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Full-Text Articles in Securities Law

Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park Feb 2013

Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park

Michigan Law Review

Securities class actions are often criticized as wasteful strike suits that target temporary fluctuations in the stock prices of otherwise healthy companies. The securities class actions brought by investors of Enron and WorldCom, companies that fell into bankruptcy in the wake of fraud, resulted in the recovery of billions of dollars in permanent shareholder losses and provide a powerful counterexample to this critique. An issuer's bankruptcy may affect how judges and parties perceive securities class actions and their merits, yet little is known about the subset of cases where the company is bankrupt. This is the first extensive empirical study …


Federal Income Taxation--Section 165 (C) Loss Allowed For Securities Loaned To Brokerage Firm That Subsequently Became Insolvent And Sold The Securities To Meet The Claims Of Creditors--Stahl V. United States, Michigan Law Review Dec 1971

Federal Income Taxation--Section 165 (C) Loss Allowed For Securities Loaned To Brokerage Firm That Subsequently Became Insolvent And Sold The Securities To Meet The Claims Of Creditors--Stahl V. United States, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

It is frequently said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently upheld a district court decision that considerably eased the latter burden for plaintiff-taxpayer in Stahl v. United States. On April 12, 1962, Mrs. Stahl, a widowed musician and music teacher, reached an agreement with Balough & Company (Balough), a Washington securities firm, under which she was to surrender to it control of securities with a market value of approximately $210,000. Balough used the securities to meet the minimum capital requirements for brokerage firms established …


Bankruptcy-Test Of Feasibility Under Chapter Xi Arrangement, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed. Jun 1954

Bankruptcy-Test Of Feasibility Under Chapter Xi Arrangement, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Slumberland Bedding Company started in business in 1952 with a capitalization of $13,000. Within less than one year the corporation was "clearly heavily insolvent," having debts in excess of $85,000 and assets valued "at least several thousand dollars less than $42,250." Preferred creditor claims against the assets of the business amounted to more than $32,200. In this rather dismal context a petition for an arrangement under chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act was filed. A plan was submitted which provided for independent capital to be put into the business to pay certain claims in full and to pay a …


Personal Property-Tenancy By The Entirety In United States Series "E" Savings Bonds, William E. Beringer Apr 1952

Personal Property-Tenancy By The Entirety In United States Series "E" Savings Bonds, William E. Beringer

Michigan Law Review

A trustee in bankruptcy petitioned the referee to order a bank to tum over certain United States Series ''E" Savings Bonds as assets of the bankrupt's estate. The bonds were payable to the bankrupt "or" his wife and had been pledged to the bank by the bankrupt, with his wife's consent, as collateral for a personal loan. The referee denied the petition. On appeal, held, affirmed. Since the bonds were payable to persons who were husband and wife, a tenancy by the entirety was created, with each tenant holding an interest in the whole of the bond property. Neither …


Bankruptcy-Jurisdiction Of Bankruptcy Court To Determine Attorneys' Fees For Services Rendered In Chapter X Reorganization Proceedings, Bernard Goldstone S. Ed. Apr 1949

Bankruptcy-Jurisdiction Of Bankruptcy Court To Determine Attorneys' Fees For Services Rendered In Chapter X Reorganization Proceedings, Bernard Goldstone S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A committee for preferred stockholders entered into an agreement with petitioners, wherein it was provided that certain shares of stock of the debtor corporation, placed in escrow with the committee by four preferred shareholders, would be delivered to petitioners as added compensation for their services in the reorganization proceeding. Pursuant to this agreement petitioners performed valuable services connected with the reorganization. The bankruptcy court allowed petitioners $37,500 from the debtor's estate, but held it had no jurisdiction to pass on the amount of the allowance which should be paid under the escrow agreement. Petitioners then sued in a state court …


Holding Company Act - "Fair And Equitable" Plan, Michigan Law Review Nov 1941

Holding Company Act - "Fair And Equitable" Plan, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Should the words "fair and equitable" in section II (e) of the Holding Company Act be construed differently than the same words in section 77 B of the Bankruptcy Act? The Securities and Exchange Commission faced this question in disposing of a proposed plan of merger involving Utility Operators Company and subsidiaries. A divided commission gave an affirmative answer to the above question, holding "fair and equitable" in the Holding Company Act to permit relative priority. This holding merits particular interest since the United States Supreme Court has held the same words as used in section 77B permitted only absolute …


