Business Organizations Law Commons^™

Bosland: Estate Tax Valuation In The Sale Of Merger Of Small Firms, Herman L. Trautman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Estate Tax Valuation in the Sale of Merger of Small Firms. By Chelcie C. Bosland.

Corporations - Proxy Regulations - Federal Courts Can Grant Complete Relief In Shareholder's Suit For Violation Of Section 14(A) Of Securities Exchange Act Of 1934, Jack J. Bernstein

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Insider Securities Dealings During Corporate Crises, Victor Brudney

Michigan Law Review

The problem of assuring the fidelity of corporate insiders to the public investors in their enterprises figured prominently in legal literature and law reform proposals twenty-five or thirty years ago. In recent years, that question has attracted relatively less attention-in part because of the appearance or recognition of more significant problems in the relationship of publicly-held corporate enterprise to the national well-being, but in part also because of the development by courts, legislatures and administrative agencies-and to some extent by the insiders' community itself-of more exacting standards of loyalty. Recognition of broader obligations to their corporations and to public investors …

Taxation-Federal Income Taxation-Examination Of Certain Problems Under Section 335, Roger B. Harris S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Stock and securities of controlled corporations may be distributed to shareholders, tax free, in cases of corporate separations which qualify under section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. A corporate separation is effected by the transfer of part of a corporation's assets to a subsidiary, the stock of which is distributed to the parent's stockholders. Such distributions are generally classified into three categories: spin-off, split-off, and split-up. A spin-off occurs when corporation A forms corporation B to which A transfers certain assets, receiving in exchange, the stock of corporation B. A then distributes the stock of …

Taxation- Federal Income Tax-Status Of Stock-For-Stock Exchange Where Boot Is Involved, Roger B. Harris S. Ed

Michigan Law Review

Taxpayer was the sole stockholder of International Dairy Supply Company. In 1952, Foremost Dairies, Inc. acquired from taxpayer all his stock in Supply Company in exchange for 82,375 shares of Foremast's common stock and 3,000,000 dollars cash. Taxpayer reported as gain from the transaction only the 3,000,000 dollars "boot" received, less allowable expenses. The Commissioner determined a deficiency of 278,823 dollars, asserting that the nonrecognition provision of the 1939 Code counterpart of section 356 (a) (1) was inapplicable and therefore taxpayer's entire gain realized on the disposition must be recognized. The Tax Court upheld taxpayer's contention that by virtue of …

Tingle: The Stockholder's Remedy Of Corporate Dissolution, Hugh L. Sowards

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Stockholder's Remedy of Corporate Dissolution. By James O'Malley Tingle

Corporations - Securities Regulation - Violation Of Proxy Regulations Gives Private Right Of Action But Federal Courts Are Limited Regarding Remedy, Thomas A. Hogan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Forming A Subsidiary In The European Common Market, Alfred F. Conard

Michigan Law Review

The appearance of a new market which is open to free enterprise and contains almost as many customers as the United States has opened immense opportunities to American enterprises, with their unique experience in mass production and mass marketing. General counsel for large American enterprises are confronted with a new need for some understanding of the problems of organizing subsidiary companies in this new market. The present article is written to supply an introduction to the legal factors which bear on solutions of these problems.

Stockholder Votes Motivated By Adverse Interest: The Attack And The Defense, Earl Sneed

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this article to study stockholder votes motivated by adverse interest from the standpoint of the attack and the defense. First, the remedies available to the complaining minority are examined. Then follows a study of the indicia of adverse interest in specific shareholder actions. Knowledge of the nature and import of these indicia should enable the careful lawyer to avoid or defeat the charge that unconscionable adverse interest vitiated the result of a stockholder vote.

Corporations - Amendment Of Articles Of Incorporation - Power Of Majority To Require Holders Of Redeemable Preferred Stock To Accept Bonds Instead Of Money In Redemption, Clayton R. Smalley

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs owned 6 percent cumulative convertible prior preferred stock in defendant corporation. The stock had a stated value of $100 per share, and was redeemable at the option of the corporation at $115 per share plus accumulated dividends. By vote of more than two-thirds of the outstanding shares of each class of stock issued, defendant's articles of incorporation were amended to authorize its board of directors to redeem the prior stock at $120 per share, payable in the company's 5 percent 30-year debentures. Interest on the debentures was to be cumulative, paid out of earnings, and subordinated to the other …

Stock Transfer Restrictions: Continuing Uncertainties And A Legislative Proposal, William H. Painter

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Business Associations--1959 Tennessee Survey, F. Hodge O'Neal

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Eighty-first General Assembly enacted a considerable number of significant statutes affecting business organizations or their activities. One of the new statutes made important changes in the Securities Law of 1955. Several of the statutes were designed, or at least professed to be designed, to encourage the commercial and industrial development of Tennessee. On the other hand, Tennessee courts handed down during the survey period only two or three opinions touching on business associations questions, and those questions were of but little importance. In general, this article discusses the statutes first, then the judicial decisions.

