The Court of Chancery confirmed the firm had no right to cancel the Tredway founder’s equity. The damages math is now the story.
Business Desk
Affordable housing operator Fairstead is now facing the most expensive phase of a legal dispute that has lasted years. On May 14, 2026, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery granted summary judgment to Will Blodgett, the firm’s former founding partner, in the suit Fairstead had brought against him. The Real Deal’s Lilah Burke reported the decision the same day.
The court ruled that Fairstead’s LLCs had no right to cancel Blodgett’s equity interests in the company. Because Blodgett countersued, the firm now owes him damages tied to the value of the equity it improperly canceled. Counsel for Blodgett told The Real Deal that the figure could land in the tens of millions of dollars.
The damages calculus
Two questions will define the size of the eventual award. The first is how the court treats Blodgett’s equity stake at the time it was canceled, including the relevant valuation date, the share of Fairstead represented by his interest, and the treatment of distributions that would have been owed to him in the intervening years. The second is whether prejudgment interest will run from the cancellation date or another point on the timeline.
Fairstead reports a national portfolio of about 25,000 units across 28 states. The value of the firm’s equity is not public, but operators of that scale in affordable housing typically carry asset bases in the billions of dollars when fees, owned interests, and development pipeline are included. Even a modest founder-level share, run against an asset base of that size and a multi-year time window, can produce a damages number in the range Blodgett’s counsel has suggested.
Fairstead’s counsel has indicated that the firm will continue to contest the result. Michael Carlinsky of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan told The Real Deal that the litigation “has been ongoing for years, and unfortunately may take several more years before it is resolved,” citing possible remedies and appeals.
The legal hinge
The court’s decision turned on the difference between Blodgett’s role as an employee and his role as a member of the LLCs that held his ownership. An arbitrator previously found that he breached his employment agreement by sharing confidential information during the period he was planning to leave Fairstead. The Delaware court ruled that the same conduct did not breach the LLC agreements that controlled his equity.
Vice Chancellor Laster’s opinion locates the confidentiality issue inside the employment relationship and treats the LLC obligations as a separate contract between different parties. The result is that Fairstead could not use the employment finding as a basis to cancel Blodgett’s equity. The court also held that the Fairstead LLCs were themselves in breach of those agreements when they canceled his stake.
The Real Deal reported that this is the second time a court has confirmed that Fairstead had no right to cancel Blodgett’s equity. A related case involving John Tatum III, another former Fairstead executive, was decided in Tatum’s favor in late 2025.
The market context
Fairstead and Tredway operate at different scales in the same sector. Fairstead reports 25,000 units across 28 states. Tredway, the firm Blodgett launched after his departure, has built, bought, or preserved about 9,000 units across 11 states and has about 1,500 units in development in New York City. Tredway has been active in Section 8 preservation, public housing partnerships, and tax-credit affordable communities, and has rolled out in-house healthcare programs at age-restricted properties.
Blodgett was named to the Commercial Observer’s Power 100 list for 2026, a recognition that has pushed Tredway further into the conversation about operationally serious affordable housing platforms. The firm has not disclosed equity-side financials, but its production volume puts it in the upper tier of mid-sized national operators.
What the court said about the underlying business
Beyond the contract analysis, Vice Chancellor Laster’s opinion provides an unusually direct read on Fairstead’s internal economics. The court credits Blodgett with building the affordable housing arm of the firm and describes him as having “provided the vision and the energy” behind its growth. Laster acknowledges the contemporaneous notes in which Blodgett called himself the firm’s “golden goose,” and the comment to co-founder Jeffrey Goldberg in which he said “everyone says it’s my company.” Then the court writes that the underlying premise was correct. “Fairstead enjoyed considerable success, and Blodgett and Tatum believed they were chiefly responsible for it,” the opinion states. “That was true.”
For valuation purposes, that paragraph is more than rhetorical color. It supports the view that Blodgett’s departure removed a significant portion of the operational engine that produced the firm’s growth. Where damages turn on the value of equity in an operating business, the court’s assessment of that operator’s role is part of the input.
A note on Blodgett’s counsel
Elisha Barron, a partner at Susman Godfrey, leads Blodgett’s representation. Susman Godfrey is one of the country’s leading commercial litigation firms, and its presence in the case is a meaningful indicator of how the founder side has approached the dispute. Barron told The Real Deal that the court “found in Blodgett’s favor on all claims, confirmed for a second time that Fairstead had no right to cancel Blodgett’s equity and recognized that Blodgett’s efforts and expertise were essential to Fairstead’s success.”
What to watch
The next chapter of the case will turn on damages, on any remedies Fairstead pursues, and on whether the firm appeals. The size and timing of the eventual payout is the open question that capital partners, sector observers, and competitors will be watching.
For Fairstead, the decision adds a real-world cost to a legal posture the firm has held since 2022. For Blodgett, it converts a long-running public dispute into a financial recovery that, in the best case for him, could meaningfully offset the equity stake he was told he would not see again.
Originating coverage: The Real Deal, May 14, 2026.