Gomberg v. Midvale Company

157 F. Supp. 132, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2120, 1955 Trade Cas. (CCH) 68,238
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 30, 1955
DocketCiv. A. 20012, 20019
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 157 F. Supp. 132 (Gomberg v. Midvale Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gomberg v. Midvale Company, 157 F. Supp. 132, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2120, 1955 Trade Cas. (CCH) 68,238 (E.D. Pa. 1955).

Opinion

GANEY, District Judge.

The issues now before us arise out of two separate civil actions which, although based upon different grounds, have as their common purpose the single objective of obtaining an injunction preventing the consummation of a “Purchase Agreement” entered into between The Midvale Company and the Midvale-Ileppenstall Company on December 2, 1055.

Under the agreement Midvale agreed to sell, subject to the approval of a majority vote of the Midvale stockholders, all of its physical and operating assets to Midvale-Heppenstall for approximately $6,100,000 in cash. Settlement is to be made on or before December 30, 1955, the last business day of the year, so that Midvale may take advantage of an operating loss carry-back for federal income tax purposes for the years 1953 and 1954. If the agreement is consummated on or before that date, Midvale claims that it will sustain an operating loss of approximately $6,800,000, which, when allowed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, will eliminate any liability of the corporation for federal income taxes for the year (estimated at $325,000) and give rise to a carry-back claim for refund of federal income taxes for the years 1953 and 1954, amounting to almost $1,800,000. This will leave an operating loss carry-over of approximately $2,700,000, available to offset taxable income of Midvale realized in the years 1956 to 1960, inclusive, unless sooner exhausted. The carry-back will not produce as large a saving if it is taken from a year following 1955. For in the year 1953, the profit of Midvale before taxes based on income was $3,-127,781 as compared with $824,901 for 1954 and $608,400 1 in 1955. It is for this reason that Midvale is desirous of consummating the sale in this calendar year.

One of the actions, Samuel Gomberg et al. v. The Midvale Company et al., was brought by four of the dissenting minority stockholders of The Midvale Company on behalf of themselves and on behalf of all other stockholders similarly situated against The Midvale Company (“Mid-vale”), a Delaware corporation; Baldwin Securities Corporation (“Baldwin”), a Pennsylvania corporation; and the twelve directors of Midvale. The court’s jurisdiction over the subject matter of this action depends on diversity of citizenship of the parties. The basis of the action is that “the proposed purchase price is so grossly inadequate as to shock the conscience of the Court and consti< *135 tute a constructive fraud on the minority shareholders.”

There are presently authorized and outstanding 600,000 shares of capital stock of Midvale. The four plaintiffs collectively own but 10,000 shares or 1.66 percent of them. Baldwin owns 371,750 shares or 61.9 percent of the total; by virtue of this ownership, it is able to control, through the election of directors, the operation of Midvale. Baldwin is an investment corporation managed by a board of eleven directors, nine of whom are also directors of Midvale. Although their stockholdings in Baldwin are considerably less than an actual majority, the directors own sufficient stock in that corporation to give them practical working control over it.' Under date of December 7,1955, Midvale notified its stockholders that a special meeting would be held on December 21, 1955, for the purpose of considering and taking action upon the approval or disapproval of the proposed sale. At the meeting of the shareholders, 431,896 votes were cast in approval of the sale. Of these, 371,-750 were voted by Baldwin and 1,400 of those were of the directors, leaving 58,-746 cast by the assenting minority. The dissenting votes numbered 58,373.

Midvale owns a fully equipped steel plant occupying approximately seventy-three acres of land at Wissahickon and Roberts Avenues, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over twenty-two percent of the building area is occupied by installations of the several Armed Forces of the United States Government containing facilities which must be so maintained until 1966 in connection with other non-government facilities so as to permit them to be placed in complete operation for full production within 120 days. Among its facilities are four open hearth furnaces, machine shops, tempering plants, hammering shop, tire mill, power house, research laboratories and storehouses. It has railroad sidings connecting with two of the large railroad companies. It is one of the principal producers of armor plate, and heavy steel forgings of all kinds weighing from 10,000 to 400,000 pounds. Most of its products are manufactured in accordance with the specifications of individual customers, and require a very high degree of technical skill to meet those specifications. A substantial portion of its production is designed principally for use in heavy ordnance material for the Armed Forces, such as armor-plate, gun tubes and shells.

During the period from January 1, 1947 to November 11, 1955, Midvale has spent $6,987,000 on capital improvements. Of that amount, $3,561,000 was spent subsequent to January 1, 1951. These improvements were necessary to keep the plant going and did not add substantially to its value. In addition, it has during such period spent substantial amounts for repairs and maintenance.

Midvale has been in existence since 1923. With the exception of four years it has shown an annual profit. The loss years were 1932, 1947, 1948, and 1949. Although its annual sales since 1950 have been between twenty-two and thirty million dollars, its net profit has not been high. In 1953, it was $1,357,781, in 1954 it amounted to $724,901 and for the first ten months of 1955 the total was $236,869. Its dividend rates for those same years were $1.35, $1.00 and $.75.

According to the balance sheet which constituted a part of the proxy statement sent to all the stockholders, Midvale had, as of October 31, 1955, current assets of $13,464,773 and current liabilities of $3,054,131. The inventory of raw material, supplies, work in process and semi-finished products had a book value of $4,273,335; the land was valued at $456,834, and the plant and equipment had a net book value after reserve for depreciation, of $7,718,273. Over three-fourths of the inventory consisted of work in process, most of which was allocable to existing firm contracts, and that in pricing work in process no profit element was included. For local tax purposes, the land and plant are assessed at a valuation of $2,561,000.

*136 Apart from the assets to be included in the proposed sale, Midvale has approximately $6,500,000 of net liquid assets consisting of cash, accounts receivable and short term Government securities. When this amount is added to the proposed purchase price and the claimed tax refund which will result from the sale, Midvale will have, after the sale is consummated, in excess of $14,000,000 in cash as its sole asset. It is not contemplated by the board of directors that this fund will be distributed among the stockholders. On the contrary, Midvale’s name will be changed to General Industrial Enterprises, Inc., .and its corporate existence will be continued with a different business purpose.

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Bluebook (online)
157 F. Supp. 132, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2120, 1955 Trade Cas. (CCH) 68,238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gomberg-v-midvale-company-paed-1955.