Three-way proxy battles are very unusual. In fact, they are so unusual dissidents frequently go out of their way to avoid them.

This is what happened in a single day last week.

The Delaware Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling that would have made it easier for would-be hostile acquirers to wrest control of a company's board of directors.

The ruling is also a blow to Air Products and Chemicals, which has been trying to take over Airgas. At Airgas' annual meeting in September, Air Products elected its slate of three directors to the Airgas board and tried to circumvent Airgas' classified board by proposing a bylaw amendment that would have allowed it to elect three more directors to the board in January--just four months after the 2009 annual meeting.