Bankruptcy-Corporate Reorganization-Publicly Held Securities As A Test Of Availability Of Relief Under Chapters X And Xi Of The Chandler Act, Edward S. Biggar Nov 1940

Bankruptcy-Corporate Reorganization-Publicly Held Securities As A Test Of Availability Of Relief Under Chapters X And Xi Of The Chandler Act, Edward S. Biggar

Michigan Law Review

Chapter X of the amended Bankruptcy Act of 1938 was mainly the product of the investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission of reorganization practices under the old equity procedure and under section 77B. The chief aim of the sponsors of this new chapter was to preclude the control of reorganization proceedings by "inside" groups, and thereby more adequately protect the interests of investors. Contemporaneously with the overhauling of section 77B, however, other sections of the old Bankruptcy Act were being revised. Among the changes effected, old sections 12 and 74, dealing with extensions and compositions, were remodelled and combined …


Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Distinction Between Sale And Tax Exempt Reorganization Under Section 112, Henry J. Merry Mar 1940

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Distinction Between Sale And Tax Exempt Reorganization Under Section 112, Henry J. Merry

Michigan Law Review

The recent Supreme Court decision in Le Tulle v. Scofield, disapproving the views of four out of five circuit courts of appeals, appears to add a new and more specific requirement to the already complex law on the subject of statutory reorganization under the Revenue Act of 1928 -- that the consideration received by the transferor corporation include some stock of the transferee corporation. In the subject case, the Gulf Coast Irrigation Company transferred substantially all its assets to the Gulf Coast Water Company in exchange for $50,000 in cash and $750,000 in mortgage bonds, four-fifths of which matured …


Corporations - Modification Provisions Of Corporate Mortgages And Trust Indentures, Charles H. Haines Jr. Nov 1939

Corporations - Modification Provisions Of Corporate Mortgages And Trust Indentures, Charles H. Haines Jr.

Michigan Law Review

As early as the late 1800's it was not uncommon to find included in corporate mortgages and trust indentures provisions looking to the modification of the rights of the bondholders by action of a given majority of such holders. Ordinarily the power conferred could not be exercised by the holders of less than seventy-five per cent in value of the outstanding bonds; the modification authorized might be the alteration of security rights, the deferment of payments of interest or principal, the reduction of interest, or even the reduction of the debt. Inasmuch as the same equitable doctrines limit their use, …


Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Section 77b - Chapter X Of The Chandler Act - Boyd Case Rule, Edmund O'Hare Nov 1939

Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Section 77b - Chapter X Of The Chandler Act - Boyd Case Rule, Edmund O'Hare

Michigan Law Review

A subsidiary of the defendant corporation filed a reorganization petition under Section 77 B of the Bankruptcy Act and defendant presented a claim of over nine million dollars as a creditor, the claim being grounded upon moneys paid by defendant to the subsidiary for its benefit, management and supervision fees, rental and interest charges, and declared but unpaid dividends. Defendant owned about ninety-eight per cent of the common stock of the subsidiary. As the result of objections by the trustee and preferred stockholders of the subsidiary, defendant's claim was compromised at five million dollars. The reorganization plan provided in part …


Corporations - Liability Of Stockholders Of Bank Stock Holding Company For Statutory Assessment On Bank Stock., Edward J. Wendrow Jun 1938

Corporations - Liability Of Stockholders Of Bank Stock Holding Company For Statutory Assessment On Bank Stock., Edward J. Wendrow

Michigan Law Review

The late depression with its attendant bank failures and the consequent assessment of shareholders has resulted in bringing before the courts a question that has never been litigated until comparatively recent times. That is, can the shareholders of a holding company, whose assets consist of stock of the closed bank, be subjected to the statutory assessment when the corporation itself is unable to meet the assessment? The case of Nettles v. Rhett is the latest of this series, and is fairly typical of the issues involved. This case concerned a suit by the receiver of the Peoples State Bank of …


