Securities Law Commons^™

Reconciling Federal And State Interest In Securities Regulation In The United States And Europe, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Should Congress Repeal Securities Class Action Reform?, Adam C. Pritchard

Other Publications

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 was designed to curtail class action lawsuits by the plaintiffs’ bar. In particular, the high-technology industry, accountants, and investment bankers thought that they had been unjustly victimized by class action lawsuits based on little more than declines in a company’s stock price. Prior to 1995, the plaintiffs’ bar had free rein to use the discovery process to troll for evidence to support its claims. Moreover, the high costs of litigation were a powerful weapon with which to coerce companies to settle claims. The plaintiffs’ bar and its allies in Congress have called …

In Re Silicon Graphics Inc.: Shareholder Wealth Effects Resulting From The Interpretation Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's Pleading Standard., Adam C. Pritchard, Marilyn F. Johnson, Karen K. Nelson

Articles

This Article presents an empirical study of changes in shareholder wealth resulting from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in In re Silicon Graphics Inc. Securities Litigation, which interpreted the pleading provision established in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Reform Act"). Congress passed the Reform Act as part of an ongoing effort to protect corporations from abusive suits alleging "fraud by hindsight." In such suits, plaintiffs claimed that a sudden drop in a company's stock price was evidence that the issuer and its management covered up the bad news that led to the price drop. …

The Nontrial Adversarial Model: Complex Litigation At The Millennium, Joel Seligman

Scholarship@WashULaw

During the past two decades, a non-trial adversarial model has evolved for deciding private securities law claims. Underlying this evolution are three different types of dynamics: (1) a dramatic growth in the size of securities class actions, epitomized by the Washington Public Power Supply System litigation of the 1980s and the Court’s approval of the fraud-on-the-market presumption, rather than a requirement of individual proof of fraud, in Basic, Inc. v Levinson; (2) a significant growth in the cost and litigation leverage of discovery; and (3) a fundamental shift in the political orientation of Congress in securities litigation, illustrated by the …

In Re Silicon Graphics Inc.: Shareholder Wealth Effects Resulting From The Interpretation Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's Pleading Standard, Marilyn F. Johnson, Karen K. Nelson, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

This Article presents an empirical study of changes in shareholder wealth resulting from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in In re Silicon Graphics Inc. Securities Litigation, which interpreted the pleading provision established in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Reform Act"). Congress passed the Reform Act as part of an ongoing effort to protect corporations from abusive suits alleging "fraud by hindsight." In such suits, plaintiffs claimed that a sudden drop in a company's stock price was evidence that the issuer and its management covered up the bad news that led to the price drop. …

Shareholder Derivative Litigation And Corporate Governance, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

In approving settlements of derivative actions that include fees for plaintiff's attorney, courts typically announce that attorney's fees are approved if a substantial benefit is obtained. In fact, courts, particularly Delaware courts, approve settlements in shareholder derivative actions that included substantial fees for plaintiff's attorney, despite the absence of a corresponding benefit to the corporation. Frequently, the "benefit" obtained is a reform in corporate governance, which is of dubious value to the corporation. To deter frivolous litigation, courts should resist the temptation to approve these settlements just to dispose of the litigation. The paper concludes that fees should not be …

Markets As Monitors: A Proposal To Replace Class Actions With Exchanges As Securities Fraud Enforcers, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

Fraud in the securities markets has been a focus of legislative reform in recent years. Corporations-especially those in the high-technology industry-have complained that they are being unfairly targeted by plaintiffs' lawyers in class action securities fraud lawsuits. The corporations' complaints led to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("Reform Act"). The Reform Act attempted to reduce meritless litigation against corporate issuers by erecting a series of procedural barriers to the filing of securities class actions. Plaintiffs' attorneys warned that the Reform Act and the resulting decrease in securities class actions would leave corporate fraud unchecked and deprive defrauded …

Rethinking Statutory Antiwaiver Provisions Following The Lloyd's Of London Litigation, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

In the Lloyd's of London cases, the United States Courts of Appeals upheld certain forum-selection clauses that effectually deprived investors of the protections of the federal securities laws as if the investors had expressly waived those protections. This article examines statutory antiwaiver provisions in light of the Lloyd's cases, exploring the effect those provisions have on the administration of the federal securities laws, and suggests that the law be amended to allow contractual waiver in certain circumstances.

