IANAL but I was a plaintiff in a similar case. We were made whole in a settlement but before that, the judge tore the defendants a new one over this tactic lead

IANAL but I was a plaintiff in a similar case. We were made whole in a settlement but before that, the judge tore the defendants a new one over this tactic leading to a bitter dispute between the acquierer and shareholders (or the board of officers, don't remember) over who was liable for breach of contract. Eventually it came out that the auditors had done the math and included cost of litigation/liabilities on these contracts into their valuations, basically admitting that they knew about the obligations beforehand, so the acquierer ended up settling. At the end of the day, judges (and appellate panels) have to interpret the law and they don't function like automatons. They take into account the spirit of laws/contracts as well as the letter and most have enough common sense to get missed off at these naive tactics.