Taxation - Capital Gains Tax (Revenue Act Of 1928) - Reorganizations - Definition Of A Party To A Reorganization, Milton A. Kramer May 1938

Taxation - Capital Gains Tax (Revenue Act Of 1928) - Reorganizations - Definition Of A Party To A Reorganization, Milton A. Kramer

Michigan Law Review

Although "certainty" is one of the most desirable features of taxation, that quality has been conspicuously absent in regard to the portions of the 1928 Revenue Act which deal with capital gains in corporate reorganizations. In the four situations which the act sets forth as constituting a reorganization, capital gains arising therefrom are exempt from tax computation, the general purpose being to remove any impediment to normal corporate adjustments and to prevent the recognition of gains or losses until they are actually realized. However, this provision soon became an invitation for ingenious counsel to arrange the sales of corporate assets …


Corporations - Corporate Form Used To Evade Bank Double Liability, Michigan Law Review Jan 1938

Corporations - Corporate Form Used To Evade Bank Double Liability, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, the receiver for an insolvent bank, sued the individual stockholders of an investment corporation on an assessment to the amount of the par value of the bank stock as provided by the constitution and statutes of South Carolina. The investment corporation had been organized several years previously to secure control of a group of banks. Its holdings throughout consisted only of bank stock, and finally solely of stock of the closed bank. Plaintiff claimed, since the corporation had no assets, that the stockholders of the investment corporation were individually liable, because the use of a holding company for the …


Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Effect Of Release Of Collateral Obligor On Dissenting Creditors, Edward D. Ransom Dec 1937

Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Effect Of Release Of Collateral Obligor On Dissenting Creditors, Edward D. Ransom

Michigan Law Review

The federal district court confirmed a plan of reorganization of debtor corporation, under section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act, which expressly released defendant from liability as guarantor of bonds of the corporation and provided for cancellation of the bonds and substitution of new certificates of stock. The plaintiff, a bondholder, made no objection when the plan was submitted to the court; objection by other bondholders was overruled. The plaintiff brought suit in municipal court on the defendant's guaranty. Defendant pleaded the confirmation of the plan by the district court as res adjudicata. The trial court denied the plea and entered …


Suretyship-Effect Of Death Of Surety On Rights Of Creditor, Jacob L. Keidan Apr 1937

Suretyship-Effect Of Death Of Surety On Rights Of Creditor, Jacob L. Keidan

Michigan Law Review

In a suit on a bond filed in accordance with statutory requirements by a depository designated by a court of bankruptcy, it was pleaded in defense that the surety died before any deposits were received by the designated bank. The circuit court of appeals held for the defendant, ruling that the bond was only a multiple offer and lapsed with the death of the surety. The Supreme Court reversed this decision on the ground that the bond was a single offer, and the designation of the bank as an official depository constituted an acceptance thereof. United States for the use …


Collateral Liabilities Under Section 77b, Homer Kripke Jan 1937

Collateral Liabilities Under Section 77b, Homer Kripke

Michigan Law Review

The passage of section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act in 1934 suggested to some lawyers the possibility of using the section as a means of modifying or eliminating the responsibility of persons collaterally liable on obligations for which the corporation to be reorganized or its property was also responsible. The question arose in two common types of situations: (1) guaranties of payment of dividends on capital stock; (2) liability for payment of the bonds or other indebtedness of corporations. In either of these situations, can the liability of persons other than the corporaticm be discharged or modified by reorganization of …


Corporations-Validity Of Option To Convert Preferred Stock Into Mortgage Bonds Jan 1936

Corporations-Validity Of Option To Convert Preferred Stock Into Mortgage Bonds

Michigan Law Review

A corporation issued preferred stock, with a fixed dividend rate, power to elect a director voting as a class, and an option in the holder to convert, at his election, into mortgage bonds which were issued at the same time. After a substantial indebtedness had been incurred by the corporation, the stockholders exercised their option to convert into bonds. The corporation then went into bankruptcy, and in reorganization proceedings, the bondholders claim a preference over general creditors. Held, that the former holders of the preferred stock were stockholders and not creditors of the corporation and that, in the absence …


