Allico National Corporation, Etc., and Richard Woike v. Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America

397 F.2d 727
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 6, 1968
Docket16172_1
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 397 F.2d 727 (Allico National Corporation, Etc., and Richard Woike v. Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allico National Corporation, Etc., and Richard Woike v. Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, 397 F.2d 727 (7th Cir. 1968).

Opinions

FAIRCHILD, Circuit Judge.

This action concerns securities of defendant Amalgamated Labor Life Insurance Company. Plaintiff Allico National Corporation (formerly The Gold Star Life Company of America) agreed in 1965 to buy Labor Life from defendant Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, a labor union. Allico agreed to buy 400,-000 shares of common stock and a $750,-000 debenture note from the Union. Allico was to buy the note for $750,000 on July 1, 1966 and to give five notes for $150,000 each, payable on July 1 of each of the five succeeding years. When the contract was signed in 1963, Allico bought 25,000 shares from Labor Life for $250,000 cash. The debenture note, the 425,000 shares (all the stock outstanding), and Allico’s five notes were deposited in escrow. Until default by Allico, it was to have the right to vote the stock.

After July, 1966, the Union agreed to sell all 425,000 shares and the debenture note to defendant Missouri National Life Insurance Company.

Jurisdiction, if any, is founded upon the proposition that the action is brought to enforce liabilities and duties under the securities act and the exchange act.

The amended complaint contains six counts. Counts IV, V, and VI allege the formation of the contract in 1965, the use of the mails and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and reliance by Allico and plaintiff Woike, its president, on false representations by the Union and Labor Life. Count IV claims a violation of sec. 10(b) of the exchange act and of Rule 10-b-5; Count V of sec. 17 (a) (1), (2) and (3) of the securities act; and Count VI of sec. 12(2) of the securities act. Each count asks for judgment against the Union and Labor Life far $250,000 compensatory damages, together with punitive damages. These counts roughly approximate a claim for rescission and seek a return of the cash paid for the 25,000 shares. The district court decided it has jurisdiction of them, and they are not directly before us on this appeal.

Counts I, II, and III contain the same averments as to the formation of the 1965 contract, and allegedly false representations. In addition they contain averments, in substance, as follows:

The Union extended the time by which the debenture note must be purchased to September 15, 1966. On August 31, Allico offered to purchase it, “but the Union, having learned that notwithstanding its fraud the shares of Amalgamated Labor Life had substantially increased in value, refused to sell plaintiffs said $750,000 Note and said 400,000 shares of stock as they had agreed to do and wrongfully obtained possession of plaintiffs’ 25,000 shares of stock.” The Union later agreed to sell all the shares and the debenture note to Missouri National for $2,000,000, a better price by $500,000.

In each count, the plaintiffs seek the following types of relief: (1) injunction against the sale to Missouri National, (2) a decree for return of the 25,000 shares and for specific performance of the contract with Allico, and (3) compensatory damages of $1,000,000, as well as punitive damages. Count I characterizes the conduct in connection with the sale to Missouri National as a device to defraud, operating as a fraud upon plaintiffs, in violation of see. 10(b) of the exchange act1 and of Rule 10-b-5, and Count II terms such conduct a violation of sec. 17(a) of the securities act.2 Count III avers that the sale is a breach of contract and will unjustly enrich defendants.

The district court concluded that Counts I, II and III amounted only to actions to enforce a contract or recover damages for breach, rather than to enforce liabilities or duties under the securities act or exchange act. He directed that judgment be entered dismissing [729]*729these counts for want of jurisdiction, and determined that there was no just reason for delay. Plaintiffs appealed.

The Union and Labor Life ask us to dismiss the appeal, arguing that it was an abuse of discretion to make the dismissal of these counts a final judgment under Rule 54(b).

We would not, however, dismiss the appeal in any event, because the order has the effect, in this case, of refusing a preliminary injunction, and is appealable, as such, even if interlocutory.3 There was, moreover, no abuse of discretion in making the order a final judgment. Although the two sets of counts have some facts in common, Counts I, II, and III are predicated in large part on facts outside the scope of Counts IV, V and VI. They present distinct legal questions, seek different relief, and involve parties not concerned in Counts IV, V and VI, and there appears no probability that developments in the subsequent course of Counts IV, V and VI before the district court would compel or suggest revision of the order dismissing Counts I, II, and III.

Apparently the district court analyzed the dismissed counts as claims by plaintiffs that they had a contract to buy securities from the Union, had tendered the performance due July 1, 1966 within the period of an extension granted by the Union, and that equity should aid them by preventing the sale of the identical securities to a third party and compelling the Union to perform. Following this analysis in simplest terms, the decision would be correct.

Two averments suggest, however, that there is wrongdoing and bad faith on the part of the Union, and that this is not solely a dispute in good faith over the existence or interpretation of contractual obligations and performance thereof. One averment is that 25,000 shares were owned by plaintiffs, though pledged as security, that the Union “wrongfully obtained possession” of them, and agreed to sell them to a third party. The other is that the Union was motivated in dealing with plaintiffs’ 25,000 shares and the shares and note it had promised to sell to plaintiff by its realization that the value had increased and that it could profit at plaintiffs’ expense.

Two purchase and sale transactions are involved, each brought about by the use of the mails and instrumentalities of commerce. The Union’s allegedly wrongful conduct quite clearly occurred “in connection with” its transaction with plaintiffs and its transaction with Missouri National. The conduct also occurred “in” the transaction with Missouri National. It is less clear, but sufficiently so, that the conduct also occurred “in” the sale transaction with plaintiffs.

Sec. 17(a) of the securities act4 makes it “unlawful for any person in the * * * sale * * * (1) to employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or * * * (3) to engage in any transaction * * * or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser.”

Sec. 10(b) of the exchange act5 makes it unlawful for any person to use “in connection with the purchase or sale” any deceptive device in contravention of a commission rule. Rule 10-b-5 forbids employment of “any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud” and engaging in “any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person.”

Thus our question becomes: Whether the averments of wrongfulness of the Union’s conduct, if true, place such conduct sufficiently in the area of device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, and of operating as a fraud or deceit upon plaintiffs. We conclude that they do. Even if a breach of contract in order to make a more favorable contract would not in itself be sufficient, we have more

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Bluebook (online)
397 F.2d 727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allico-national-corporation-etc-and-richard-woike-v-amalgamated-meat-ca7-1968.