruled the plaintiffs failed to satisfy any prong of the Zuckerberg test:

• On July 31, 2025, Judge Matthew T. Houston reached that conclusion in Weatherspoon Family LLC v. Hatteras Investment Partners LP and allowed the case to continue under an amended complaint. 
   
• On October 10, 2025, Judge Julianna Theall Earp ruled a separate set of shareholder plaintiffs (Meyer, et al. v. Hatteras Investment Partners LP, et al.) failed to sufficiently allege that making a litigation demand upon the corporate board would have been futile.
   
• In the Business Court’s most recent decision on February 11, 2026, Judge Matthew T. Houston granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint in Weatherspoon, on the grounds that the plaintiff failed to sufficiently allege demand futility.

As a result, the derivative lawsuits that Hatteras Investment Partners faced in the North Carolina Business Court have been dismissed. These rulings — and their consistent application of the Zuckerberg test — also offer greater clarity and protection for businesses facing derivative claims in the state.

The Parker Poe team representing Hatteras Investment Partners was led by Raleigh partners Melanie Dubis and Corri Hopkins, and it included Raleigh associate Jack Belk.