Corporations - Obligation To Refund Dividends Paid Out Of Capital May 1932

Corporations - Obligation To Refund Dividends Paid Out Of Capital

Michigan Law Review

The general rule is fairly well established that, where dividends are paid, in whole or in part, out of the capital stock, corporate creditors, being such when the dividend was declared, or becoming such at any subsequent time, may, to the extent of their claims, if such claims are not otherwise paid, compel the stockholders to whom the dividend has been paid to refund whatever portion of the dividend was taken out of the capital stock. This, however, has been modified in the federal courts to the extent that where the dividend, although paid entirely out of capital, was received …


Recent Important Decisions May 1915

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.


Note And Comment, Henry M. Bates, Evans Holbrook, Will R. Roberts, Marcy K. Brown Jr, Allen M. Reed Apr 1915

Note And Comment, Henry M. Bates, Evans Holbrook, Will R. Roberts, Marcy K. Brown Jr, Allen M. Reed

Michigan Law Review

Legislative Power to Restrict Freedom of Labor Contracts -The struggle between the police power of the legislature and the nineteenth century idea of due process of law continues unremittingly. That increasing social necessities and a more comprehensive and perfect conception of justice have resulted in recent years in restricting the "due process" clauses in federal and state constitutions to their historically and logically more correct meaning and scope there can be no doubt. Scores, if not hundreds, of decisions by our courts and conspicuously those of the United States Supreme Court have shown complete recognition of the fact that the …


Recent Important Decisions Feb 1915

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.


Recent Important Decisions Nov 1914

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.


Recent Important Decisions Jun 1914

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.


Note And Comment, George E. Kennedy, Louis P. Lackey, John R. Rood, Gordon Stoner, Ralph W. Aigler Nov 1913

Note And Comment, George E. Kennedy, Louis P. Lackey, John R. Rood, Gordon Stoner, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

The Law School -As a result of the increased requirements for admission, which are now in their second year of operation, the attendance at the Law School is less than that of last year, though the decrease is less than was anticipated at the time of the adoption of the higher requirements. The entering class (the second, under the new standard) is about thirty larger than that of last year. There are no changes in the teaching staff, and none of great importance in the curriculum.


Recent Important Decisions Mar 1913

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Judgment for Breach of Promis, Aggravated by Seduction, Not Dischargeable - Petitioner 'had secured a judgment against the bankrupt for the breach of a promise to marry, seduction under such promise having been pleaded in aggravation of damages; the common law rule prevails in New York and a woman may not maintain an action for her own seduction. The District Court (196 Fed. 571), viewing this as a judgment grounded solely in contract, and not in tort as "for -will-ful and malicious injury to the person or property of another," or for "seduction of an unmarried female," held …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Nov 1912

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Animals--Abuse--Malice Toward the Owner; Assault and Battery--Apparent Ability; Bankruptcy--marshaling Assets of Partnership and of Constituent Firm; Banks and Banking--Checks--Fictitious Payee; Bills and Notes--Bona Fide Holder; Carrier--duty to Protect Passengers; Constitutional law--Division of Powers--Infringement on Executive; Constitutional law--Eminent Domain--Supersedure of Ordinance of 1787; Constitutional law--Special Legislation--Automobiles; Corporations--Issue of Stock--Corporation of Two States; Courts--Jurisdiction--Damage to Real Property Without the State--Negligence; Damage--Personal Injuries Contributing to Disease; Deeds--Assignment o fright of Entry Between Heirs; Deeds--Restrictive Covenant--"building" Defined; Equity--Infringement of Trade Marks--"Clean Hands"--Husband and Wife--Estate by Entirety--Conveyance of Husband's Interest; Judgment--Effect of the Transcript of a Justice's Judgement Filed in the District Court; Judgment--Estoppel--Homestead; Marriage--What …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Jun 1911

