Law Commons^™

Corporations-Dissolution-Power Of Chancellor To Decree Dissolution When Deadlock Exists, John J. Edman S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs sought dissolution of defendant corporation pursuant to a statute allowing a petition for dissolution to be made to the chancellor by the holders of one-half of the voting stock upon a deadlock in management and voting shares. The evidence showed that there was no chance of compromise by the warring factions, that the corporate function could not be carried out, and that the plaintiffs' interests might be jeopardized. The chancellor held that unless a harmonious solution was effectively formulated within fifteen days after the filing of an opinion, a judgment containing appropriate provisions for a dissolution would be entered. …

Corporations, Parnerships And Bankruptcy, Charles E. Nadler

Mercer Law Review

In that field of "business" law that is generally encompassed by the subjects of Bankruptcy, of Corporations, and of Partnerships, our survey year discloses the following current amendments to existing statutes, and the several cases decided by the appellate courts of Georgia.

Estate Liquidity And The Family-Owned Business, William J. Bowe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Every community in the country has its quota of successful merchants, manufacturers and businessmen whose enterprises have, as a result of management or planning, grown and prospered over the years. To value the worth of such businesses for estate tax purposes is perhaps the most difficult fact-issue in the whole field of taxation. Indeed it is doubtful if there is any problem in law or economics where the criteria are so vague and uncertain and where the permissible range for honest differences of judgment is so great. Expert opinion may vary by more than 100%.

Business Associations-Partnership-Claims Against Partner Who Asserts Infancy, Harold S. Lentz S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An adult partner sought dissolution of the partnership, contribution of monies according to the contract, determination of liabilities for debts, ascertainment of respective interests, and an accounting from the infant partner. The infant partner asserted his infancy, disavowed the contract, and moved to dismiss the action. Held, motion granted except as to plaintiffs demand for a dissolution and accounting. Sacco v. Schallus, 11 N.J. Super. 197, 78 A. (2d) 143 (1950).

Corporations-Liability Of Transfer Agent For Wrongful Refusal To Transfer Shares, Howard Van Antwerp S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, stockholder in a mining company, sued a transfer agent of the company in conversion for its refusal to transfer plaintiff's stock into block shares. The lower court found for plaintiff. On appeal, held, reversed. There is no direct liability of a transfer agent to the stockholder for wrongful nonfeasance in delaying or refusing to transfer stock. Mears v. Crocker First Nat. Bank of San Francisco, (Cal. App. 1950) 218 P. (2d) 91.

Effects Of Taxation On Corporate Mergers, By J. Keith Butters, John Linter, And William L. Cary, Kenneth Foster

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporations--Stockholders' Rights--Majority Discretion As Bar To Derivative Suit, Richard Darger

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, minority stockholders of defendant corporation, brought an equitable action against certain directors thereof alleging the following wrongs: profits made by purchasing the corporation's notes at a discount; carrying out a plan to gain stock control; settlement of anti-trust suits out of court; excessive compensation of directors under management contracts alleged to violate anti-trust laws; paying excessive film rentals to another corporation. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully demanded that the board bring action against the directors on these grounds and then make a like demand at a stockholders' meeting. The stockholders voted not to sue, approved all actions alleged to be wrongs and …

Corporations--Stockholders' Rights--Majority Discretion As Bar To Derivative Suit, Richard Darger

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, minority stockholders of defendant corporation, brought an equitable action against certain directors thereof alleging the following wrongs: profits made by purchasing the corporation's notes at a discount; carrying out a plan to gain stock control; settlement of anti-trust suits out of court; excessive compensation of directors under management contracts alleged to violate anti-trust laws; paying excessive film rentals to another corporation. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully demanded that the board bring action against the directors on these grounds and then make a like demand at a stockholders' meeting. The stockholders voted not to sue, approved all actions alleged to be wrongs and …

Book Reviews, W. Barton Leach, Joe Tussman, Charles O. Gregory, Charles Fahy, John C. O'Byrne Jr., Joseph Curtis, Charles Fairman, Ralph R. Neuhoff, Joseph Hawley Murphy, Charles L. Black Jr., Roscoe L. Barrow, John Hanna

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Corporations--Corporate Policy, The "Cure-All" For Proxy Solicitation Ailments, David M. Michaelson S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

