Law Commons^™

Judicial Review Of Defensive Tactics In Proxy Contests: When Is Using A Rights Plan Right?, Randall S. Thomas

Vanderbilt Law Review

Proxy contests have reemerged recently as an important part of the market for corporate control. After years of indifference to corporate elections, dissident shareholders have turned once again to the ballot box as a means of removing unwanted management. In a surprisingly large number of these battles, the challengers have succeeded in getting all or much of what they wanted."

The resurgence of proxy contests has sparked renewed interest by incumbent managements in developing powerful new defensive tactics in corporate elections. Incumbents' time-honored campaign strategies, such as switching the annual shareholders' meeting date, or restricting the potential candidates who can …

Securities Arbitration After Mcmahon, Rodriguez, And The New Rules: Can Investors' Rights Really Be Protected?, Perry E. Wallace, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Securities arbitration' is now ascendant as a favored device for resolving disputes between broker-dealers and their customers, and much of this recent status derives from a series of United States Supreme Court decisions.' Culminating in Shearson/American Express,Inc. v. McMahon and Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Ex-press, Inc., these decisions have ended the reign of certain restrictive judicial decisions that previously governed the availability of arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA or Arbitration Act) Accordingly, such developments presage a greatly expanded use of arbitration as a future means of resolving disputes between broker-dealers and customers." Indeed, since the Supreme Court …

Current Rico Policies Of The Department Of Justice, Edward S.G. Dennis, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. the United States Supreme Court issued its latest opinion interpreting the reach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).' The H.J. Inc. decision comes at a time when the RICO statute is at the center of controversy. Those opposed to private treble damages suits particularly attack the statute. The defense bar attacks the use of the statute in white-collar prosecutions, especially in those cases involving securities fraud. If the defense bar has its way in Congress, RICO could not be invoked in cases involving fraud alone. The criminal defense bar …

Stock In A Closely Held Corporation:Is It A Security For Uniform Commercial Code Purposes?, Tracy A. Powell

Vanderbilt Law Review

The term security has many applications. No application, however,is more important than when an interest owned or traded is determined to be within the legal definition of security. Security is defined by statutes and applied by many courts for the purposes of federal securities laws and for state blue sky laws. When interpreting the term security for federal securities laws, courts have emphasized the underlying congressional purpose of protecting investors. State courts also have interpreted the term liberally in an effort to protect the public under blue sky laws.'

The definition of security in the Uniform Commercial Code(U.C.C.), however, has …

The Exchange-Trading Requirement Of The Commodity Exchange Act, William L. Stein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) makes it illegal to trade a contract for the purchase or sale of a commodity for future delivery-a"futures contract"-unless the contract is executed on a federally designated exchange. Despite its long history of trouble-free administration and operation, this central premise of futures regulation recently has been attacked as unworkable and undesirable. Some argue that the requirement discourages commercially useful off-exchange transactions. They claim that even if such transactions fall within the letter of the requirement, off-exchange transactions do not implicate the trading restriction's policy concerns. In contrast, others suggest that off-exchange

transactions threaten the safety …

The Supreme Court And The Definition Of "Security": The"Context" Clause, "Investment Contract" Analysis, And Their Ramifications, Marc I. Steinberg, William E. Kaulbach

Vanderbilt Law Review

In two recent decisions' construing the scope of the federal securities acts, the Supreme Court apparently has undertaken to alleviate some of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the most fundamental question in securities law: the definition of"security" itself. Much of the existing confusion can be traced to earlier decisions of the Court that first implied, and later held,that the regulatory or offering context in which a particular transaction occurs could function to exclude the transaction from cover-age of the securities laws' anti-fraud provisions. This result could follow even though the transaction in question otherwise might satisfy the traditional Howey or …

Regulation Of New Financial Instruments Under The Federal Securities And Commodities Laws, David J. Gilberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the last few years, "an endless stream of exotic financial instruments conjured by Wall Street wizards" literally has taken the financial community by storm, fundamentally altering market trading practices and pitting institutions against each other in an intense competition for development of still more innovative instruments. These products--which include various types of"swaps," options, forward contracts, and price guarantees--now are being offered to and traded by every major financial institution and multinational corporation in the world, as well as by governments and individuals, and nothing indicates that the unprecedented growth of the markets for such instruments is likely to sub-side …

