Guaranty Trust Co. v. Williamsport Wire Rope Co.

14 F. Supp. 871, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1403
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 11, 1936
DocketNo. 959
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 14 F. Supp. 871 (Guaranty Trust Co. v. Williamsport Wire Rope Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guaranty Trust Co. v. Williamsport Wire Rope Co., 14 F. Supp. 871, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1403 (M.D. Pa. 1936).

Opinion

JOHNSON, District Judge.

This court has for disposition the intervening petitions of. Jane S. Chase and of Woolrich Woolen Mills, holders of certificates of deposit of first mortgage bonds of the Williamsport Wire Rope Company, deposited with the Bondholders’ Protective Committee, representing the owners of bonds, hereinafter called Committee, to set aside a sale by the Committee' to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, hereinafter called Bethlehem, of all bonds deposited with the Committee. To these petitions answers were filed by the Committee and by Bethlehem, whereupon testimony was taken by the court, oral arguments made, and briefs filed. From these pleadings and the testimony taken thereon the material facts leading up to the controversy appear as follows: On September 16, 1932, receivers in equity were appointed for Williamsport Wire Rope Company, hereinafter called Williamsport. At that time there were first mortgage bonds outstanding in the principal amount of $1,221,000. Shortly thereafter the Com[873]*873mittee, composed of Joseph P. Ripley, chairman, George DeB. Greene, Albert R. Thayer, and Frank C. Wright, was formed to protect the interests of the bondholders. A deposit agreement was formulated wherein the Committee was designated as party of the first part and such bondholders as should become parties to the agreement were designated as parties of the second part. The agreement provides that any holder of a bond may become a party to the agreement by depositing such bond with the designated depositary, and that a certificate of deposit shall be issued by the depositary for each deposit of bonds. Among its many terms, the agreement provides that the Committee shall have power to prepare and adopt a plan for the reorganization of Williamsport or for the sale, exchange, or other disposition of the deposited bonds, either for cash or for securities; that whenever the Committee shall adopt any plan, notice thereof shall be given, and any depositor may, within the period of thirty days beginning on the date of such notice, withdraw from the agreement upon surrender of his certificate of deposit; that any depositors who do not so withdraw shall be conclusively and finally deemed, for all purposes, to have irrevocably waived the right of withdrawal, and shall be conclusively and finally deemed, for all purposes, to have assented to the said plan and the terms thereof; that the Committee may abandon any plan which it has adopted or may modify or consent to the modification of any plan in any or all respects, either before or after the plan shall have been put in operation, and if, in the judgment of the Committee, any such modification shall not materially affect the rights of the depositors adversely, it shall, upon filing with the depositary and without notice, if the Committee shall so determine, become effective as to all the depositors.

On June 1, 1934, on petition of the Committee, this court granted the Committee leave to intervene and file a petition to have this court take jurisdiction of a proposed reorganization plan of Williamsport, which the Committee had adopted. On the same day, upon petition of the Committee, by consent of the complainant and defendant in the equity proceeding, this court took jurisdiction and accepted supervision of the reorganization proposed by the Committee and the securities to be issued pursuant thereto, and provided that it did not then determine, but reserved jurisdiction to determine, whether the reorganization plan was fair, timely, and equitable to the creditors and stockholders, and further provided that any material change in the reorganization plan should be submitted by the Committee to the court for approval before becoming effective. The order authorized the Committee to circulate and promulgate the reorganization plan under the supervision of this court and to send notice, copy of which was annexed to the petition, to bondholders which advised them of the plan of reorganization and of their withdrawal rights, as well as the method of becoming parties to the reorganization plan. The order further authorized the Committee to cause the depositary under the deposit agreement to issue certificates of deposit to those bondholders who become parties' to the reorganization by depositing their bonds with the depositary, and provided that the transaction contemplated by the reorganization plan is a bona fide reorganization under the jurisdiction of this court within the provisions of subdivision 3 of section 4 of the Securities Act of 1933, 48 Stat. 77, and that the securities issued pursuant to the reorganization plan, including certificates of deposit, are exempt from registration under said act.

The reorganization plan adopted by the Committee, a copy of which was annexed to the Committee’s petition, states that the Committee had received from Bethlehem a proposal for the reorganization of Williamsport, under the supervision of this court, to be effected by the acquisition, upon foreclosure of the mortgage securing the Williamsport bonds, or by other judicial proceedings, of all the properties and assets of Williamsport, in consideration of the delivery by Bethlehem of certain Bethlehem securities, to be distributed to Williamsport bondholders and unsecured creditors; that the four chief unsecured creditors of Williamsport, being Philadelphia National Bank, Baltimore Trust Company, and Guaranty Trust Company of New York, whose claims aggregated September 19, 1935, $543,484.49, and Bethlehem Steel Company, whose claim was $716,753.18, had assented to the plan, and that the Committee had accepted the proposal of Bethlehem subject to the conditions therein contained; that the plan does not make provision for holders of preferred or common stock of Williamsport. Annexed to the plan is a financial statement of Williamsport, as of February 28, 1934, prepared by Arthur An-. [874]*874derson & Co. The total unsecured indebtedness of Williamsport at the beginning of the receivership was $1,298,565.78.

Bethlehem’s offer or proposal, in substance, provides that upon acquisition of the properties and assets o'f Williamsport, it would distribute for each $1,000 principal amount of Williamsport bonds, one $600 principal amount Bethlehem bond and three shares of its common stock, making a total approximate value of $684; for the $1,298,-565.78 of unsecured Williamsport indebtedness, Bethlehem bonds, $431.46 principal amount, for each $1,000 of such unsecured indebtedness, or approximately 43 cents on the dollar. The offer contains several conditions precedent to Bethlehem’s liability, one of which is that the reorganization plan shall have been approved by and carried out under the supervision of the court and that Bethlehem shall have received an opinion of its counsel to the effect that the Bethlehem bonds and stocks to be delivered pursuant to the reorganization may be lawfully so delivered without authorization or consent of, or registration with any governmental agency, board, or commission.

The Committee, after adopting the plan, sent notice to the bondholders of the fact of adoption and of the bondholders’ right of withdrawal within thirty days. At the expiration of the withdrawal period, on July 5, 1934, one bondholder, neither of petitioners, withdrew, leaving $632,000 principal amount of bonds'on deposit and not withdrawn, or 51 per cent, of the entire bond issue. At that date there had been deposited an additional $208,000 principal amount of bonds. On August 17, 1934, the Committee declared the plan operative. At that date the total principal amount of bonds on deposit aggregated $1,052,000, or oyer 86 per cent, of all outstanding bonds.

In June, 1934, Messrs.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 F. Supp. 871, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guaranty-trust-co-v-williamsport-wire-rope-co-pamd-1936.