All too often lawyers and students of law are inclined to assume that some principle or formula· has become so deeply rooted in the law that it has acquired a sanctity which gives it an all-embracive effect, a "cure-all," as it were, for legal ailments. This has been the usual approach when the question has arisen of the propriety of spending corporate funds to solicit proxies. The ever-faithful panacea has been to say, quite automatically, that where the intra-corporate contest is concerned with matters of policy as distinguished from personnel of management, then corporate funds may be used to inform …

Solicitation As A Basis Of Jurisdiction Over A Foreign Corporation, Arloe W. Mayne

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Implied Powers Of The Corporate President, Charles Gromley

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxation-The Lincoln Electric Question: Must "Ordinary And Necessary" Business Expenses Be Also "Reasonable" In Amount, R. Lawrence Storms S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has recently determined in Commissioner v. Lincoln Electric Co. that the element of reasonableness is inherent in the phrase "ordinary and necessary" as used in the paragraph of the Internal Revenue Code authorizing deductions for business expenses. It will be of interest to develop the history of the case throughout its ten years of litigation, to examine some of the collateral points raised, and to attempt a critique of the merits of the court's position.

Book Reviews, Elliott E. Cheatham, I. Beverly Lake, Thomas Clifford Billig, Frederick W. Whiteside Jr., Carl H. Fulda, A. Ladru Jensen, Paul Sayre, Charles H. Livengood Jr., Thomas A. Cowan, Clyde W. Summers

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Corporations, Parnerships And Bankruptcy, Charles E. Nadler

Mercer Law Review

In the field of Georgia Corporation Law some changes of significance were made during the survey year by amendments to the Corporation Act of 1938 and in the public revenue laws relating to the rate and method of computation of corporate taxes.

The Taxable Income Of Cooperatives, Roswell Magill, Allen H. Merrill

Michigan Law Review

This article is a study of the exemption in section 101(12) of "farmers', fruit growers', or like associations organized and operated on a cooperative basis"; and, in particular, of the taxability of the income of such corporations. The basic question is, What is the taxable income of a cooperative, in the absence of statutory exemption or exemption by administrative ruling? Do such business corporations have an income from their businesses which in these days of revenue stringency should be taxed as other business income must be taxed?

Corporations-Measure Of Short Swing Profits Under Section 16(B) Of The Securities Exchange Act Of 1934, G. B. Myers S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a stockholder in X corporation, sued in the name of and on behalf of the corporation to recover short swing profits made by defendants in the sale of stock purchase warrants of the corporation, in violation of the Securities Exchange Act. Defendants were officers of the corporation and as part of the consideration for entering into their contracts of employment they received each year a number of these warrants. Within six months of the receipt of their 1945 warrants defendants had made certain sales of warrants then held by them. The court, in a previous ruling, had granted a …

Corporations-Stockholder's Suit To Compel Declaration Of Dividends- Necessity Of Directors As Parties, Daniel A. Isaacson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a citizen of New York and the owner of some preferred stock in the defendant Delaware corporation, brought a class action against the corporation in a federal district court in Pennsylvania to compel the declaration and payment of dividends on the preferred stock, alleging that the directors had acted in had faith in violation of their duties as fiduciaries. Defendant's articles of incorporation provided that the preferred stock was entitled to receive dividends "when and as declared by the Board of Directors"; the by-laws permitted a majority of the hoard to constitute a quorum for purposes of transacting business. …

Partnerships-Dissolution-Sufficiency Of Notice To Prior Creditors, Paul M.D. Harrison S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought suit on account for merchandise sold and delivered, alleging that the defendants were liable as partners. The defendants admitted that they had dealt with the plaintiff while they were a partnership, but averred that a corporation was formed which took over the partnership and that the merchandise in question had been purchased by the corporation. The trial judge instructed the jury that plaintiff must have notice or knowledge of the dissolution of the partnership to relieve defendants of personal liability, and that mere notice of the formation of the corporation was immaterial. Held, judgment for plaintiff affirmed. …

Jensen: Cooperative Corporate Association Law-1950, William S. Barnes

Michigan Law Review

A review of COOPERATIVE CORPORATE ASSOCIATION LAW-1950. By A. Ladru Jensen and others.