The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act Of 1998: The Sun Sets On California's Blue Sky Laws, David M. Lavine, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

It is often said that California sets the pace for changes in America's tastes. Trends established in California often find their way into the heartland, having a profound effect on our nation's cultural scene. Nouvelle cuisine, the dialect of the Valley Girl and rollerblading all have their genesis on the West Coast. The most recent trend to emerge from California, instead of catching on in the rest of the country, has been stopped dead in its tracks by a legislative rebuke from Washington, D.C. California's latest, albeit short-lived, contribution to the nation was a migration of securities fraud class actions …

Fraud And Federalism: Preempting Private State Securities Fraud Causes Of Action, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

The passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 has engendered a significant forum shift in class action securities fraud litigation, from federal to state court. This unintended by-product of the Act has reignited debate over our dual federal-state system of securities regulation and in turn has inspired a discussion as to whether Congress should now preempt state securities fraud causes of action. This article argues that preemption is an appropriate, but not the only, solution to these concerns. To support this argument, this article first traces the history of dual state-federal securities regulation within the context of …

The Pentium Papers: A Case Study Of Collective Institutional Investor Activism In Litigation, Joseph A. Grundfest, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

This article suggests that institutional investors have rational incentives to become more active in the litigation arena, but that the current debate is falsely constrained because it rests on the assumption that institutional investors must participate either by (1) assuming the formal role of lead plaintiff, class representative, or intervenor or, (2) not participating at all. This is a false dichotomy because, as this article demonstrates, institutions have available to them a rich array of flexible, informal, and relatively inexpensive mechanisms by which they can make their views known to litigants and courts alike.

Our hypothesis that institutional investor activism …

The Pattern Of Racketeering Element Of Rico Liability, Committee On Federal Courts Of The New York State Bar Association

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Factors In The Acquisition Of A United State Corporation: Litigation By Hostile Targets, Johan E. Droogmans

LLM Theses and Essays

Acquisitions of United States corporations have become increasingly complex takeover contests, where bidders and target corporations are forced into offensive and defensive litigation strategies to protect their respective interests. Targets often assert that the bidders have violated federal or state securities laws, federal antitrust laws, federal margin regulations, federal and state regulatory systems, and federal anti-racketeering laws. These lawsuits are primarily based on the principal federal regulation of takeovers in section 14(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and the Williams Act. Target litigation is customary, but entails certain disadvantages; a lawsuit rarely stops an offer, is expensive, …

Tender Offer Litigation And State Law, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

The recent spate of hostile takeover battles has focused attention and criticism on the federal securities laws. Most claims of defeated offerors and disappointed shareholders have been based on sections 14(e) and 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The United States Supreme Court, however, has limited such federal remedies and suggested that plaintiffs bring state-law actions for interference with a prospective economic advantage. Professor Loewenstein discusses this tort, which has not been used widely in this context, and reviews the tort's traditional elements, its formulation in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and its recent treatment by state courts. …

Providing An Effective Remedy In Shareholder Suits Against Officers, Directors, And Controlling Persons, Michael H. Woolever

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Corporate officers, directors, and controlling persons occupy a fiduciary relationship toward the corporation and its shareholders in the exercise of control over corporate affairs. This fiduciary obligation requires that officers, directors, and controlling persons act in good faith and perform their offices in the best interests of the corporation and its shareholders and not to their own advantage. When this duty is breached, a shareholder may bring an action against these fiduciaries, either in his own name or derivatively for the benefit of the corporation. Under present law, however, it may be impossible for an American court to secure jurisdiction …

Limiting The Plaintiff Class: Rule 10b-5 And The Federal Securities Code, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Penn Central litigation, involving a large, publicly held corporation, illustrates the need to examine the reach of the federal antifraud provisions. This Note discusses the problem of defining the plaintiff class when the number of past and present shareholders who are potential plaintiffs is very great. Attention will center on the methods courts have used to limit the class of investors compensable under rule 10b-5. Also, the effect that enactment of present drafts of the American Law lnstitute's proposed Federal Securities Code would have on the composition of the plaintiff class in analogous actions will be discussed. Finally, the …

Perlman V. Feldmann: A Case Study In Contemporary Corporate Legal History, Jan G. Deutsch

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The author gives the following introduction to this article: “When I was a law student, taking a course in introductory corporate law, what was heard around the halls was that most of corporate law would be learned if one understood Perlman v. Feldmann. I agree with that statement, and I have agreed more strongly each year I myself have taught introductory corporate law. Indeed, I now believe one would also learn a good deal about the significance of-the corporation in American life during the past two decades. Unfortunately, however, it seems to me-on the basis of having read everything …

Res Judicata In The Derivative Action: Adequacy Of Representation And The Inadequate Plaintiff, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this Note to examine the adequacy of representation in a derivative suit and to consider the appropriateness of applying res judicata to foreclose the corporate cause of action. Discussion will focus on the following areas: (1) the problem of the inadequate plaintiff; (2) the efficacy of judicially created devices designed to ensure the adequacy of representation; and, (3) the feasibility of partially exempting the derivative cause of action from the operation of res judicata.

