Irving Trust Co. v. United States

30 F. Supp. 696, 90 Ct. Cl. 310, 24 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 292, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 143
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 8, 1940
DocketNo. 43100
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 30 F. Supp. 696 (Irving Trust Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Irving Trust Co. v. United States, 30 F. Supp. 696, 90 Ct. Cl. 310, 24 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 292, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 143 (cc 1940).

Opinion

Whitaker, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

On November 9, 1926, the Irving Bank and Trust Company and The American Exchange-Pacific Bank, both New York corporations, entered into an “Agreement for Merger” of the two corporations, under the terms of which the Bank [317]*317was to be merged into the Trust Company. This agreement provided that, after it had been approved by the Superintendent of Banks and by the stockholders of the respective parties, it should become effective upon the filing in the offices of the Superintendent of Banks and of the Clerk of New York County of sworn copies of the proceedings at the respective corporation meetings. These copies were filed on December 11, 1926, and the merger became effective on that date. Thereafter the business was operated under the name of American Exchange Irving Trust Company. The Irving Trust Company, the plaintiff herein, is the successor of the American Exchange Irving Trust Company.

Among the assets acquired by the American Exchange Irving Trust Company (hereinafter referred to as the Trust Company) was a piece of real estate known as “128 Broadway” and certain securities.

The question presented is the proper bases to be used for the real estate and securities in computing the gain derived from a sale of them in 1928.

The plaintiff insists that it is entitled to use as these bases the cost to it of these assets at the time of the merger. The defendant, on the other hand, insists that the bases to be used are the same as if the assets had remained in: the hands of the transferor, The American Exchange-Pacific Bank.

The plaintiff insists that the transaction between the Bank and the Trust Company was a merger; the defendant says it was a consolidation. The plaintiff says this is material because the stockholders of the Bank, which it says was the only transferor, received no more than 37.8 per cent of the stock of the Trust Company. It, therefore, argues that section 113 (a) (7) of the Revenue Act of 1928 (49 Stat. 791, 819) does not apply, because immediately after the transfer there was not an interest or control in the property of 80 percent in the hands of the same persons as it was before the transfer. In other words, the plaintiff says that where a transaction amounts to a merger, as distinguished from a consolidation, there is but one transferor; and that the statute does [318]*318not apply unless this transferor receives as much as 80 percent of the stock of the corporation into which it is merged. It concedes that the situation would probably be different in the case of a consolidation, because in the case of a consolidation there is more than one transferor, and so in determining whether or not an 80 percent interest or control is in the hands of the same persons, it is necessary to look to the interest or control of all the transferors.

The term “consolidation” is frequently used to denote both a fusion of two or more corporations into a newly created corporation, as well as an absorption of one or more corporations by a preexisting one. Thus Noyes in his book on “Intercorporate Relations” defines a consolidation as follows:

Two corporations may be combined by their fusion into a third corporation created in their stead. This results in the surrender of the vitality of the old corporations, the extinguishment of their special privileges and exemptions, and the springing into existence eo instanti of a new corporation, with such powers and privileges as may be conferred upon it by the act authorizing the consolidation. The dissolution of all the old corporations and the creation of the new one are the essential features of this process * * *.

and also as:

There may be an absorption of one company by another whereby the former is dissolved and passes out of existence while the latter continues to exist with enlarged powers. The word “consolidation” has been said to be inapplicable to a union of this character, but such use of the term is general, and is supported by the highest authorities. (Article 8.)

Later, in Article 11 he defines a merger as follows:

The word “merger” is used in statutes authorizing the union of corporations to describe the process whereby the property and franchises of one or more corporations are absorbed by another which continues in existence with its original powers and with additional rights and privileges derived from the others. This is a process of absorption to which, as has been noted, the term “con[319]*319solidation” is generally applied, but to which the term “merger” is equally appropriate. In fact, had the word “consolidationP been, used only to describe the process of fusion and the word “merger” been applied to the process of absorption, confusion would have been a/ooided. [Italics ours.]

This distinction has been recognized by the Supreme Court in Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railway Company v. Adams, 180 U. S., 1:

While as stated in Tomlinson v. Branch, 15 Wall. 460, the presumption is that when two railroads are consolidated each of the united lines will be respectively held with the privileges and burdens originally attaching thereto, subsequent cases have settled the law that where two companies agree together, to consolidate their stock, issue new certificates, take a new name, elect a new board of directors, and the constituent companies are to cease their functions, a new corporation is thereby formed subject to existing laws. But if, as was the case in Tomlinson v. Branch, one road loses its identity and is merged in another, the latter preserving its identity, and issuing new stock in favor of the stockholders of the former, it is not the creation of a new corporation but an enlargement of the old one (p. 19).

The proceedings followed by the Bank and the Trust Company in this case were the proceedings set out by the New York banking law in sections 487-496 of the banking law of the State of New York, providing for the merger of banking corporations. In construing these statutes the Court of Appeals of New York in Cantor v. Manufacturers Trust Company, 261 N. Y., 6, 184 N. E. 474, said:

The statute does not contemplate the formation of a new banking corporation through the consolidation of two existing corporations. The result of the merger is that all the rights, privileges, and franchises, and all the property of a corporation which is merged into another, are “transferred to and vested in the corporation into which it shall have been merged.” Its corporate identity is lost; it ceases to be a corporate entity, while the corporation into which it is merged continues in existence and succeeds to all its “relations, obligations, trusts, and liabilities.”

[320]*320Whether in this case we shall describe what was done between the Bank and Trust Company as a merger or a consolidation is perhaps not so important, but it is important to bear in mind what was said in Cantor v. Manufacturers Trust Company, supra, and in Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Ry. Co., v. Adams supra, that a new corporation was not created, but the old one, to-wit, the Trust Company, was merely enlarged. The Bank went out of existence; the Trust Company continued in existence.

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30 F. Supp. 696, 90 Ct. Cl. 310, 24 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 292, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/irving-trust-co-v-united-states-cc-1940.