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Articles 1381 - 1410 of 1420

Full-Text Articles in Securities Law

Corporations - Stockholders' Suits - Federal Courts -Requirement Of Stock Ownership At The Time Of The Injury Complained Of, Robert E. Sipes Mar 1939

Corporations - Stockholders' Suits - Federal Courts -Requirement Of Stock Ownership At The Time Of The Injury Complained Of, Robert E. Sipes

Michigan Law Review

When necessary to protect the interest of a stockholder, a court of equity will entertain an action by the stockholder to enforce a right belonging to the corporation. The suit is a derivative one, the corporation being the party primarily injured and the immediate beneficiary of the proceeds of any judgment. The basis for the suit has been explained in a number of ways. It has been held that in a proper case equity will disregard the corporate fiction and allow the derivative suit in order to protect the right which beneficially belongs to the stockholder although nominally to the …


Corporations - Negotiability Of Stock Certificates - Uniform Stock Transfer Act, Charles R. Linton Jan 1939

Corporations - Negotiability Of Stock Certificates - Uniform Stock Transfer Act, Charles R. Linton

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff holding company was incorporated with Murtland and two dummies as shareholders and officers. Murtland pledged a stock certificate, representing shares of another corporation owned by his corporation, with the defendant bank to secure a personal loan; an assignment and power of attorney was executed by the plaintiff through Murtland and one of the dummy shareholders as officers, the other shareholder having knowledge of the transaction. Upon the bankruptcy of Murtland, defendant sought to sell the collateral; plaintiff seeks to enjoin the sale on the ground that the assignment had not been authorized by its board of directors. Held, …


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 …


Corporations - Power Of Attorney To Transfer Stock On The Books Of The Corporation, Royal E. Thompson May 1937

Corporations - Power Of Attorney To Transfer Stock On The Books Of The Corporation, Royal E. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

Although a power of attorney to transfer stock on the books of the corporation is found almost as a matter of course on the reverse side of stock certificates, along with a form for assignment of the certificate, there is surprisingly little to be found in the authorities, as to why it is there. An inquiry into the reasons, if any, for such a provision is the purpose of this discussion. A decision of last summer, by the New York Supreme Court, New York County, lends present emphasis to the query. Three certificates of stock which had been indorsed in …


Corporations - Ratification Of Unauthorized Withdrawal Of Funds By An Officer Of A Corporation, Walter Probst Jr. May 1937

Corporations - Ratification Of Unauthorized Withdrawal Of Funds By An Officer Of A Corporation, Walter Probst Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The president of a corporation withdrew funds from the corporation with which to purchase stock for his own personal benefit. He used this money so as to save the brokerage cost of his securities. A great deal of the money was repaid a few days after its withdrawal. The board of directors, discovering these activities, approved all past actions and present loans of the president. Held, the attempted ratification by the board of directors did not relieve the president from his duty of accounting for the profits realized on the stock purchased with the funds, since there had not …


Stockholders' Suits: A Possible Substitute, Harris Berlack Feb 1937

Stockholders' Suits: A Possible Substitute, Harris Berlack

Michigan Law Review

With the rapid expansion in the use of the corporate form of organization for business enterprise which has taken place during the last few decades, increasing attention has been paid by legal scholars to the question of the respective positions, rights and duties of the various components of the corporate structure. The functions, rights, obligations and liabilities of managers, officers, directors and stockholders, both majority and minority, have been analyzed and defined. Mr. Berle's analysis of corporate authority as power held in trust for the benefit of the stockholders has found wide acceptance as a comprehensive synthesis of the conclusions …


Corporations - Parent's Liability For Subsidiary's Obligations, Michigan Law Review Jan 1937

Corporations - Parent's Liability For Subsidiary's Obligations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A parent corporation owned all the stock of a subsidiary which it had organized to hold real estate, its own business being mercantile. The directors and officers of both corporations were identical. The subsidiary sublet premises for ninety-nine years, in turn leasing them to the parent for ten years. Improvements were made in accordance with the subsidiary's contract, and "leasehold trust certificates" were issued by an assignee of the underlying lease. The parent quit the premises before the expiration of its lease, but paid the rent for the whole period. The subsidiary then defaulted on the ninety-nine year lease, having …


Corporations - Capital, Capital Stock And Stock, Frederick K. Brown Dec 1936

Corporations - Capital, Capital Stock And Stock, Frederick K. Brown

Michigan Law Review

The recent case of Haggard v. Lexington Utilities Co. is typical of the nominalistic confusion occasioned by the use of the terms "capital" and "capital stock." Whatever progress the courts have made toward making them words of precise signification has not been reflected in the drafting of statutes, where they are employed to represent a bewildering number of connotations. The courts have recognized this and have not sought to make them words of art with a single, definitive meaning but through the mechanics of statutory interpretation have sought to divine the legislative intent.