Corporations-Right Of Corporation To Pay Dividends To Common Shareholders To Equalize Prior Wrongful Payment To Preferred Shareholders, Theodore Sachs S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

As a general proposition, payment of dividends may be made only out of surplus and not out of the capital stock of a corporation. Though the cases evidence considerable confusion as to the meaning of "surplus" and "capital," it is clear that these terms do not indicate a res. Rather, they are convenient designations for legislatively prescribed limits as to when dividend payments are proper. The capital stock rule, that the aggregate consideration received for no par stock plus the aggregate value of issued par stock may not be tapped for shareholder distribution, is founded, loosely speaking, on the notion …

Corporations: Indispensability Of Directors To Actions To Compel A Declaration Of Dividends

Indiana Law Journal

Recent Cases

Book Reviews, Alfred Conrad, Daniel J. Boorstin, Charles C. Callahan, Arnold C. Rood, Robert R. Wilson, Ella Cooper Thomas, I. Maurice Wormser, Louis Prashker, Cornelius J. Moynihan

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Corporations-Right Of Directors To Enforce At Face Value Claims Against The Corporation Purchased At A Discount During Insolvency, Robert H. Frick S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

From 1942 to the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings the assets of the debtor corporation were insufficient to pay its liabilities, and, with the exception of 1945, it operated at a deficit. In 1946 the assets of the corporation were sold, and the debtor filed a petition under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act Prior to the filing of the petition, but during the period of insolvency, the respondents, the sister, mother, and a personal friend of a director, acquired debenture bonds of the corporation, primarily from over-the-counter dealers, at 3% to 14% of face value, the aggregate cost being $10,000. …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

BOOKS RECEIVED

BUSINESS ORGANIZATION By Alfred F. Conard Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. vii, 661. $7.00.

CASES ON FEDERAL COURTS By Charles T. McCormick and James H. Chadburn Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 921. $8.00.

CASES AND MATERIALS ON WORLD LAW By Louis B. Sohn Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 1363. $8.00.

FEDERAL ESTATE AND GIFT TAXATION: CASES AND MATERIALS By William C. Warren and Stanley S. Surrey Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc.,1950. Pp. vii, 518. $7.00.

HATCH ACT DECISIONS By James W. Irwin Washington. United States Government Printing Office, 1949. Pp. v, 304. …

Corporations-Theory Of Organizational Franchise Taxation- Michigan Franchise Tax, Charles Hansen S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The present inquiry, besides delving into the nature of corporate organizational franchise taxation, will also seek to arrive at a logical theoretical basis for two of the more common types of such levies, and will conclude by examining the pertinent Michigan statutes in the light of such theories.

Taxation-Income Tax-Corporation Not Taxable On A Sale Of Property By Stockholders Following Genuine Liquidation Distribution, R. Lawrence Storms S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The stockholders of a closely held electric utility corporation offered to sell all the corporate stock to a cooperative competitor. The cooperative countered with an offer to buy a part of the corporation's physical assets. Hoping to avoid a heavy corporate capital gains tax, the stockholders caused the corporation to distribute to them in partial liquidation the property in question, and then executed the previously contemplated sale themselves. The commissioner assessed and collected a capital gains tax from the corporation which then sued and recovered the amount of the tax in the court of claims. On appeal, held, affirmed. …

What Constitutes Doing Business In Virginia, Robert C. Stackhouse

William and Mary Review of Virginia Law

No abstract provided.

The Tax Consequences Of Family Parnerships, T. Baldwin Martin Jr.

Mercer Law Review

The elements of family intimacy and tax reduction, which present themselves conveniently in the common law concepts of gifts, assignments, and trusts, have proven to be danger signs which herald the scrutiny of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and forecast probable tax disaster for the taxpayer. Normally and unavoidably, family partnerships have come to be categorized with these concepts, and the Bureau, in its efforts to protect the revenue, would, with the assistance of the Tax Court, thwart the effectiveness of these business units in a manner similar to the treatment accorded to the aforementioned concepts.

Constitutional Law-Corporations-Artificial "Persons" And The Fourteenth Amendment, Robert P. Griffin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

That a corporation is a "person" for certain purposes within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, and therefore entitled to invoke its protection, is considered by students of constitutional law to be well settled. For that reason the dissent of Justice Douglas in the recent case of Wheeling Steel Corporation v. Glander demands more than passing recognition. Therein he restates and adds his support to the view of Justice Black that the word "person" as used in the Fourteenth Amendment refers exclusively to human beings and affords no protection whatsoever to corporations against arbitrary state action.