Kane v. Central American Mining & Oil, Inc.

235 F. Supp. 559, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8897
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 27, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 235 F. Supp. 559 (Kane v. Central American Mining & Oil, Inc.) 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
Kane v. Central American Mining & Oil, Inc., 235 F. Supp. 559, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8897 (S.D.N.Y. 1964).

Opinion

WEINFELD, District Judge.

This essentially is a stockholders’ derivative action brought on behalf of Central American Mining & Oil, Inc., a Panamanian corporation, hereinafter called CAMO, charging the defendants, who are its principal officers, sole directors and majority stockholders, with fraud, waste, mismanagement and diversion of a corporate opportunity.

The second amended complaint, the subject of the defendants’ motion to dismiss, contains three separate counts which are based substantially upon the following allegations:

That plaintiffs, John J. and Joseph J. Kane, are the owners of 58,000 of the more than 7,000,000 shares of common stock issued by CAMO, which was incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Panama; that in 1961, shortly after its incorporation, CAMO acquired, indirectly through a corporate shell controlled by the defendants, a large mineral concession in the Republic of Honduras for a consideration of $40,900 in cash and 1,005,000 shares of its common stock; that by this transaction the defendants improperly arrogated CAMO’s corporate opportunity unto themselves; further, that at or about the time the concession was acquired, CAMO issued 2,000,000 shares of common stock to one O. R. Sea-graves and 2,000,000 shares to the defendant, Robert Guadaño, for which the latter paid no or an inadequate consideration; that thereafter Guadaño, to gain control of the corporation and to oust O. R. Seagraves, caused another 2,000,000 shares to be issued to his brother, Bernard Guadaño, also a defendant, for which no or an inadequate consideration was páid; that in July 1961 CAMO assigned part of its Honduran concession to Pure Oil Company in return for $450,000 cash ($50,000 of which was held in escrow) and for a share of Pure Oil’s profits; that the defendants misappropriated a substantial portion of the $400,000 *562 received on that transaction; and further, that the defendants, corporate and individual, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement covering the public distribution of 7,500,000 shares of CAMO stock, including the Guadaños’ 4,000,000, at up to $5.00 per share, and if the registration statement is declared effective, the Guadaños, who acquired their shares for no or an inadequate consideration, will be the main beneficiaries of the distribution, whereas the proceeds should properly accrue to the benefit of CAMO. Additional allegations appropriate to the theory of each separate count are set forth.

The three separate counts are as follows: The first, predicated upon diversity of citizenship, charges violations of the Articles of Incorporation and of Panamanian law. It alleges that the plaintiffs are citizens of the State of Texas, that the individual defendants are citizens of the State of New York, and that the corporation is doing business in that State and has conducted meetings there. The second count alleges liability under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 1 and Rule 10b-5, 2 promulgated thereunder by the Securities and Exchange Commission, jurisdiction resting on Section 27 of the Act. 3 The third count, based upon allegations of the first and second counts, rests upon the doctrine of pendant jurisdiction.

Plaintiffs seek the return to the corporation of the 4,000,000 shares issued to the defendants, Robert and Bernard Guadaño, the removal of the three individual defendants from their corporate posts, and an accounting with respect to the sums received in connection with the Pure Oil Company transaction.

The defendants move under Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for dismissal of the complaint on the following grounds:

(1) lack of jurisdiction over the person of the defendants;
(2) lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter;
(3) improper venue;
(4) insufficiency of service of process;
(5) failure to join an indispensable party; and
(6) failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.

In the event of denial of their motion, they further move that plaintiffs post security for expenses and damages pursuant to the New York Business Corporation Law 4 and for costs as nonresident plaintiffs. 5

The parties have submitted affidavits in support of and in opposition to the motion and that branch which seeks dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim is treated as one for summary judgment. 6

The extensive contentions of the parties, which in some respects overlap, make it desirable initially to consider the second count, the nondiversity and federally based claim, since if it withstands dismissal the disposition of the two remaining counts falls in place.

The principal thrust of the defendants’ position, broadly stated, is that CAMO is a Panamanian corporation; that it is not found, present, nor doing business in this State; that even if, contrary to their contention, diversity jurisdiction exists, the basic claim asserted by the plaintiffs involves the internal affairs of a foreign corporation, as to which the New York courts would decline jurisdiction 7 and finally, that New York State, in applying its conflict of laws rule, *563 would be guided by the law of Panama, under which plaintiffs were required, but failed, to qualify as contesting stockholders, and accordingly would bar relief. 8

The plaintiffs, on the other hand, while challenging these contentions, which involve sharply disputed fact issues, contend that in any event the second count states a claim upon which relief may be granted and satisfies subject matter jurisdiction, venue and process requirements.

I. THE FEDERAL CLAII.I JURISDICTION

The nub of this claim is that the defendants, in causing CAMO to issue to the Guadaños 4,000,000 shares for no or an inadequate consideration, “employed a device, scheme and artifice to defraud, and engaged in acts which operated and would operate as a fraud and deceit upon the defendant corporation and its stockholders”; that in so doing, the defendants used “means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce and the mails” in violation of Section 10(b) of the 1934 Act. 9

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Bluebook (online)
235 F. Supp. 559, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8897, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kane-v-central-american-mining-oil-inc-nysd-1964.