Herb Simon v. Simon Family (SFG Company Dissolution & Equity-Stripping Suit)
Herb Simon, co-founder of Simon Property Group, sued his late nephew David Simon's family and 17 total defendants in Marion Superior Court, alleging David used his control as manager of SFG Manager LLC to unilaterally dissolve SFG Company LLC, a private real estate vehicle formed in 1995 to hold interests kept outside the public REIT, and transfer its assets to a new entity less than two weeks before his death on March 22, 2026. The complaint alleges the maneuver stripped Herb and other family equity holders of preferential interests without their notice or consent.
Why it matters
Illustrates that privately held family real estate holding vehicles sitting outside a public REIT's own corporate structure can carry significant, largely invisible governance risk, and that an LLC manager's broad authority is not a license to restructure ownership unilaterally over a co-owner's objection. A cautionary example for family-controlled real estate enterprises of how manager-succession and consent-rights ambiguity can erupt into public litigation, particularly when a major restructuring is timed around a principal's terminal illness.
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