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Attachment--Power of Notary Public to Take Affidavit Where He is an Attorney for One of the Parties; Bankruptcy--Effect of Discharge--Res Adjudicate; Bills and Notes--Presentment and Demand by Telephone; Constitutional Law--Commerce--State Regulation of Interstate Telegrams; Constitutional Law--community Property--Alienation Without Consent of Wife; Corporations--Criminal Responsibility--Imputation of Intent and Knowledge; Corporations--Dividends--Compulsory Declaration; Corporations--Stockholder's Right to Examine Books--Motive; Easements--Grants for Pipe Lines--Rights Acquired--Telephone Line; Evidence--Character of Disbarment Proceedings--Use of Deposition; Evidence--Uncorroborated Testimony of an Accomplice; Fraudulent Conveyances--Voluntary Conveyances--Solvency and Insolvency of Grantor; Homestead--When Liable for Debts; Husband and Wife--Exception to Presumption of Coercion--House of Ill Fame; Injunction--Action on Note by Attorney Against Client--Remedy at …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Mar 1911

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Accident Insurance--Accident or Disease; Antenuptial Contract; Waiver of Performance; Bankruptcy--Arrest of Bankrupt--Exemption from Arrest; Bankruptcy--Effect upon a Surety of Bankrupt's Discharge; Charities--Validity--Certainty as to Purpose of the Gift; Constitutional Law--Equal Protectin of the Laws--Abrogation of Fellow-Servant Rule; Constitutional Law--Equal Protection of the Laws--Permit to Woman Pharmacist to Sell Liquors; Constracts--Public Policy; Corporations--Injury to Minority Stockholders--Remedy by Injunction; Corporations--Nature of a Corporation--Franchises; Deeds--Specific Performance of a Condition Subsequent; Elections--Primary Elections--Failure of Nominee to File Expense Account; Evidence--Parol Testimony--Admissibility; Husband and Wife--Personal Torts Between; Husband and Wife--Subrogation of Wife to Rights of Creditors for Necessaries; Inn-Keepers--Liability for Goods of Guest--Termination of Liability; …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Jan 1911

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Adverse Possession--Paper Title--Constructive Possession--Occupancy; Bankruptcy--Property Vesting in Trustee--Insurance Policies with Cash Surrender Value Absorbed by a Lien; Bankruptcy--Provable Debts--Contingent Claims--Landlord and Tenant; Bills and Notes--Incomplete and Undelivered Check, completed and Negotiated by Thief--Delivery Not Presumed; Bills and Notes--Note Distinguished from Testamentary Disposition; Contracts--Consideration--Forbearance to Sue; Contracts--Illegal Contract--Agent's Liability for Proceeds; Corporations--corporate Stock--Priority of Rights Between Unrecorded Transferee and Attachment Creditor; Criminal Procedure--Sealed Verdict--Separation of Jury; Eminent Domain--Streets--Power to Condemn Land Required for Railroad Purposes; Evidence--Presumptions and Burden of Proof in Case of Corporation Charged with Crime; Garnishments--On What Actions Available--Liquidated Claims; Insurance--change of Rates in Mutual Benefit Association; Judgments--Foreign Judgment--Merger--Bar; …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Jan 1910

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy--Corporation "Engaged Principally in Manufacturing"; Bankruptcy--Invalidity of Liens for Want of Record; Bills and Notes--Effect of Agreement to Pay Attorney's Fees on Negotiability; Boundaries--Street--Riparian Rights; Carriers--Negligent Delay of Passenger--Liability; Constitutional Law--Due Process of Law--Banking--Guaranty Fund; Constitutional Law--Vested rights--rights in Navigable and Non-Navigable Waters; Contracts--Performance of Building Contract; Corporations--Capital Stock--Trust Fund--Right of Bank to Purchase its own Stock; Corporations--Ownership of Stock--Unlawful Pledge--Rights of Pledgee; Damage--Breach of Covenant Against Incumbrances--Though Incumbrance Removed Nominal Damages Recoverable; Divorce--Grounds--Extreme Cruelty--Malicious Charges; Dower--Right to Dower--Divorce--Interlocutory Decree; Evidence--difference Between Burden of Proof and burden of Evidence; Evidence--Proof of Death--Privileged Communications Between Husband and Wife; Homestead--Fraudulent Conveyance--Right of …