Lippmann v. Hydro-Space Technology, Inc.

235 F. Supp. 860, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6853
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedNovember 25, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 811-64
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 235 F. Supp. 860 (Lippmann v. Hydro-Space Technology, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lippmann v. Hydro-Space Technology, Inc., 235 F. Supp. 860, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6853 (D.N.J. 1964).

Opinion

WORTENDYKE, District Judge:

In this action, seeking both money damages and equitable relief, the plaintiff, a resident of the State of Texas, invokes the jurisdiction of this Court by reason of his diverse citizenship from that of the twelve defendants, and the alleged involvement of the jurisdictional minimum required under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (1). The defendants are Hydro-Space Technology, Inc. (hereinafter Hydro-Space), its former president, Imperial ‘400’ National, Inc. (hereinafter Imperial), Imperial’s affiliate Four Hundred Construction Company (hereinafter Four Hundred), six former directors of Hydro-Space, the Lithium Corporation of America, Inc. (hereinafter Lithium) and its president, who also had been chairman of the board of Hydro-Space. The voluminous but unverified complaint is in three counts; the allegations of the preceding count or 'counts having been incorporated by reference in each succeeding count. All of the counts seek damages from the defendants, collectively, in the sum of one million dollars. In the first count, in addition to monetary damages, the plaintiff seeks various forms of equitable relief.1

The first count of the complaint, in summary, makes the following allegations. Plaintiff is and was the holder of 4,000 shares of the common stock of Hydro-Space. Plaintiff bought his shares in July of 1961, at a time when defendant Lithium owned more than 50% of the Hydro-Space stock, and instituted a suit against Hydro-Space and Lithium (infra) in the Chancery Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey in 1962. After the dismissal of that action in December, 1962, Lithium sold its controlling interest in Hydro-Space to Four Hundred at the price (allegedly inflated) of $1.15 a share, payable in installments over two years. Imperial, which controlled Four Hundred, then installed its own directors of Hydro-Space (six of the individual defendants) who disposed of some of its assets, and thereafter, in 1963, directed the corporation to sell, with stockholder approval, all of its remaining assets to Imperial (which con[862]*862trolled Four Hundred, the majority shareholder), in exchange for shares of Imperial, which were then distributed to stockholders of Hydro-Space in exchange for their stock. (Hydro-Space was then dissolved in May, 1963.) Plaintiff claims that he, as a minority stockholder, was damaged by the foregoing conduct, which he alleged constituted a “fraud, conspiracy and cheat” in the following respects: (1) the sale of the 4,000 shares to plaintiff by Lithium was effected by means of misrepresentations, non-disclosure of facts and fraud (all unspecified) in a prospectus dated July 19,1961; (2) Hydro-Space was managed for the sole benefit of Lithium, its majority stockholder, in that Lithium’s losses were assumed by Hydro-Space and its officers and directors had conflicting interests and favored Lithium in managing Hydro-Space, all in' violation of the fiduciary duty to minority stockholders; and (3) in the prior litigation in the New Jersey courts, two of the individual defendants (the presidents of Lithium and of Hydro-Space) presented affidavits to the court, that Hydro-Space was in satisfactory condition, which were false and perjurious in that, during the pendency of the New Jersey action, all of the defendants (including the affiants) were engaged in a conspiracy to siphon off the valuable assets of Hydro-Space for their own benefit by curtailing the operation of Hydro-Space and thereafter misrepresenting to its shareholders that it would be in Hydro-Space’s best interests to sell its assets to Imperial, and the New Jersey courts relied on those affidavits and dismissed plaintiffs’ action, at which time defendants proceeded with and completed their alleged conspiracy by having Hydro-Space sell its assets to Imperial in exchange for Imperial stock “having only a speculative, contingent and uncertain value” which was then distributed to stockholders of Hydro-Space.

Incorporating by reference the allegations of the first count, the second count charges that the defendants, by means of the conduct complained of, offered and sold securities in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 77a et seq., and used the mails and other instrumentalities of interstate communication in consummating a, conspiracy to sell such securities in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 77q.

The third count incorporates the allegations of the two preceding counts by reference, and charges that the acts and omissions of the defendants constituted wilful, intentional, malicious and deliberate fraud, for which punitive damages are sought.

This case is a supplemental effort of plaintiff to that made in his unsuccessful prosecution of an action in which he and other minority stockholders of Hydro-Space sought generally similar relief in the Chancery and Appellate Divisions of the Superior Court of New Jersey, against Hydro-Space, Lithium, their respective presidents, and others not defendants here. See Lippmann v. Hydro-Space Technology, Inc., App.Div.1962, 77 N.J.Super. 497, 187 A.2d 31. The trial court in that case was affirmed in dismissing the complaint upon defendants’ motion for the reason that “ * * * the complaint, upon any theory, failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted under the general equity powers of the court.”2 *****8 (p. 510, 187 A.2d p. 38).

[863]*863The same attorneys who appeared for the plaintiffs in the New Jersey State court action presently appear for the plaintiff in the action in this court. In the former suit the plaintiffs were several minority stockholders of Hydro-Space. In the present action the plaintiff, a single stockholder of the same corporation, admittedly owning less than %oths of 1% of its stock, sues alone. The present plaintiff conceded, during the oral argument of and in his brief in opposition to the motions attacking the complaint, that he brings this action not in a representative capacity, but seeks damages and other relief for his own account and by reason of alleged wrongdoing chargeable to the defendants or some of them, from which he claims to have suffered damage as a minority stockholder of Hydro-Space.

The defendants in the action before me have moved for dismissal of the complaint. The defendants Lithium and its president move to dismiss under F.R. Civ.P. 12 upon the asserted ground that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted in that (a) the complaint seeks to enforce a secondary right, on the part of a corporate stockholder, but fails to comply with the requirements of F.R.Civ.P. 23, (b) the charges of fraud and other wrongdoing made in the complaint are vague and conclusory and stated with insufficient particularity, (e) the complaint fails to allege that the plaintiff owns 10% of the stock of Hydro-Space as required by N.J.S.A. 14:14-3 and fails to allege the statutory insolvency of the corporation required to justify relief under N.J.S.A.

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Bluebook (online)
235 F. Supp. 860, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6853, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lippmann-v-hydro-space-technology-inc-njd-1964.