Corporations - Significance Of Appreciation And Changing Price Levels In Corporate Dividend Policies, Kenneth K. Luce Dec 1936

Corporations - Significance Of Appreciation And Changing Price Levels In Corporate Dividend Policies, Kenneth K. Luce

Michigan Law Review

The appreciation of assets and the legal and accounting problems involved are largely a product of constant fluctuation in the value of money, and to a lesser degree a prodμct of actual rise in the relative value of isolated pieces of property. In the face of political events such as the devaluation of the dollar, and economic phenomena such as the rising price level which the country has experienced since 1933, such problems are of immediate concern to the accountant and lawyer. We must recognize at the outset that appreciation or depreciation in the price level sense are unrelated to …


Corporations-Disregard Of Separate Entities-Subsidiary Corporation An Instrumentality Of The Parent Feb 1936

Corporations-Disregard Of Separate Entities-Subsidiary Corporation An Instrumentality Of The Parent

Michigan Law Review

Defendant corporation had an excess of assets over liabilities, but its ratio of current assets to current liabilities had declined below the then normal banking credit requirement of two to one. In order to avoid acknowledgment of commercial insolvency due to inability to meet obligations maturing in the near future, defendant organized a subsidiary corporation to take over the sales end of the enterprise, transferring to the subsidiary sufficient current assets to give it the required banking ratio with regard to the liabilities assumed by the subsidiary consisting of bank obligations and some of the current bills payable of the …


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 -Liability Of Broker On Misleading Circulars Apr 1935

Corporations -Liability Of Broker On Misleading Circulars

Michigan Law Review

The possibilities of civil and criminal liability under the recent Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 have caused considerable fear to those business groups which take part in the business of issuing and transferring corporate securities. The federal acts do subject the vendor of securities who induces sales by means of false or misleading prospectuses and circulars to a possibility of civil liability which was not present under the common law. In a recent Michigan case, the court reached substantially the objectives sought by these acts by applying the existing rules of common law in …


Corporations - Right Of Preferred Stockholders To Participate In Dividends Beyond Specified Amount Apr 1935

Corporations - Right Of Preferred Stockholders To Participate In Dividends Beyond Specified Amount

Michigan Law Review

The holders of a minority of the preferred stock of a foundry company petitioned for receivership and repayment of part of the dividends which had been paid to common stockholders, contending that after payment of the stipulated 6 per cent dividend on the preferred stock and a like percentage on the common stock, preferred and common stockholders should participate alike in all further dividends declared. There was no provision in the articles or by-laws of the corporation concerning such participation in dividends. Held, that in the absence of express provision, preferred stockholders are entitled to receive only their guaranteed …


Corporations - Depreciation And Net Profits For Dividend Purposes Mar 1935

Corporations - Depreciation And Net Profits For Dividend Purposes

Michigan Law Review

This discussion will deal only with cash dividends on par value stock. It proceeds on the assumption that dividends in a particular jurisdiction may be paid only from "net profits," but it is not the writer's purpose to interpret "net profits" except so far as that term is affected by depreciation. The discussion will consist of a short examination of the economic nature of depreciation; a consideration of accounting techniques for handling depreciation in the accounts, with an evaluation of these techniques from the point of view of analytical jurisprudence; and a discussion of the case law.


Corporations-Trust Indenture-Notice To Security Holders Of Contents Of Indenture Feb 1935

Corporations-Trust Indenture-Notice To Security Holders Of Contents Of Indenture

Michigan Law Review

Ever since corporate bonds made their appearance more than a century ago, there has been a steady increase in difficult problems relating thereto. Not the least interesting of these problems pertains to the matter of notice to holders of the bonds and other securities of the contents of the indenture under which they are generally issued. The question becomes acute when one of these bondholders starts suit in law or in equity, and is met by the proposition that his right to so sue is limited by the trust indenture. There are two aspects to the matter, and it is …


Corporate Reorganizations-Can Securities Of The New Corporation Be Forced On Recalcitrant Creditors? Apr 1934

Corporate Reorganizations-Can Securities Of The New Corporation Be Forced On Recalcitrant Creditors?

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Conflict Of Laws-Foreign Corporations-Stockholder's Individual Liability Feb 1934

Conflict Of Laws-Foreign Corporations-Stockholder's Individual Liability

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Corporations - Pre-Emptive Rights In Treasury Shares Nov 1933

Corporations - Pre-Emptive Rights In Treasury Shares

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a former shareholder, sued the directors of a corporation for damages arising out of their alleged refusal to allow him pre-emptive rights in stock that had been issued, re-purchased by the corporation from the shareholders, and re-issued by the defendant-directors to themselves. Upon appeal from an order dismissing the complaint for insufficiency, held, that the order be reversed on the law. Hammer v. Werner, (App. Div. 1933) 265 N. Y. S. 172.