Setting The Price In An Close Corporation Buy-Sell Agreement, David Keith Page

Michigan Law Review

The stockholders of a close corporation may consider it important to keep control of the business "within the family." This can be accomplished through a restrictive agreement, typically one which gives the corporation or the remaining stockholders a first option to purchase the shares of any departing stockholder. The original owners may also wish to guarantee themselves a ready purchaser for their stock when they die or leave the business. This second objective can be attained by adopting a restrictive agreement which places an obligation on the departing stockholder to sell to the corporation or to the surviving stockholders, who …

Federal Taxation - Tax Aspects Of Corporate Buy And Sell Agreement, Joel D. Tauber S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to consider the tax problems connected with both types of "conventional" corporate buy and sell agreements. It should be recognized, however, that there are many questions of local law and business necessity that also exert influence on the use of such agreements.

Corporations - Compensation Of Management - Bonus Plan, Sidney Buchanan

Michigan Law Review

Defendant corporation's board of directors adopted a profit-sharing retirement plan which was never ratified by the shareholders. The plan assigned to key employees "units" having a fixed dollar value equal to the current market value of the corporation's common stock. The company promised to pay each unit holder, upon termination of employment, a sum equal to the number of units held times the increase in market value of the stock from the time the units were issued to the date employment terminated or any date within five years thereafter selected by the employee. The right of each unit-holder to receive …

Business Associations—1959 Tennessee Survey, F. Hodge O'Neal

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Corporations - Derivative Suits - Stockholder Demand As Condition Precedent, W. Stanley Walch S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A derivative suit alleging directors' fraud was brought by a minority shareholder, but there was no allegation of a demand for relief having been made on the corporation's stockholders prior to bringing the suit. The plaintiff did allege, however, that it was useless and impossible for him to make demand on the stockholders because the complaint charged directors' fraud which was a void act beyond the power of the stockholders to ratify, and secondly because it would be highly unreasonable to require plaintiff to make a demand for relief on more than 100,000 stockholders of the corporation. Delaware Chancery Rule …

The Legal Status Of Joint Venture Corporations, Thomas F. Broden, Alfred L. Scanlan

Vanderbilt Law Review

American industry employs many forms of business organizations. The sole proprietorship, the partnership, general and limited, the joint venture, the joint stock company, the corporation, public issue and close, and many others are all familiar and well established in their use. This article deals with the use by American industry of the close corporation to carry on a joint venture. With due deference to purists in legal terminology we have elected to refer to this particular type of corporate entity as the joint venture corporation. In this article we not only look at the use made of the joint venture …

Corporations - Stock Transfer - Enforceability Of Restrictions On Right Of Transfer When Not Stated On Certificate, L. Ronald Modlin

Michigan Law Review

A by-Iaw of defendant corporation provided that no stockholder could sell his shares unless he first offered them for sale to the corporation or its directors. The by-law also stated that this restriction should be printed on the stock certificates and would thereupon bind all present or future owners or holders. The corporation never complied with this latter provision. Plaintiff, having knowledge of the by-law restriction, purchased two shares of the corporation's stock, but these shares were not first offered for sale to the corporation or its directors. When the corporation refused to transfer the shares, plaintiff sued to compel …

Corporations - Capital And Stock - Applicability Of Restrictions On Transfer Of Stock To Transfer Caused By Death, Robert P. Luciano

Michigan Law Review

The stock of the Taylor Trunk Company, with the exception of the two shares now in controversy, was divided equally between two brothers, the remaining two shares having been held by a third brother now deceased. A by-law provided: "That no transfer or sale of the stock of the Company can be made without first offering said stock for sale to the remaining stockholders. . . ." The administrator with will annexed and the legatee of the decedent sought in this action to have the two shares of stock owned by decedent at his death transferred on the books of …

Business Associations -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, F. Hodge O'Neal

Vanderbilt Law Review

Very little happened in the field of Business Associations during the survey period. The General Assembly enacted one fairly important set of amendments to the Securities Law, and the Tennessee appellate courts handed down two or three decisions which in a large part merely reiterated principles of corporation law already well-established in this state.

