Gwozdzinsky ex rel. Revco D.S., Inc. v. Magten Asset Management Corp.

913 F. Supp. 310, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1234, 1996 WL 49230
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 6, 1996
DocketNo. 95 Civ. 3023 (RWS)
StatusPublished

This text of 913 F. Supp. 310 (Gwozdzinsky ex rel. Revco D.S., Inc. v. Magten Asset Management Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gwozdzinsky ex rel. Revco D.S., Inc. v. Magten Asset Management Corp., 913 F. Supp. 310, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1234, 1996 WL 49230 (S.D.N.Y. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

SWEET, District Judge.

Defendants Magten Asset Management Corp. (“Magten”), Taitón R. Embry (“Em-bry”), General Motors Hourly Rate Employees Pension Plan, General Motors Retirement Program for Salaried Employees, L.A. Fire & Police Pension Systems-Fund 2525, Western Union Pension Trust, The Bakal Company, The Core Investment Limited Partnership, Levi Family Trust, H. Allen Luray, Pearlstone 54 Trust, Ellen’s Trust U/W J.H. Pearlstone, and Jennifer Russell (collectively, the “Magten Defendants,” and excluding Magten and Embry, the “Magten Advisory Clients” or the “Clients”) have moved for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 to dismiss this action. For the reasons set forth below, the motion is granted.

Parties

Plaintiff Margaret Gwozdzinsky (“Gwozd-zinsky”) is a Pennsylvania resident who is the owner of common stock of Reveo D.S., Inc. (“Reveo”). She is bringing this suit as a derivative action on behalf of Reveo under section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78p(b), to recover “short-swing” insider profits earned as a result of purchases and sales of the common stock of Reveo.

Defendant Magten is a New York corporation which is a registered investment advisor with its principal place of business at 35 East 21 Street, New York, New York.

Embry is Magten’s sole officer and director and is a registered investment advisor. The Amended Complaint in this action states that he is the chairman of Revco’s board of directors.

The remaining defendants are alleged to be investment advisory clients of Magten and Embry who bought and sold stock in Reveo as described below.

Prior Proceedings

The original complaint in this action was filed on April 28, 1995, naming Magten, Em-bry and John Does 1-20. Limited discovery proceeded and the amended complaint (the “Complaint”) was filed on September 11, 1995 which added allegations and named the John Doe defendants.

The present motion was filed on October 23, 1995. Oral argument was heard on December 6, 1995 and the motion was considered fully submitted at that time.

Facts

On June 9, 1992, Magten and Embry filed a Schedule D with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) reporting [312]*312the joint beneficial ownership of common stock of Reveo.

On March 14, 1994, Magten and Embry filed Amendment No. 7 to schedule 13D, reporting a collective beneficial ownership of 7,409,137 shares of Reveo common stock which represented approximately 14.8% of the approximately 50,530,000 shares of the common stock of Reveo believed to be outstanding on January 31, 1994. Of this amount, 7,143,174 shares of common stock were owned by the Magten Advisory Clients.

On June 6, 1994, Reveo issued additional shares to holders of its common stock pursuant to a distribution of rights governed by a Prospectus (the “Offering”). Pursuant to the terms of the Prospectus, each holder of Common Stock was to receive .305 transferable rights for each share of Common Stock he or she held. Each right gave the holder the right to purchase one share of common stock at $14.00 before July 7, 1994. The offering also contained an “Oversubscription Privilege” whereby each holder who exercised all rights distributed to it could subscribe at the Subscription Price for additional Underlying Shares up to a maximum number of shares equal to twice the number of shares Purchased by such rights holder.

On July 15, 1994, Magten and Embry filed Amendment 8 to the Schedule 13D. As later modified by Amendment 9, it appears that on July 7, 1994, Magten and Embry acquired additional shares of Reveo pursuant to the offering. In total, Magten and Embry acquired a beneficial interest in a additional 2,380,128 Reveo shares at $14 per share at a total cost of $33,321,792. Of this amount the Magten Advisory Clients acquired 2,259,797 shares at a total cost of $31,637,158.

The Complaint alleges that Magten and Embry had beneficial ownership collectively of 9,936,267 shares of Reveo common stock constituting approximately 15% of the shares outstanding as of July 13; the Magten Advisory Clients own 14.4% of the shares outstanding.

A series of sales are reported by the Mag-ten Advisory Clients between July 13, 1994 and February 16,1995. These include a sale made on July 26, 1994 and ending with a sale made on January 3, 1995. The total number of shares sold by them during this time was 1,587,877 shares, ranging in price per share from $18 to $24.212. At the end of the period, Magten and Embry owned 11.1% of Revco’s stock.

The Complaint alleges that Magten, Em-bry and the Magten Advisory Clients, are a “group” owning more than 10% of the shares of Reveo and are therefore subject to the restrictions of Section 16. It is further alleged that Magten and Embry are liable for the profits generated on the Magten Advisory Clients’ trades in Reveo stock “to the extent of their pecuniary interest in those shares as defined in S.E.C. Rule 16a-l(a)(2).”

Discussion

A. Standards For Summary Judgment

A motion for summary judgment may be granted only when there is no genuine issue of material fact remaining for trial and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Rodriguez v. City of New York, 72 F.3d 1051 (2d Cir.1995); Silver v. City Univ., 947 F.2d 1021, 1022 (2d Cir.1991). “[T]he trial court’s task at the summary judgment motion stage of the litigation is carefully limited to discerning whether there are any genuine issues of material fact to be tried, not to deciding them.” Gallo v. Prudential Residential Servs., Ltd. Partnership, 22 F.3d 1219, 1224 (2d Cir.1994). “Only disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The moving party bears the burden of proving that no genuine issue of material fact exists. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Brady v. Town of Colchester, 863 F.2d 205, 210; Pittston Warehouse Corp. v. American Motorists Ins. Co., 715 F.Supp. 1221, 1224 (S.D.N.Y.1989), aff'd, 954 F.2d 62 (2d Cir.1992).

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913 F. Supp. 310, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1234, 1996 WL 49230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gwozdzinsky-ex-rel-revco-ds-inc-v-magten-asset-management-corp-nysd-1996.