Kalmanovitz v. G. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc.

576 F. Supp. 922, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11469
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedNovember 21, 1983
DocketCiv. A. 82-797
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 576 F. Supp. 922 (Kalmanovitz v. G. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kalmanovitz v. G. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc., 576 F. Supp. 922, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11469 (D. Del. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

LATCHUM, Chief Judge.

One year ago this Court was faced with a swirl of litigation arising out of an intense fight for control of Pabst Brewing Company (“Pabst”), a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin'. Now that the fight for control has been resolved, the Court is again faced with litigation which contends that the activity of some of the participants in the Pabst Beer struggle violated the federal securities and antitrust laws as well as certain state tort and contract laws.

This litigation originally consisted of three separate lawsuits. Initially, the plaintiffs, Paul Kalmanovitz, a citizen of California and shareholder of Pabst, and S & P Co., a California corporation wholly owned by Kalmanovitz, brought suit alleging violations of the federal securities and antitrust laws and the Delaware corporate law in this Court (“Delaware action”) against G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. (“Heileman”), a Wisconsin corporation with its principal place of business in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Russell G. Cleary, Chief *924 Executive Officer of Heileman, HBC Acquisition, Inc. (“HBC”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heileman incorporated in Delaware, Pabst, and William Smith, President and Director of Pabst. (Docket Item [“D.I.”] 1.) 1 Subsequently, Kalmanovitz, individually and as a Pabst shareholder, filed a second suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (the “California federal court”) alleging violations of the federal antitrust laws and the California tortious interference with contract law against the same parties named in the original Delaware action and also against additional defendants, Irwin L. Jacobs, Dennis Mathisen, Gerald A. Schwalbach, and Daniel I. Lindsay (“the Jacobs Group”), the latter of whom are citizens of Minnesota. (D.I. 41.) 2 Almost immediately thereafter, Kalmanovitz and S & P Co., brought a third action in the California state court against the Jacobs Group alleging breach of contract. (D.I. 71, Ex. A.) 3 This latter case was then removed to the California federal court. (D.I. 71.)

On April 26, 1983, Judge Patel of the California federal court ordered the two California cases to be consolidated and transferred here. (D.I. 70.) Consequently, this Court has before it consolidated in one piece of litigation the two transferred California cases plus the original Delaware action.

Pending before the Court are three motions. First, defendants Heileman, Cleary, HBC, Pabst, and Smith have moved: (a) to dismiss or, in the alternative, to grant summary judgment on plaintiffs’ antitrust claims; and (b) to grant summary judgment on Kalmanovitz’s claim of tortious interference with contract or prospective advantage. (D.I. 119.) The Jacobs Group also has moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ antitrust claims. 4 (D.I. 116.) Kalmanovitz and S & P seek a partial summary judgment on the issue of liability on its breach of contract claim against the Jacobs Group. (D.I. 126.)

FACTS

This Court in prior opinions has already recited extensively the various facts and maneuvers relating to the attempts to gain control of Pabst, 5 and will therefore limit discussion of the facts to those which ar,e pertinent to the pending motions.

The relevant facts begin on October 26, 1982, when Paul Kalmanovitz and the Jacobs Group entered into a written Memorandum of Terms (D.I. 121, Ex. 1), “whereby they would make a public tender offer for 3,000,000 shares of Pabst stock.” (D.I. 41 at 5.) The Jacobs Group already owned 1,140,305 shares 6 of Pabst stock and when combined with the three million shares of their tender offer would give them a majority of the outstanding Pabst stock.

*925 The agreement provided that Kalmanovitz and the Jacobs Group would make a tender offer, through JMSL Acquiring Corporation (“JMSL”), for three million Pabst shares at $24 per share. As part of this agreement, Kalmanovitz was to become a 50% shareholder in PST Acquiring Corp. (“PST”), which wholly owns JMSL, for $1,000. On the day after JMSL had accepted at least three million Pabst shares under the tender offer (this day is referred to as the “Funding Date”), “[e]ach member of the Jacobs Group shall receive additional shares of PST equal in number to that which he then will own ... in exchange ... for his Pabst shares ... and the Jacobs Group shall contribute in the aggregate of $2,371,770.” (D.I. 121, Ex. 1 at 3.) Kalmanovitz was required to pay $26.3 million in exchange for 250 additional PST shares and a PST note in the amount of $9.5 million principal. (Id.) PST was supposed to capitalize JMSL with its 1,140,305 Pabst shares and the tender offer contemplated a merger between Pabst and JMSL. The agreement also contained a reimbursement section:

5. The Jacobs Group agrees that if the transactions contemplated by this memorandum of terms do not close and members of the Jacobs Group sell their shares within six (6) months, then the Jacobs Group will reimburse PK [Paul Kalmanovitz] for all of his out-of-pocket expenses in connection with the proposed transactions.
6. It is understood that PST and/or JMSL and/or Pabst shall reimburse the Jacobs Group and PK for all out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with Pabst other than the costs involved in acquiring and carrying the Pabst shares.

(D.I. 121, Ex. 1 at 4-5.)

On October 27, 1982, JMSL announced their offer to purchase 3 million shares of Pabst for $24 per share. On November 10, 1982, HBC offered to purchase up to 5.5 million shares of Pabst for $27.50 per share.

According to the complaint filed in the California federal action, Jacobs told Kalmanovitz that he could not put up any additional funds to compete against Heileman for the Pabst stock and that he would need Kalmanovitz to obtain additional funds. (D.I. 41, U 16 at 6.) As a result, the original Memorandum of Terms was amended by two letter agreements, both dated November 18, 1982, to provide that the JMSL tender offer price should be raised to $30. (D.I. 121 at 1.) Jacobs also promised Kalmanovitz in one of these letters that:

In the event we decide that it is better for our group to .sell our shares in Pabst, rather than continue to bid higher, you will receive fifty percent (50%) of all amounts in excess of $24.00 for all the shares in our group.

(D.I. 121, Ex. 6.)

On the same day, JMSL amended its prior tender offer, raising the price per share to $30. On November 23, 1982, the Memorandum of Terms was amended to permit JMSL to raise its offering price to $35 per share. (D.I. 121, Ex. 7.) The increased price was announced on the same day.

On November 24, 1982, this Court denied motions for preliminary injunctions against the Heileman Offer and against the JMSL Offer.

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Bluebook (online)
576 F. Supp. 922, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kalmanovitz-v-g-heileman-brewing-co-inc-ded-1983.