Amendments to the Securities Law Broadening Grounds for Refusing or Revoking Registration of Securities: The Securities Law of 1955 among other things set up a procedure for the registration of securities intended for sale and gave the Commissioner of Insurance and Banking authority to investigate the …

Corporations - Shareholders - Delegation Of Director's Principal Duties Insufficient To Invalidate A Voting Trust, Gerald D. Rapp

Michigan Law Review

The directors of an intermediate unit in a string of holding companies caused the corporation's sole substantial asset, the stock representing control of a subordinate holding company, to be deposited in a voting trust. Most of these directors, serving one-year terms, comprised the majority of the trustees who were to serve for the life of the ten-year trust. This act served to insulate the lower companies from the control of plaintiffs who were majority shareholders of the top holding company. The plaintiffs sought an injunction restraining the use by the trustees of the stock controlled by the trust to effect …

Corportations - Cumulative Voting, Classified Boards And Proportional Representation, William R. Luney S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In two recent decisions, Wolfson v. Avery and Janney v. Philadelphia Transportation Co., a constitutional provision guaranteeing to every corporate shareholder the right to cumulate his votes in an election of directors was construed in light of a statute authorizing the classification of directors and the election of only one class annually. In both, it was argued by a minority shareholder that the constitutional provision guaranteed him representation on the board proportional to his stock holdings, and that the classification statute, authorizing a reduction of the number of directors to be elected at each election, required a greater number …

Corporations - Liquidation Upon Deadlock In Closely-Held Corporation - Interpretion Of Wisconsin Statute, Strong V. Fromm Laboratories,, Paul Komives

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, as trustee of an estate, held fifty percent of the shares of a going corporation. An election to fill all four positions on the corporation's board of directors was held. Since a by-law required that directors be shareholders, plaintiff was the only member of his own faction for whom he could vote. The opposing faction, holding the remaining fifty percent of the shares, had four eligible candidates. Votes for each of the four were cast, with one receiving one vote less than the other three. Plaintiff voted all of his shares for himself and also cast a vote of …

Corporations - Appraisal Statutes - Elements In Valuation Of Corporate Stock, John C. Baity

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to consider the elements of stock valuation generally applicable under the statutory appraisal remedies, and to analyze in some detail the interpretation of such a statute in one jurisdiction-Delaware.

Corporations - Watered Stock - Rejection Of Statutory Obligation Theory, Michael Mcnerney S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a judgment creditor of a corporation in which defendant was a stockholder, sued for the difference between the aggregate par value of the defendant's shares and the value of the consideration he paid to the corporation for them. After a verdict for plaintiff, the trial court granted a motion for a new trial. On appeal, held, affirmed. Liability of shareholders for watered stock is based on the misrepresentation theory in California, and there was no evidence that plaintiff relied on the stated capital in extending credit. Bing Crosby Minute Maid Corp. v. Eaton, (Cal. 1956) 297 P. …

Corporations - Securities: Regulation - Parent Corporation As Insider Realizing Shortswing Profit, Allan L. Bioff

Michigan Law Review

Parent corporation, owning a majority of the outstanding voting securities of its subsidiary, sold 120,000 shares of the subsidiary's common stock. A substantial shortswing profit was realized on 4115 shares which had been purchased on the open market five months earlier. The sale, whereby the parent was to divest itself of control of its subsidiary, was made pursuant to an agreement between both companies and approved by a majority of the voting stock of each. Section 16 (b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provides that officers, directors and beneficial owners of more than ten percent of any class …

Corporations - Stockholders - Availability Of Federal Remedy As Basis For Denial Of Attorney Fees In Derivative Action, Jerome Prewoznik

Michigan Law Review

Defendants were directors of Merritt, Chapman and Scott Corporation and of Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. simultaneously. Plaintiff, a stockholder in Merritt, instituted a derivative suit to compel the resignation of defendants from their positions with Ward on the ground that an interlocking directorate existed making Merritt subject to criminal and civil prosecution under federal law. Defendants resigned before judgment. Plaintiff, arguing that its suit was the cause of the resignations and that Merritt was thereby benefited, moved for an award of counsel fees to be assessed against Merritt. Held, application for counsel fee denied. Plaintiff could have achieved …

Corporations - Dividends - Date From Which Cumulative Dividends Accrue, Dudley Chapman

Michigan Law Review

Defendant corporation issued preferred stock in 1937 under a charter amendment which provided that such stock should " ... pay dividends at the rate of six percent ... , but when not so earned and paid, the dividends so provided shall be cumulative. Said dividends shall be paid annually beginning the Fifteenth (15th) day of March, 1938... " The plaintiff held 100 shares of defendant's preferred stock issued in 1945, and the above provision appeared on his certificate. During dissolution of the defendant in 1955, the plaintiff claimed cumulative dividends from 1938 as an innocent purchaser for value, basing his …

Corporations - Stockholder's Suit - Necessity Of Demand On Other Stockholders In Derivative Action, John C. Dowd

Michigan Law Review

In two related cases, a holder of common stock brought a derivative suit against the directors of his corporation claiming their illegal acts had deprived the corporation of assets. On defendants' motion to dismiss and for summary" judgment, held, judgment for the defendants. Plaintiff's failure to allege either that he had presented his claim to the stockholders at a stockholders' meeting or that a majority of the stockholders' votes were under the control of the directors defeated his action. Carroll v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R.; Glenmore v. Alpert, (D.C. Mass. 1956) 141 F. Supp. 456.