Public Access To Civil Court Records: A Common Law Approach, Ronald D. May

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts have long recognized a general common law right of access to courtroom proceedings' and court records. Recently, however, courts have begun to consider whether the first amendment of the Constitution protects this right of access. In 1980 the United States Supreme Court in Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia held that the press and the public have a first amendment right to attend criminal trials. The Supreme Court found this right implicit in the various clauses of the first amendment. Although the Supreme Court has taken few opportunities since Richmond Newspapers to define precisely the contours of the first amendment …

Customer Rights Under The Commodity Exchange Act, Jerry W. Markham, Kyra K. Bergin

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article reviews customer rights and remedies now available under the CEA. Specifically, part II of this Article explores the scope of transactions covered by the CEA, part III addresses the antifraud provisions of the CEA, and part IV discusses the standard of intent required to prove that fraud has been committed under CEA provisions. Part V of this Article examines the secondary liability of brokerage firms and others for the fraudulent acts of its employees, part VI discusses fiduciary liability under the CEA, and part VII enumerates the various forums available for customer remedies." This Article concludes in part …

The Continuing Puzzle Of Secured Debt, Alan Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1981, I wrote an article showing that no good answer had been given to the question why corporations issue some debt on a secured basis and other debt on an unsecured basis.' This showing had normative implications because claims that the institution of personal property security is efficient or otherwise desirable must be impeached if the actual purposes that security serves are unknown. Consequently, the law's favorable treatment of secured debt-for example, giving it first place in bankruptcy distributions--is without plausible support. My article did not advocate repealing the privileges attached to secured debt, however, because then--current knowledge also …

Rule 10b-5-Application Of The In Pari Delicto Defense In Suits Brought Against Securities Brokers By Customers Who Have Traded On Inside Information, Mark G. Strauch

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note advocates that courts should permit tipper defendants to assert the in pari delicto defense in private 10b-5 cases against tippee plaintiffs unless one of the first three exceptions to the analytical framework applies. Part II of this Note discusses the purpose and application of the in pari delicto defense and the four situations in which courts have rejected it. Part II also illustrate show courts analyze the in pari delicto defense in contract, anti-trust, and non-10b-5 securities cases. Part III provides a general background on the purpose of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and rule 10b-5, …

Lifting The Cloud Of Uncertainty Over The Repo Market: Characterization Of Repos As Separate Purchases And Sales Of Securities, William F. Hagerty, Iv

Vanderbilt Law Review

In light of the actual and potential financial harm that repo investors faced after failures of several repo market participants,this Note proposes a new legal characterization of repos and argues for adoption of proposed Bankruptcy Code amendments pertaining to repos. Both of these suggestions would give repo investors significant future financial protection without destroying the financially attractive characteristics of repurchase agreements.

Part II of this Note begins laying the foundation for this proposal by discussing current repo market problems that the failures of several repoissiers have exposed.

Part II discusses new policies concerning the appropriate uses of the collateral securities …

Rulemaking Under Section 14(E) Of The Exchange Act: The Sec Exceeds Its Reach In Attempting To Pull The Plug On Multiple Pro Ration Pools, David J. White

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development first considers the problems that gave rise to the adoption of revised rule 14d-8, the rationale that three members of the Commission articulated in support of the rule,' and the rationale of the two members who opposed it. The Recent Development then examines two judicial decisions, one that considers the validity of the current tender offer practices under the Williams Act and rule 14d-8'8 and another that analyzes the rule making authority of the SEC under sections 14(e) and 23(a) of the Exchange Act. Relying primarily upon congressional hearings and debates,' the Recent Development next discusses the …

Seller Liability Under Section 12(2) Of The Securities Act Of 1933, Leonard A. Silverstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note discusses which persons courts should deem to be"sellers" under section 12(2) according to their relationships to the challenged transaction. Part II examines the divergent approaches that courts have developed to identify seller status in the absence of legislative history. Part III analyzes the three major approaches and compares the scope of liability under each analysis. Last, part IV concludes that significant differences exist among these approaches and that courts uniformly should adopt a modified version of the proximate cause-substantial factor analysis

...

