Lockspeiser v. Western Maryland Co.

768 F.2d 558, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20476
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJuly 15, 1985
DocketNo. 84-1874
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 768 F.2d 558 (Lockspeiser v. Western Maryland Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lockspeiser v. Western Maryland Co., 768 F.2d 558, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20476 (4th Cir. 1985).

Opinion

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge:

Sanford E. Loekspeiser, a Western Maryland Company shareholder, appeals the judgment of the district court dismissing his class action against Western Maryland, CSX Corporation, and CSX Minerals, Inc., pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b). Lockspeiser alleged violations of the 'Securities Exchange Act arising from Western Maryland’s merger into CSX Minerals, a wholly-owned CSX subsidiary. He also alleged breach of state law fiduciary duties. The district court found that Loekspeiser failed as a matter of law to allege material omissions under Sections 10(b) [15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) ] and 14(a) [15 U.S.C. § 78n(a)] of the Exchange Act and accompanying regulations. It dismissed the federal securities claims and declined to exercise pendent jurisdiction over the remaining state claim. Finding that Loekspeiser has stated federal securities claims, we vacate the judgment of the district court.

I

Before the merger, CSX and its subsidiaries owned 93% of Western Maryland, a timbering and mineral leasing concern. The notice of a shareholder meeting to consider the merger included the Western Maryland Board of Directors’ approval of the merger plan, which provided for shareholders to receive $33 in cash or equivalent CSX stock for each Western Maryland share. The notice stated that CSX subsidiaries held sufficient Western Maryland stock to approve the merger, “therefore [Western Maryland] expects the Plan of Merger to be approved and adopted.”

A proxy statement accompanying the notice included Western Maryland’s 1982 annual report. Proxy material disclosed the company’s holdings, in terms of acreage, of minerals and timber. It also disclosed income attributable to mineral and timber royalties, real property values as carried on the company’s books, and a book value of $17.04 per share. It included market quotes for Western Maryland stock, although there was not an established market for the stock, and the opinion of the First Boston Corporation, an investment banker, that the merger was fair to shareholders other than CSX Minerals. First Boston did not undertake an independent evaluation of Western Maryland’s physical assets.

One week before the merger, Lockspeiser filed a complaint seeking a permanent injunction against violations of Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Exchange Act and state law, rescission of the merger should it occur, and damages. He also sought to make CSX liable as a controlling person under Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act. He alleged misleading or omitted material facts in the proxy statement, including: omission of tonnage estimates of Western Maryland’s coal reserves, its most valuable asset; omission of the company’s timber holdings in board feet; and disclosure of the company’s book value per share rather than actual asset value. Although the proxy statement estimated in acres Western Maryland’s coal and timber holdings, Loekspeiser claimed these figures were misleading. Loekspeiser also cited the failure of the proxy statement to disclose “the [560]*560true purpose of the merger which is to obtain the assets of [Western Maryland] for the benefit of CSX at the expense of the minority shareholders of [Western Maryland].” The defendants moved to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b), claiming in part that the alleged omissions were not material as a matter of law.

Several months after the merger, Lockspeiser amended his complaint to allege, among other things, failure to disclose “that another of the principal purposes of the merger is to avoid paying substantial cash dividends to the minority shareholders of [Western Maryland].” The court granted the defendants’ renewed motion to dismiss, holding “that the omissions alleged were not, as a matter of law, material and that the essence of the dispute between the parties is the alleged inadequacy of the price paid for each share of stock and the alleged breach of fiduciary duty.”

Although the court dismissed the Exchange Act claims, it allowed amendment of the pendent state claim to establish diversity jurisdiction. Lockspeiser instead sought to amend his Exchange Act claims to allege that the proxy statement failed to disclose that First Boston’s fairness opinion rested on an evaluation of only a fraction of Western Maryland’s coal and timber reserves. Lockspeiser also sought reconsideration of the district court’s first order dismissing his federal claims.

The district court refused to reconsider its first order. Finding that the second amended complaint was substantially similar to the first and suffered the same defects, the court entered judgment for the appellees.

II

Stripped of verbiage, the core of Lockspeiser’s federal complaint is the proxy’s omission of “the number of tons of coal reserves” and “the amount of standing board feet of timber,” the two most valuable assets owned by Western Maryland. The allegations pertaining to these omissions distinguish this case from Santa Fe Industries v. Green, 430 U.S. 462, 97 S.Ct. 1292, 51 L.Ed.2d 480 (1977), on which the appellees rely. In Santa Fe, a minority shareholder in a merged company contended that the grossly inadequate price offered to him for his stock was part of an artifice to defraud under Rule lOb-5.

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Lockspeiser v. Western Maryland Company
768 F.2d 558 (Fourth Circuit, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
768 F.2d 558, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockspeiser-v-western-maryland-co-ca4-1985.