Higgins v. Shenango Pottery Co.

279 F.2d 46, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4608
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedMay 10, 1960
DocketNos. 13026, 13027, 13060-13062
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 279 F.2d 46 (Higgins v. Shenango Pottery Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Higgins v. Shenango Pottery Co., 279 F.2d 46, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4608 (3d Cir. 1960).

Opinion

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge.

The facts in this case are set forth at length in Higgins, et al. v. Shenango, Pottery Co., et al., 3 Cir., 1958, 256 F.2d 504, but for clarity a résumé is appropriate.

This is a derivative action brought by a stockholder of Shenango Pottery Co., a Pennsylvania corporation, (Shenango) engaged in the manufacture of chinaware. Several of the defendants were officers and directors of Shenango: James M. Smith, Jr., now deceased, son of the founder and Chairman of the Board, James M. Smith, Sr., was a director and president; George B. Zahniser, a nephew of Smith, Sr., was a director and vice-president; Charles W. Read, since dismissed as a defendant by stipulation, was a director and vice-president. The remaining individual defendants were in no way connected with Shenango: Daniel H. Treloar, Jr. was in the life insurance business; Zeno J. Pfau was an automobile dealer; Alvah M. Shumaker was an attorney; and John B. McCarty was a bar manager. The principal plaintiff, Alice S. Higgins, daughter of Smith, Sr. and sister of Smith, Jr., is a minority stockholder of Shenango.

[48]*48On January 31, 1944 the Pittsburgh Ordnance District of the War Department offered Shenango the opportunity to participate in a non-magnetic land mine program. The principal parts of the mine, the bell and base, were to be ceramic, larger and heavier than ordinary dinnerware and involved an operation foreign to the manufacture of dinnerware, that of threading the parts to fit with other pieces. On February 5, 1944 Smith, Jr., Zahniser and James K. Love, the latter another director of Shenango but not a party here, traveled to the Onondago Pottery Company in Syracuse, New York to investigate the land mine program already in operation at that firm. Based on this investigation they recommended to the remaining three directors, Smith, Sr., Jonathan Higgins, husband of the principal plaintiff and Charles W. Read, that Shenango refrain from entering the land mine program.1 The considerations prompting this recommendation ostensibly were a complicated assembly operation, rigid government tests and a requirement of additional space and labor. As a result the Board decided it was not feasible for Shenango to bid for a mine contract.

Several days subsequent to the decision, Smith, Jr., Treloar and Pfau investigated the possibility of undertaking the manufacture of mines and, as a result, begain formation of a corporation, Castle Engineering Company (Castle). Castle submitted a bid which was not acceptable to Pittsburgh Ordnance because Castle was not as yet a corporate entity. It was then decided, allegedly at the instigation of Pittsburgh Ordnance, that Shenango’s name be inserted in place of Castle and upon award of the contract to Shenango, to have it sublet to Castle. Smith, Jr. immediately telephoned Shenango from Pittsburgh and had the proposal put before the other five members of the Board who were present at Shenango. The Board approved. On this point, the district court found, as a conclusion of law, that the business judgment of the five board members was influenced by the knowledge that Smith, Jr. and two other directors and officers of Shenango, Zahniser and Read who had previously joined with Smith, Jr., Treloar and Pfau, were interested in Castle. The contract was awarded to Shenango which in turn sublet it to Castle, with the exception of the part calling for the manufacture of the ceramic base and bell. These parts Shenango was to supply at two dollars for every pair accepted and paid for by the government. At this stage it would be well to outline the full import of that arrangement.

The government inspection of the land mines consisted of a waterproof test and a drop test. Five mines were submerged in water for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time they were disassembled. If any trace of water was found, ten more were put through the same test and if water was found in any one of the ten the entire lot was rejected. After that five mines were dropped from a prescribed height on to concrete. If there was a failure of any of the parts of more than one mine, ten others were tested. If three or more of the fifteen showed failure the entire lot was rejected. Castle contracted to have the inspection on the basis of a lot consisting of ten thousand mines. Thus if either test was failed the entire ten thousand mines would have been rejected and Shenango would not receive payment for any of the ten thousand pairs of bases and bells, which were the most expensive part of the mine. It should be further noted that although the contract was sublet, Shenango remained liable thereon.

[49]*49Castle was reorganized into a limited partnership; Smith, Jr., and Treloar becoming the general partners and Zahniser, Pfau and Read, later joined by Shumaker and McCarty, being the limited partners. It had a stated paid-in capital of $50,000 of which only $32,200 was actually paid in by the end of the fiscal year, July 31, 1944. The question of the validity of the limited partnership was raised. However, it is irrelevant since in our previous opinion we stated that the liability of the limited partners for return of improperly received profits is not limited by the amount of their partnership contribution. 256 F.2d at page 510.

Castle drew heavily on the financial resources of Shenango, and in many of its negotiations used the name, reputation and credit rating of Shenango. The trial court found that even the bid submitted by Castle contained information descriptive of Shenango but the court felt the constant use of Shenango’s name was merely carelessness; a conclusion not borne out by the record.

Castle subsequently was awarded two other contracts, one of which was terminated with a monetary allowance before any land mines were supplied under it, both of which contracts the court held were corporate opportunities diverted from Shenango. The total net profit to Castle was $326,603.71 in a little over nine months.2 Eventually this was reduced, as excessive profit, to $181,603.71 on renegotiation by the War Contracts Price Adjustment Board. Shenango made a profit of $248,587.58 on the manufacture of the base and bell. This was not renegotiated. Defendants argue that Shenango’s profit is proof that they had the common good in mind and that there was no improper diversion of corporate opportunities; that the land mine project was in reality a joint venture between Shenango and Castle. This argument can be dismissed forthwith. Leaving behind a portion of the spoils is hardly justification. It leaves unanswered much the same question as arose in Tenth National Bank of Philadelphia v. Smith Construction Co., 1913, 242 Pa. 269, 287, 89 A. 76, 82. There officers of the Smith Company formed a partnership, the Maryland Company, to furnish services and supplies to the Smith Company at a profit. The court stated:

“ * * the 10 per cent, paid to the Maryland concern might have been saved to the Smith Company, —in substance it was nothing more or less than a commission for services that could have been performed directly by the officers of that company. Again, if the Maryland Company could furnish coal and horses to the Smith Company at a profit, it has not been made plain why the men who constituted that concern did not perform this service directly as officers of the latter corporation, and thus save to it the amount of such profits.

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No. 13026
279 F.2d 46 (Third Circuit, 1960)

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Bluebook (online)
279 F.2d 46, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/higgins-v-shenango-pottery-co-ca3-1960.