This part examines each of the three approaches in particular situations and compares the results under …

Swimming Against The Deregulatory Tide, Harry S. Gerla

Vanderbilt Law Review

Increasing pressure from institutional investors during the last two decades has led to indirect discounting practices that some commentators contend threatens the fixed price offering system. In response to this concern the SEC in 1980 approved new NASD rules designed to bar direct or indirect discounting in fixed price public offerings of securities. In this Article Professor Gerla argues that the SEC erred in approving the new NASD rules. Professor Gerla states that the new rules change drastically the Commission's policy that the fixed price system operate without direct or indirect government enforcement. Further, he contends that the SEC approved …

The Economics Of Corporation Law And Securities Regulation, Larry E. Ribstein, C. Paul Rogers

Vanderbilt Law Review

To evaluate this book as a teaching tool one must consider several questions. First, of what value is an economic analysis of law? Second, should one consider economics in a corporations or securities law course? Third, does this book offer a worthwhile approach to bringing economics into the corporate law curriculum? Last, how well has this approach been executed in the book? It may be a bit late to ponder the value of an economic analysis of the law. Economic legal theorists are both extending and deepening the thinking about economics' role in facilitating an understanding of law. This new …

Internal Revenue Service Summonses For "Sensitive"Accountants' Papers, Robert G. Nath

Vanderbilt Law Review

Every modern public corporation has obligations of accountability and disclosure to the public and to its shareholders. These accepted duties of disclosure, however, become the source of conflicts when government agencies make unanticipated inquiries of accountants about otherwise private or background data concerning the corporations they audit. This is particularly true when a public corporation's duties of financial accountability, which stem chiefly from securities law requirements and fiduciary duties,evoke the Internal Revenue Service's interest in information that may reveal or be probative of the corporation's tax liability. Most corporate taxpayers and their accountants understand and accept--if only reluctantly--their obligations to …

Fraud In Commodity Futures Trading--An Examination Of The Investor's Remedies, Lisa G. Demartini

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note examines the various avenues of redress available to the defrauded commodity futures investor. Initially, an examination of two remedies expressly provided in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)--reparations and arbitration--demonstrates their current inefficiencies and inadequacies. Next, the Note considers the possibility of recovery under the antifraud provision of the Securities Exchange Act and argues that such a cause of action should still be available when the investor can show that the particular discretionary trading account is a security." Finally, a discussion of an implied private right of action for violations of the antifraud provision of the CEA reveals much …

Damages For Insider Trading In The Open Market: A New Limitation On Recovery Under Rule 10b-5, John B. Grenier

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Elkind court's adoption of a "disgorgement measure" of damages for insider trading on undisclosed misrepresented material information in the open market is basically sound. In allowing compensation to the extent practicable, the Second Circuit chose the best solution among the available alternatives. The decision's paramount problems arise in its shifted emphasis to deterrence; the court has neither provided plaintiffs with a sufficient incentive to sue nor created the level of deterrence that some cases might require. Future courts, however, can remedy this situation if they follow Elkind and also award punitive damages in cases in which plaintiffs' losses exceed …

Implied Private Remedies Under Federal Statutes: Neither A Death Knell Nor A Moratorium--Civil Rights, Securities Regulation, And Beyond, Thomas L. Hazen

Vanderbilt Law Review

The part of this Article that follows contains an examination of the implication process as it has developed in the federal courts.As will be seen, the Supreme Court has gone through a cyclical pattern of expansion and contraction in implying remedies with respect to a wide range of substantive areas. Accordingly, it is not possible to glean a single unified theory from the sixty-five years of Supreme Court activity. There are, however, a number of recurring themes, and it is possible to view all of the diverse approaches as part of a loosely defined pattern that was formulated into a …

Corporate Borrowing For Investment In Equity Securities: Tax Advantages Via The Interest Deduction And Dividends Received Deduction, Thomas D. Moore, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

By borrowing money and purchasing preferred stocks with an average yield greater than 58% of the interest rate on the debt, a corporation at the maximum marginal tax rate can reduce its federal income tax liability. In evaluating the potential benefit of this practice, the corporation must consider transactions costs and its ability either to tie the debt to the equities or to have a sufficiently distant maturity on the debt to weather interest rate cycles that depress preferred stock prices. A small to medium-sized corporation probably is in a better position to obtain appropriate debt and to purchase enough …

Income And Gift Tax Treatment Of A Waiver Of Rights To Future, Undeclared Dividends By A Corporate Shareholder, Cornelia H. Boozman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note will attempt to set forth and analyze the present state of the law concerning dividend waivers.After determining that this law gives taxpayers few standards for determining the proper tax characterization of a dividend waiver, the Note concludes that analogous areas of tax law must be examined for guidance. Finally, the Note identifies and discusses several analogies that might be helpful to a taxpayer faced with a dividend waiver problem.

