Circle K Corp. v. United States

23 Cl. Ct. 161, 67 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1055, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 180, 1991 WL 80713
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 16, 1991
DocketNo. 12-86T
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 23 Cl. Ct. 161 (Circle K Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Circle K Corp. v. United States, 23 Cl. Ct. 161, 67 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1055, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 180, 1991 WL 80713 (cc 1991).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge.

This case is before the court on defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment.1 This court’s adjudication of the issues is de novo, and not a review of the determination of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

FACTS

Plaintiff, an Arizona based corporation, operates thousands of convenience stores in 12 States. Plaintiff’s policy has been to have as many of its stores as possible sell gasoline. In 1980, 726 of plaintiff’s 1200 stores had self-service gasoline facilities, and approximately 35% of its total sales were attributable solely to gasoline. Additionally, stores that sold gasoline had in[162]*162creased store traffic and up to 40% higher sales over those stores that did not sell gasoline.

During national oil shortages in 1973-74, and 1979-80, plaintiff experienced difficulty in maintaining sufficient and consistent access to gasoline at competitive prices. At times, plaintiff was unable to procure a supply, at any price, for some of its convenience stores. Because of the close connection between gasoline sales and earnings, plaintiff long had been concerned that any extended interruption in its supply of gasoline could have a material adverse effect on its earnings and operations. In the 1960s and 1970s, plaintiff sought to remedy this problem by pursuing long term supply contracts with major oil companies for refined gasoline, and by trying to acquire refineries, all to no avail. Plaintiff entered the 1980s with 64% of its gasoline needs met through gasoline supply agreements with refiners, with the balance purchased at inflated prices on the spot market.

In 1980, NuCorp Energy, Inc. emerged as a possible solution to Plaintiffs gasoline supply concerns. NuCorp was an oil and gas exploration and development company that owned producing oil and gas reserves. On September 15, 1980, plaintiff and Nu-Corp entered into a common stock purchase agreement, an exploration and development agreement, and a consulting and training agreement. Through the common stock purchase agreement, plaintiff purchased 1,000,000 authorized but unissued shares of NuCorp common stock at $23.50 per share for an aggregate price of $23,500,000. These 1,000,000 shares represented approximately 12.3% of NuCorp’s issued and outstanding stock.

Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, plaintiff was required to file a schedule 13D with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) because it had acquired over 5% of NuCorp’s common stock. In its filing for 1980, plaintiff asserted that it entered into the common stock purchase agreement “solely for the purpose of investment.” Plaintiff’s schedule 13D form also described the exploration and development agreement with NuCorp as one under which “Circle K [would] invest in and acquire a 10% operating interest in all future oil and gas exploration and development activities of NuCorp.” Under the consulting and training agreement, NuCorp agreed to provide “certain consulting and training services for Circle K with respect to various aspects of oil and gas exploration, development, financing, production, administration, gathering, processing and trading activities.”

On December 15, 1980, plaintiff filed a proxy statement and prospectus (P&P) with the SEC, and scheduled a special meeting of its shareholders for February 3, 1981. The P&P explained that the purpose of the meeting was to vote upon an “agreement and plan of merger and reorganization pursuant to which Circle K will become a wholly owned subsidiary of a holding company named Circle K Holding Company and all of the common stock of Circle K will be exchanged for Holding Company Stock, on a share for share basis.” The P&P stated that one of the reasons for the merger was management’s belief that a holding company structure would allow greater flexibility in any diversification efforts resulting from its ability to separate any acquisitions from its convenience store operations. Plaintiff identified the oil and gas business as the first area into which it wanted to diversify, and stated that it had entered into the agreements with NuCorp for that reason.

In addition to adding flexibility, plaintiff anticipated that the holding company structure also would provide tax benefits. Plaintiff was aware that under federal income tax laws, specifically, section 613 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, producers of oil and gas are allowed to deduct a percentage of the gross oil and gas income from each of their properties. This percentage depletion is not available for gasoline retailers. Plaintiff recognized that in its present corporate form, it qualified as a gasoline retailer because of its convenience store gasoline sales but surmised that, as a holding company, it would be sufficiently removed from Circle K retail sales to qualify for the beneficial tax consideration. In purported support of this position, the P & [163]*163P stated that “Circle K presently intends that its oil and gas exploration and development activities will be conducted through a subsidiary whose management and operations will be separate from those of Circle K and that the subsidiary’s oil and gas production will not be made available, directly or indirectly, to the Company.”

The P & P also explained NuCorp’s concern that it could lose its depletion allowance if it sold any of its product to plaintiff. This concern arose because, under the I.R.C., an oil producer may not be entitled to the depletion allowance if it sells its product to a gasoline retailer which owns more than 5% of the producer’s stock. Bearing this in mind, plaintiff stated that although “its plans are subject to change depending on the availability of gasoline, ... [Circle K] does not expect to purchase, directly or indirectly, any of NuCorp’s oil.” In February 1981, plaintiff’s shareholders approved the reorganization plan.

Section 5 of the exploration and development agreement, “Taking Products in Kind; Marketing of Products,” detailed two dispersion methods for plaintiff's 10% interest in NuCorp’s oil and gas exploration operation. Section 5.1 stated that plaintiff had the right under the agreement, subject to prior rights of third parties, to receive its share of the oil produced in kind to dispose of independently. If plaintiff decided not to take its share in kind, § 5.2 gave NuCorp the right to market plaintiff’s share. Section 5.1 did not prohibit plaintiff from taking the oil in kind and making it directly or indirectly available to its retail convenience store operations.

In its April 1981 10k Annual Report for the 1981 fiscal year, plaintiff reiterated that all oil and gas operations would be conducted by a subsidiary separate from plaintiff’s convenience store operations, and de-emphasized its concern for the depletion allowance. Plaintiff also reiterated its intention not to make available any oil from either its subsidiary operations or from NuCorp, to its retail operations, yet qualified that statement by asserting, as it did in its 1980 P & P, that its plans were subject to change depending on the availability of gasoline.

On November 30, 1981, plaintiff issued a press release describing a substantial modification of its exploration and development agreement with NuCorp that it expected to complete and finalize in late December 1981, or early January 1982.

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Related

Circle K Corp. v. United States
23 Cl. Ct. 659 (Court of Claims, 1991)

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23 Cl. Ct. 161, 67 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1055, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 180, 1991 WL 80713, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/circle-k-corp-v-united-states-cc-1991.