Bigelow v. Calumet & Hecla Mining Co.

167 F. 721, 94 C.C.A. 13, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4375
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 18, 1909
DocketNos. 1,897, 1,898
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 167 F. 721 (Bigelow v. Calumet & Hecla Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bigelow v. Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., 167 F. 721, 94 C.C.A. 13, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4375 (6th Cir. 1909).

Opinions

LURTON, Circuit Judge.

These cases have been heard together upon the same transcript. The solution of the questions presented by one will substantially determine the other. The first and principal bill is that of Albert S. Bigelow against the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company and the Osceola Consolidated Mining Company. The complainant, Bigelow, is a citizen of Boston, Mass. The defendants are copper mining companies created under the laws of the state of Michigan. The complainant is a large stockholder in. and president of the Osceola Consolidated Mining Company. In his character as a stockholder of that company he has filed this bill to enjoin the Calumet & Hecla Company from voting shares of the capital stock of the Osceola Company owned by it, and also to enjoin it from voting certain proxies held in its interest, at the annual stockholders’ meeting for the election of a board of directors which was about to occur when the bill was filed.

The bill in the second case was filed by Mr. Bigelow in his character as a small holder of shares of the capital stock of the Calumet & Hecla Company, acquired since the starting of the first suit, for the purpose of questioning the legality of the purchase by that company of some 50,000 acres of additional copper-prodücing lands in Michigan, and also for the purpose of questioning the power of that company under its charter, as well as under the federal and state legislation against monopolies and illegal restraints of trade and commerce, and to enjoin that corporation from acquiring other mining lands or shares of stock in other mining companies and from exercising the power of voting upon any such shares already acquired.

[723]*723An injunction pendente lite was granted under the first bill. The grounds for this action are found in an opinion by Judge Knappen. 155 Fed. 869. No injunction was applied for under the second bill. Upon a final hearing the bills in both cases were dismissed. Pending this appeal the injunction, which operated to preserve the status quo by preventing the election of directors pending this suit, was continued.

The essential facts are these: Both companies are Michigan corporations engaged in mining and refining copper. The properties of the two companies are contiguous and situated in the copper district of the northern peninsula of Michigan. The Calumet & Hecla Company has bought outright 22,671 shares of the capital stock of the Osceola Company, and has obtained proxies, which are held in its interest, in part with options of purchase, in an amount sufficient with its holdings to make a majority of the 100,000 shares which constitute the total capital stock of the Osceola Company. 'There is no doubt but that the purpose of the acquisition was to enable the Calumet Company to elect a majority of the directors of the Osceola Company from the board of the Calumet Company. This was avowed in circular letters soliciting proxies from the shareholders of the former company. That such company was to continue its operations as an independent company is equally clear. No other course was possible, though one should eliminate the other so far as active competition might result from the control of a majority of the shares and the exercise of the power of selecting directors incident to such stock control.

We need not consider the power at common law of such corporations to own and vote shares in similar corporations, for the reason that in Michigan the Legislature has not deemed such restrictions wise or desirable, for there have been a series of enactments relaxing the common-law rule. Comp. St. Mich. § 7012, Pub. Acts Mich. 1903, pp. 382, 383, No. 233, culminating in the act of 1905, No. 105, Pub. Acts Mich. 1905, pp. 153, 154, which provides that corporations organized under the Michigan mining law or under any other laws for refining, smelting, or manufacturing ores, metals, or minerals may “subscribe for, purchase, own or dispose of stock in any company organized under this act, or under any other laws, foreign or domestic, for the purpose of mining,, refining, smelting or manufacturing any or all kinds of ores or -minerals.” That the latter act does not so seriously interfere with the contract between the company and its shareholders as to require the shareholders’ acceptance as an amendment of the charter powers, we think clear. The amendment, while allowing a wide expansion of the business operations of such companies, is not so fundamental as to be beyond the power of the Legislature under the constitutional reservation of the power to alter or amend the general constating act under which corporations may be organized in Michigan. Attorney General v. Looker, 111 Mich. 498, 69 N. W. 929; Looker v. Maynard, 179 U. S. 46, 21 Sup. Ct. 21, 45 L. Ed. 79; Louisville Trust Company v. Railroad Co., 75 Fed. 445, 448, 22 C. C. A. 378. User of the [724]*724power conferred by the amendment is evidence of acceptance, if acceptance be necessary. Miller v. Insurance Co., 92 Tenn. 167, 21 S. W. 39, 20 L. R. A. 765; Cahill v. Kalamazoo Mutual Ins. Co., 2 Doug. (Mich.) 124, 43 Am. Dec. 457. The right to vote stock so lawfully acquired is, of course, an incident to ownership. Comp. Laws Mich. § 7002. Rogers v. Railroad Co., 91 Fed. 299, 312, 33 C. C. A. 517; Taylor v. Southern Pacific R. R. Co. (C. C.) 122 Fed. 147, 151. There is nothing, therefore, in the laws of Michigan which forbids the holding or voting of these shares owned, or those for which proxies are held in the interest of the Calumet Company, unless such ownership or voting shall result in an illegal monopoly or combination in restraint of trade, either under the federal anti-trust act or the Michigan anti-monopoly act of 1899, p. 409, No. 255, and the Public Acts of Michigan of 1905, p. 507, No. 329. In view of the very broad powers expressly conferred by the state of Michigan to such corporations to buy and hold shares in similar companies, it is very clear that, if the incidental voting powers and the ownership of the shares in question is not an illegal monopoly in restraint of trade, the question of the effect upon interstate commerce aside, it was not forbidden by the laws of Michigan. We shall therefore deal with the case in its aspect under the federal act forbidding restraints and monopolies.

Laying on one side, therefore, many interesting questions which have been discussed by counsel as going to the possibility of relief under these bills, we come to the application of the act of July 2, 1890, c. 647, 26 Stat. 209 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3200). The relevant sections are the first and second. They are as follows:

“Section. 1. Every contract, combination in tbe form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court."
“Sec. 2.

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Bluebook (online)
167 F. 721, 94 C.C.A. 13, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bigelow-v-calumet-hecla-mining-co-ca6-1909.