Estate Tax Deductibility Of Underwriters' Expenses After An Executor's Sale Of Stock: A Loophole In Section 2053, Mark D. Maloney

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development will examine the relationship between two Code provisions that are essential to the calculation of the taxable estate. Section 2031 establishes the value of the "gross estate," and section 2053 provides that certain administrative expenses are deductible from the gross estate. Recently, in Estate of Joslyn v. Commissioner and Estate of Jenner v. Commissioner,' two United States Courts of Appeals applied sections 2031 and 2053 in a manner that substantially benefits estates that possess large holdings of a particular stock. Because large blocks of stock are difficult to liquidate, the per-share price of the stock will actually …

The Extraterritorial Reach Of The Federal Securities Code: An Analysis Of Section 1905, John M. Liftin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Section 1905 of the proposed Federal Securities Code' sets forth the applicability of the Code to transnational securities transactions. The drafters could have stated in each provision of the Code whether and to what extent it was to apply extraterritorially. Instead, they placed in one section a set of general principles that cuts across all other sections of the Code and indicates which sections are to have extraterritorial application. The result is a descriptive guide that relies on a classification of transactions rather than a section-by-section enumeration...

This Article will not analyze the existing cases, except to the extent they …

Federal-State Relations Under The Federal Securities Code, Jeffrey B. Bartell

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is little in the recorded history of the American Law Institute's Federal Securities Code to indicate that a major rearrangement of regulatory responsibilities between the federal government and the states was a primary object. Milton Cohen's thoughtful article "Truth in Securities" Revisited,I probably the principal catalyst of the codification project, described a new world of securities regulation involving coordinated disclosure and continuous reporting, without any mention of federal-state relations or the blue sky laws. Indeed, when the American Bar Association's Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities first discussed the project in 1966, a suggestion that concurrent consideration be given …

The Trust Indenture Act Of 1939 In The Proposed Federal Securities Code, Richard A. Stark

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will summarize briefly the significant provisions of the TIA as they currently are applied and will describe and comment upon Code Part XIII, Trust Indentures, as it appears in the 1978 Draft. ... The Code requirement that statutory and optional trust indenture provisions are to be interpreted, applied, and enforced as a matter of federal law will be statutory confirmation of the Morris case. The overall scheme for dealing with trust indentures, trustees,and the related offering statement represents a desirable simplification and updating of the TIA provisions. Significantly, the SEC's enforcement authority regarding trust indentures is expanded to …

Some Practical Questions Concerning The Effect Of The Proposed Federal Securities Code On Civil Litigation, J. Vernon Patrick, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A major impetus for the launching of the Federal Securities Code project in 1969 was the view, widely held by businessmen and their lawyers, that it was far too easy for investors to bring class action suits under the federal securities laws, seeking multi-million dollar judgments against business corporations, directors, accountants, and lawyers.' The business community's concern about possible exposure to large judgments in securities litigation was heightened by the news that plaintiffs had obtained a judgment in a class action brought against the issuer and several "outside director"defendants in Escott v. Bar Chris Construction Corp., and by several United …

Corporate Directors' Liability For Resisting A Tender Offer: Proposed Substantive And Procedural Modifications Of Existing State Fiduciary Standards, Oby T. Brewer, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note will review recent decisions applying state law fiduciary standards and will propose procedural and substantive modifications to existing standards. The proposed modifications will compel target directors to recognize and fulfill fiduciary obligations when faced with a decision whether or not to resist a tender offer.

The American Law Institute's Proposed Federal Securities Code, Editor In Chief

Vanderbilt Law Review

This issue of the Law Review represents Part Two of the symposium on the Proposed Federal Securities Code. This issue contains articles on federal-state relations under the Code; the impact of the Code on the Trust Indenture Act of 1939; the extraterritorial reach of the Code; and the effect of the Code on civil litigation. It is hoped that these articles will continue the fine work begun by Part One of the symposium, providing our readers with a thorough analysis of these additional sections of the Code and presenting recommendations for constructive changes to be considered in the final process …

Implied Private Right Of Action Under Section 17 Of The Securities Exchange Act Of 1934, Andrew Bor

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and vested it with broad regulatory and enforcement powers. While one of the purposes of the Act is to protect investors, the SEC has long recognized that it lacks the resources to fully accomplish that goal. Consequently, plaintiffs injured by actions in violation of the Act have sought remedies in the federal courts that have been willing to imply private rights of action under the securities laws. Recently, however, the Supreme Court has indicated that it will restrict the scope of remedies available to private litigants, thus …