Hastings-Murtagh v. Texas Air Corp.

119 F.R.D. 450, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1732, 1988 WL 17212
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 29, 1988
DocketNo. 86-2328-Civ
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 119 F.R.D. 450 (Hastings-Murtagh v. Texas Air Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hastings-Murtagh v. Texas Air Corp., 119 F.R.D. 450, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1732, 1988 WL 17212 (S.D. Fla. 1988).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART THE MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

JAMES LAWRENCE KING, Chief Judge.

This case of first impression involves a fundamental question concerning the de[452]*452gree of representation to which an individual is entitled. In resolving the motion, the court must decide whether an individual's interest can be affected by the outcome of a case when that individual is neither given a chance to know of the action nor an opportunity to be represented therein.

The court holds today that no one’s rights in this country can be affected by the outcome of a litigation unless that person is afforded minimal due process. Most of the time, this is guaranteed throught Fed.R.Civ.P. 19, which provides that all persons potentially affected by the outcome of a litigation be joined to the action or the action cannot be maintained. This opinion finds that the class action rule, Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, in essence guarantees the same thing. If all persons affected by the outcome of a litigation are not before the court as members of a class, the court cannot maintain the action as a class action. Obviously, minimum due process, being the providing of notice of an action and the opportunity to be heard, brings an affected individual before a court.

The plaintiff is an Eastern Airlines employee and owns' stock in the company. She petitions the court for class certification of her claims. The plaintiff wants the court to certify this case as a class action and to permit her to represent all of Eastern’s employee-shareholders in an effort to rescind the Eastern Airlines/Texas Air merger.

If successful, the consequences of this action obviously extend beyond the proposed class of employee-shareholders, for a recision of the merger would involve all stockholders of Eastern, whether employed by the company or not. The court therefore, must determine whether this action can be maintained as a class action even though the interests of unrepresented, non-class members could be affected. After a hearing, the court certifies only those claims that can be properly maintained by this employee-shareholder representative.

BACKGROUND

The seventy-page complaint in this case includes seven separate claims for relief. Because the complaint focuses on both complex stock ownership plans and elaborate business transactions, the court examines the events that led to the Eastern/Texas merger before addressing the class certification issues.

A. EASTERN EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP

In the late 1970’s Eastern Airlines’ financial performance started to lag behind that of its competitors. These problems resulted from the country’s general economic recession, the ill effects of the OPEC embargo, and the chaos that ensued after airline deregulation.

To respond to this economic and competitive pressure, Eastern sought concessions from its employees. The Eastern employees generally assented to the concessions. In return, the Eastern employees were given the right to acquire Eastern common stock and given representation on the Eastern Board of Directors. The record reflects that Eastern developed several stock ownership plans with its employees.

Eastern and its employees operated under the Variable Earnings Program from 1977 to 1982. In this time frame, Eastern employees assert they have contributed $150,000,000 to Eastern’s operations through wage concessions. In exchange for these concessions, the employees were given a share of Eastern’s profits, which amounted to approximately $10,000,000. In 1980, the Variable Earnings Program gave each employee ten shares of common stock in lieu of any cash distribution of profits.

In 1982, Eastern and its employees initiated the Investment Bonus System. This agreement provided for the employees to participate further in Eastern’s profits through a percentage calculation.

In June 1983, Eastern employees agreed to make voluntary contributions to the Investment Bonus System and to defer some retroactive pay to which they claim they were entitled. In addition, the pilots’ union agreed to accept convertible subordinated debentures in return for wage concessions. [453]*453The pilots also were allowed to appoint two members to Eastern’s board.

In September 1983, the Wage Investment Program was established. Through this agreement, the employees agreed to an 18% wage deduction pursuant to which wages were to be used to purchase 12,000,-000 shares of Eastern common stock and an additional 3,000,000 shares of preferred stock, which was eventually to be converted into an additional 3,000,000 shares of common stock.

The workings of the Wage Investment Program have significant consequences in this present action. Through this program, the Eastern employees acquired the ownership of 25% of Eastern’s common stock. This amount made the Eastern employees, taken as a whole, the largest shareholder of the company. Also through the program, Eastern’s three major unions established trusts for their members. These trusts and, hence, their beneficial members, received “top-up” rights. These rights are similar to statutory preemptive rights, and give their holder the right to purchase additional shares of common stock in the event of future stock offerings.

Further developments in Eastern’s relationship with its employees followed in the fall of 1983 when Eastern negotiated a new labor agreement with its flight attendants and machinists. Eastern gave both the flight attendants and machinists a right to appoint one board member each. In addition, Eastern’s management gave the employees the right to review Eastern’s financial records on a regular basis and promised that the employees would be consulted regarding a variety of management decisions before they were made.

In February 1985, the Eastern employees agreed to continue the Wage Investment Program, which officially terminated on December 31, 1984. The agreement this time was conditioned upon the termination of the program if certain production efficiencies were realized.

In early 1986, the Eastern unions embarked upon an extensive public campaign that sought to encourage their members and other nonunion employees to purchase Eastern common stock. The purpose for these acquisitions was to increase the influence of the employees in the management of the company. The three unions formed a coalition that in turn filed a Form 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission that disclosed their intent to increase employee ownership of Eastern common stock.

This campaign ran parallel to the board’s attempts to shop Eastern around. Eastern management began to look for a buyer for Eastern, hoping to avoid what appeared to management to be certain bankruptcy.

B. THE TEXAS AIR/EASTERN AIRLINE MERGER

With a desire to explore all avenues available to keep Eastern afloat, the Eastern management decided to consider selling the airline, either in whole or in part. In November 1985, Eastern instructed Merrill Lynch Capital Markets (“Merrill Lynch”), its investment banker, to prepare a valuation study. Merrill Lynch was to evaluate all options regarding the sale of some or all of Eastern.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 F.R.D. 450, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1732, 1988 WL 17212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hastings-murtagh-v-texas-air-corp-flsd-1988.