Trusts - For Employees - Definiteness Of Cestui Jun 1933

Trusts - For Employees - Definiteness Of Cestui

Michigan Law Review

The testator by his last will and testament devised a saw mill owned by him to certain trustees, the will reading, "I suggest that my said trustees sell the mill" for a specified price about half the estimated value of the property to a corporation to be organized by "my employees." There was a further provision reading, "I suggest that all the employees who have been in my employment for five years or longer should hold stock in such corporation, should they so desire in such proportions as my trustees shall presence." After the corporation had been organized, the incorporators …


Corporations-Power To Issue And Redeem Preferred Stock Apr 1933

Corporations-Power To Issue And Redeem Preferred Stock

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.


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 …


Corporations -Apportionment Of Part Payment Of Purchase Price Of Stocks Bought In A Unit Apr 1932

Corporations -Apportionment Of Part Payment Of Purchase Price Of Stocks Bought In A Unit

Michigan Law Review

The defendant corporation entered into contracts for the sale of stock in blocks of three shares, two shares of first preferred at fifty dollars each par value and one share of second preferred at fifty dollars par value, the three shares to be sold in a unit for one hundred and thirty-five dollars. The contract contained an agreement that after six monthly payments had been made on the stock, upon default of the remaining payments the corporation would issue certificates of indebtedness for the amount paid in. In the dissolution of the corporation and the distribution of the assets, the …


Corporations - Issue Of Stock Apr 1932

Corporations - Issue Of Stock

Michigan Law Review

The Eastman Kodak Company, a New Jersey corporation, entered into a contract with Vereinigte Fabriken Photagraphischer Papiere of Dresden, a German corporation, whereby it was agreed that the German company would discontinue the manufacture and sale of "Collodion papers" in North America, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal and that those territories would be given over exclusively to the Eastman Company for the manufacture and sale of this paper. In consideration of this concession the Eastman Company issued 28,450 shares of its no par stock to the German company. This stock was later seized by the United States Alien Property …


Equity--Subjecting Corporate Stocks To An Equitable Servitude, James A. Mcwhorter Jun 1931

Equity--Subjecting Corporate Stocks To An Equitable Servitude, James A. Mcwhorter

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Corporations-Dividends On Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock Jun 1931

Corporations-Dividends On Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff held non-cumulative preferred stock in the defendant corporation. From 1925 through 1928 no dividends were declared upon this stock; although earnings were sufficient they were used instead for property improvements. Since 1928, dividends have been paid regularly on this stock at the specified rate. In 1930 a dividend was declared on the common stock. Plaintiff sued to have this amount paid instead as a dividend on the preferred stock, and to enjoin any payment of dividends on the common stock until full dividends were paid on the non-cumulative preferred stock for the period from 1925 to 1928. Held, …


Corporations--Cumulative Preferred Stock-Effect Of By-Laws Apr 1931

Corporations--Cumulative Preferred Stock-Effect Of By-Laws

Michigan Law Review

An action was brought by preferred stockholders, during voluntary liquidation of a corporation, for payment of dividends, alleged to be cumulative, which had been passed on account of deficits during the two preceding years. The statutory provision giving the power to issue stock required the articles of incorporation to indicate, when any of the stock was preferred, whether or not the dividends should be cumulative. The articles stipulated that the preferred stock should be entitled to a six per cent dividend out of the net yearly income before any dividend should be paid on the common stock. A by-law, adopted …


Uniform Business Corporation Act And The Uniform Stock Transfer Act, Anon Nov 1930

Uniform Business Corporation Act And The Uniform Stock Transfer Act, Anon

Washington Law Review

The following drafts of the Uniform Business Corporation Act and the Uniform Stock Transfer Act, submitted by a committee appointed for the revision of the corporation laws of the State of Washington, received the unanimous approval of the Washington State Bar Association at its last annual meeting, both in round table and general session.


Right Of Holders Of Preferred Stock To Participate In The Distribution Of Profits, Jay Finley Christ May 1929

Right Of Holders Of Preferred Stock To Participate In The Distribution Of Profits, Jay Finley Christ

Michigan Law Review

When, in the management of the affairs of corporate enterprises, a surplus is available for the payment of dividends, the question often arises, "In what proportions is this fund to be distributed, as between holders of common stock and holders of preferred stock?" When the contract, whether in the by-laws, the subscription agreement, the certificate, or any other form, makes clear the intent of the parties, one way or another, such intent is, of course, controlling. But the intent of the parties may not always be clearly expressed, and in the latter event the rights of the parties are determined …