Securities Law--Prospectus Must Reflect Developments Subsequent To Effective Date Of Registration Statement To Meet Requirements Of Section 10(A) Of Securities Act Of 1933--Sec V. Manor Nursing Centers, Inc.*, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Manor Nursing Centers, Inc., made a public offering of 450,000 shares of its common stock at a price of ten dollars per share. Under the provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, a registration statement containing a prospectus was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents represented that the offering would be on a best efforts, "all-or-nothing" basis-that is, if all the 450,000 shares were not sold by a specified selling deadline, the proceeds of any sales would be returned to subscribers. The prospectus stated that subscribers' funds would be segregated in an escrow account and that arrangements …

Shareholder Derivative Actions: A Modest Proposal To Revise Federal Rule 23.1, Robert A. Kessler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this article is to suggest the addition of two words, "if necessary"-or better yet, the phrase "if necessary under the law of the forum state"-to clause (1) of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.1. This Rule sets forth the requirements for a shareholder's derivative action in the federal courts.

Attorney's Securities Law Liabilities, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Corporations - Shareholders - Majority Liability For Improper Stock Redemption By Corporation And For Misrepresentations In Private Stock Purchases From Minority Holders, James M. Tobin

Michigan Law Review

In 1942 a seemingly innocuous suit was brought against the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Corporation to determine the propriety of the alteration of a stock redemption. In 1955 Judge Leahy of the Federal District Court for Delaware handed down an opinion on the damages and relief to be given in the case in what he hopefully termed was the final phase of this famous litigation. It is the purpose of this comment to appraise the basis of the recovery allowed by Judge Leahy. Two readily distinguishable problems will be treated: (1) the nature of relief from a stock redemption called by fiduciaries …

Corporations-Officers And Directors-Fiduciary Duty Of Officer Purchasing Stock From Shareholder, Walter H. Weiner

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, president of a corporation acquired stock owned by plaintiff and others by falsely representing that the corporation had been sold. After enhancing the value of this stock, defendant sold it. Plaintiff brought suit for fraudulent conversion and the trial court directed a verdict for the defendant. On appeal, held, reversed. An officer negotiating with a shareholder for the purchase of shares must act with scrupulous trust and confidence, and unless the officer acts with the utmost fairness the wronged shareholder may invoke the proper remedy. Blazer v. Black, (10th Cir. 1952) 196 F. (2d) 139.

Corporations-Officers And Directors-Stock Option Incentive Employment Contracts For Corporation Executives, A. B. Perlin, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In the past few decades considerable attention has been directed toward "piecework payment" for corporate executives; that is, compensation based largely upon results rather than upon past or expected performance. The stock option incentive employment contract' is one of the means utilized to achieve that desired objective.

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 …

A Warning Signal For Municipal Bondholders: Some Implications Of Erie Railroad V. Tompkins, Irvin Long

Michigan Law Review

That branch of municipal bond litigation in which the character and validity of the obligations is involved has usually been conducted in the federal courts. Bondholders pressing for payment of their defaulted bonds usually are nonresidents of the state where the city, county or other defaulting municipality is located. Varying and contradictory state court decisions taught them that no settled rule of decision in the state courts could be expected. The arguments of their counsel, which many of the earlier volumes of the Supreme Court reports preserve, show that they distrusted a judiciary elected for short terms, as was the …

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-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 …

Corporations, Shareholders' Right To Have A Dividend Declared And Paid Out Of Surplus, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

In Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. (Mich. 1919), 170, N. W. 668, the questions were not new, and with one exception, the decision was not unusual, but the sums involved were enormos. The Motor Company was incorporated in 1903, under the general manufacturing incorporating act of Michigan (P. A. 232, 1903), for the manufacture and sale of automobiles, motors and devices incident to their construction and operation, with an authorized Capital Stock of $150,000-$100,000 then paid up, $49,000 in cash, $40,000 in letters patent issued and applied for, and $11,000 in machinery and contracts. In 1908 the stock was increased …

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 …