Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. Ford Motor Credit Co.

995 F.2d 1422, 1993 WL 198914
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 15, 1993
DocketNo. 92-2185
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 995 F.2d 1422 (Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. Ford Motor Credit Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 995 F.2d 1422, 1993 WL 198914 (8th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Kansas City Power & Light Company (“KCPL”) instituted this declaratory judgment suit to obtain a determination that it had properly redeemed $10,000,000 worth of preferred stock (the “$12,875 stock”) held by three institutional investors, Ford Motor Credit Corporation (“Ford”), McDonnell Douglas Finance Corporation (“McDonnell Douglas”), and HEI Investment Corporation (“HEI”). (Collectively, the three holders of the $12,875 stock will be referred to as the “Investors.”) The Investors counterclaimed for breach of the Stock Purchase Agreement under which they had originally bought the $12,875 stock from KCPL. The Investors sought $2.2 million in damages for dividends and premiums lost as a result of what they characterized as a “premature redemption.” The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of KCPL. The district court1 denied the Investors’ motion for judgment as a matter of law, or, in the alternative, for a new trial. The Investors have appealed, asserting that the district court erred in. not granting their motion for judgment as a matter of law, in giving an erroneous instruction defining “good faith,” and in several other rulings. We affirm.

I.

In June 1984, in an effort to raise capital, KCPL negotiated the Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the Investors. The Agreement provided that KCPL would issue 100,000 shares of preferred stock at a purchase price of $100 per share, which was also the stock’s stated par value. Ford purchased 50,000 shares for $5 million; McDonnell Douglas purchased 20,000 shares for $2 million; and HEI purchased 30,000 shares for $3 million.

The Agreement provided that KCPL would pay an annual dividend of $12,875 per share. The transaction was arranged as a preferred stock purchase so that the Investors could take advantage of a beneficial tax provision known as the dividends received deduction (the “DRD”). The DRD allowed corporate recipients of qualified dividends to deduct 85% of such dividends from income. When combined with the then-existing corporate tax rate of 46%, the $12,875 dividend and the DRD produced an annual after-tax yield of 11.987%.

The Agreement contemplated a life of seven years for the $12,875 stock. The Agreement contained a sinking fund provision that required KCPL to redeem the 100,000 shares at par in three equal installments over three years beginning on June 1,1989. Additionally, the Agreement gave KCPL the unqualified option to redeem all the shares as of June 1,1988, in exchange for a six dollar per share premium (i.e., at a redemption price of $106 per share).

The Agreement also contained a tax indemnification clause. Paragraph 5.2(b) stated that if the Investors, for any reason, suffered a reduction of their after-tax yield by virtue of a disallowance of or reduction in the DRD, they could require KCPL to make [1425]*1425indemnity payments sufficient to restore the Investors’ after-tax return to 11.987%.2 Any demand notice for an indemnity payment by the Investors, however, triggered a countervailing right in favor of KCPL to immediately redeem all of the $12,875 stock at par. Additionally, paragraph 5.2(b) gave KCPL the right to redeem at par, even without having received any demand notice, if it first made a “good faith determination that there [was] substantial risk that it would be required to make any indemnity payments.” Finally, paragraph 6.2(b) provided that the Agreement’s indemnification provisions survived any purchase, redemption, or transfer of the $12,875 stock.

On October 22, 1986, President Reagan signed into law the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2085 (the “1986 Act”). Among the many changes it introduced into the federal tax laws, the 1986 Act reduced the DRD for most qualifying corporations from 85% to 80%, effective January 1, 1987. Id. § 611(a)(1). The 1986 Act also reduced the maximum corporate income tax rate from 46% to 34%, but the reduction was not scheduled to take effect until July 1, 1987. Id. § 601(b).

Following enactment of the tax law changes in October 1986, KCPL’s management investigated the effect of those changes on the several issues of preferred stock that the utility had. outstanding, including the $12,875 stock. At a January 8, 1987 meeting of the Executive Committee of KCPL’s Board of Directors, Lou Rasmussen, the utility’s chief financial officer, presented the results of management’s analysis of the 1986 Act. Rasmussen told the Executive Committee that KCPL faced a substantial, risk that it would be required to make tax indemnity payments to the Investors, and therefore recommended that the utility should redeem the $12,875 stock and another issue of preferred stock sold under a similar purchase agreement. The Executive Committee accepted Rasmussen’s recommendation and unanimously voted to redeem all of the shares of the $12,875 stock. On January 9, 1987, KCPL sent notices to all three Investors that it was redeeming all of the $12,875 stock, with payment to be made on March 6, 1987.

[I]f under any circumstances or for any reason whatsoever [an Investor] ... shall lose the benefit of, lose the right to claim, or suffer disallowance with respect to, all or any part of the Dividends Received Deduction with respect to dividends on the Stock (any such treatment, loss or disallowance being hereinafter call a "Loss"), then ... [KCPL] shall pay to such [Investor], not later than 60 days following written notice to [KCPL] by such [Investor] of such Loss, such sums as, when taken together with the dividends paid to such [Investor] ..., shall be required ... to cause such [Investor's] effective after-tax yield with respect to such dividends and such Stock to be 11.987% per annum ...; provided, however, that if [KCPL] shall have received any such written notice of Loss or if [KCPL] shall have made a good faith determination that there is substantial risk that it would be required to make any indemnity payments pursuant to this Section 5.2 (regardless of whether [KCPL] shall have received any such written notice of Loss), then, in lieu of making any indemnity payments ..., [KCPL] ... shall have the right to purchase ... all, but not less than all, the Stock then owned by all [Investors] at $100 per share plus (i) [all accrued dividends] plus (ii) [all necessary indemnity payments up to the repurchase date].

■ On January 20-22, 1987, the Investors responded to the notices of redemption by sending letters to KCPL purporting to waive any rights they possessed to demand indemnity payments by virtue of the 1986 Act. In their letters, the Investors stated that because they had now removed any risk of future potential indemnity payments, the 1986 Act provided KCPL with no good faith basis to redeem the $12,875 stock.

KCPL rejected the Investors’ letters as ineffective post hoc attempts to prevent KCPL from exercising its rights under the Agreement. Accordingly, on March 6, 1987, KCPL transferred to all three Investors payments covering the stock’s par value, all accrued dividends, and all necessary indemnity payments up to that date.

Some three years later, in October 1990, KCPL filed the present declaratory judgment suit. The Investors counterclaimed for breach of contract. The parties agreed to submit only one issue to the jury: “Did [KCPL] make a good faith determination [1426]*1426that a substantial risk

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
995 F.2d 1422, 1993 WL 198914, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kansas-city-power-light-co-v-ford-motor-credit-co-ca8-1993.