Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 96,833 Prudent Real Estate Trust v. Johncamp Realty, Inc.

599 F.2d 1140, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 15463
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 1979
Docket1009, Docket 79-7215
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 599 F.2d 1140 (Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 96,833 Prudent Real Estate Trust v. Johncamp Realty, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 96,833 Prudent Real Estate Trust v. Johncamp Realty, Inc., 599 F.2d 1140, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 15463 (2d Cir. 1979).

Opinion

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge:

On March 28,1979, we heard a motion by appellant Prudent Real Estate Trust (Prudent), the target of a tender offer by the defendant Johncamp Realty, Inc. (John-camp), for an injunction pending appeal from an order of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, which had denied Prudent’s motion for a temporary injunction against the continuation of a tender offer on the ground that the material filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursuant to 17 C.F.R. § 240.14d-100 implementing § 14(d) of the Securities and Exchange Act was insufficient and that, because of certain statements and omissions, the offer violated § 14(e) of the Act. We granted the motion until argument of an expedited appeal on April 4, and then extended the injunction pending decision. We now reverse and instruct the district court to issue an appropriate temporary injunction.

Prudent is a New York business trust whose shares are traded on the American Stock Exchange, which has qualified as a real estate investment trust under §§ 856-859 of the Internal Revenue Code. It now has six trustees, only two of whom receive substantial compensation. Defendant Johncamp is a Delaware close corporation which was founded by Johncamp Netherlands Antilles, N.V. (Johncamp N.V.) and The Pacific Company, a California corporation (Pacific). Johncamp N.V. owns 60% and Pacific 40% of the common shares of Johncamp. All of the stock of Johncamp N.V. is owned by Campeau Corporation (Campeau), a publicly held Ontario corporation; Robert Campeau, a resident of Canada, is chairman of its board and chief executive officer. John E. Wertin, a resident of California, is president, secretary and a director of Johncamp, president and a director and sole stockholder of Pacific, and president and director of John Wertin Development Corporation (JWDC), a Califor *1142 nia Corporation, 95% of the stock of which is owned by Pacific. Johncamp, Pacific and JWDC have their principal places of business at the same address in Irvine, California; Johncamp N.V. and Campeau have their principal places of business at the same address in Ottawa. In an elaborate stockholders’ agreement dated March 12, 1979, Johncamp N.V. and Pacific contracted that in order to enable Johncamp to make the tender offer for shares of Prudent, Johncamp N.V. would invest up to $20,000,-000 and Pacific up to $5,000,000 in John-camp preferred shares. The agreement also provided that subsequent to John-camp’s acquisition of Prudent shares, Pacific should have exclusive control of the voting of such shares and, with an exception not here material, management of any property received in respect of such shares including the right to dispose of such property for cash; all other matters relating to the management of Johncamp would be controlled jointly by Johncamp N.V. and Pacific. The parties would also cause John-camp to retain Pacific “as an independent contractor responsible for supervising implementation of decisions of the parties with respect to the management and operation” of Johncamp. Another agreement between Campeau, Johncamp N.V., Pacific, Wertin and Johncamp related to further details connected with the tender offer. Wertin and JWDC guaranteed to Campeau and Johncamp N.V. the performance by Pacific of certain covenants in the agreements.

On March 12, 1979, Johncamp filed with the SEC a Schedule 14 D-l as required for a tender offer by 17 C.F.R. § 240.14d-100. The schedule contained the form of offer, which was advertised the following day in the New York Times. The offer, which was to expire on March 23 unless extended, was to purchase any and all of Prudent’s outstanding shares at $7 net per share, as against the last available market price of 4%, and was not conditioned upon any minimum number of shares being tendered. In addition to usual warnings of such possible consequences of the offer as delisting on the American Stock Exchange, cessation of qualification as margin securities, and termination of registration under the Securities Exchange Act, the offer had this to say with respect to the possible effect on REIT status:

If the Purchaser acquires all of the Shares of the Company, the Company will not qualify as a real estate investment trust for its taxable year ending November 30, 1979. Moreover, even if the Purchaser acquires less than all of the Shares of the Company, it is possible that the Company will not qualify as a real estate investment trust for any taxable year if, as a result of the Offer or any other transactions not related to the Offer: (1) fewer than 100 persons beneficially own Shares of the Company during at least 31 days of such taxable year or (2) more than 50 percent in value of the Shares is owned (directly or indirectly under the provisions of Section 544 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended) at any time during the last half of any such taxable year by or for not more than 5 individuals.
If the Company’s qualification as a real estate investment trust is terminated as a result of the above-described rules or for any other reason, the Company will not be eligible to elect to be treated as a real estate investment trust until the fifth taxable year after the termination is effective unless the Company establishes to the satisfaction of the Internal Revenue Service that its failure to qualify as a real estate investment trust was due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect.
For any year in which the Company does not qualify as a real estate investment trust, it will be subject to Federal, State and local taxation as a corporation and will not be entitled to the favorable tax treatment accorded qualified real estate investment trusts and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Company in computing its taxable income.

The offer went on to state that 80% of the required funds would be furnished by *1143 Johncamp N.V. which would obtain them from Campeau, out of the latter’s own funds or from a $50,000,000 (Canadian) line of bank credit described in some detail, and that 20% would be supplied by Pacific which would obtain the funds from JWDC and Wertin. The purpose of the offer was to acquire all the shares of Prudent but if this did not occur pursuant to the offer, Johncamp, Campeau, Johncamp N.V. and Pacific desired to acquire enough shares to exercise control. The purchaser intended to reconstitute the board of trustees of Prudent as soon and as much as possible. Although no specific plans for Prudent’s future had been formulated, Johncamp N.V. and Pacific had established a procedure to increase the likelihood that Campeau’s investment in Johncamp would be fully recovered; pursuant to such procedure Johncamp N.V. could cause a liquidation of Prudent if Johncamp acquired at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares. The offer continued:

Implementation of any plans resulting from a review of the Company would require approval of the Board of Trustees and, if required by the Declaration of Trust, the approval of shareholders.

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Bluebook (online)
599 F.2d 1140, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 15463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fed-sec-l-rep-p-96833-prudent-real-estate-trust-v-johncamp-realty-ca2-1979.