Marcus v. Putnam

60 F.R.D. 441, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12549
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJuly 25, 1973
DocketCiv. A. No. 67-41-F
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 60 F.R.D. 441 (Marcus v. Putnam) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marcus v. Putnam, 60 F.R.D. 441, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12549 (D. Mass. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

FREEDMAN, District Judge.

The Court is asked to approve a. settlement of this consolidated stockholders’ derivative action brought on behalf of all of the several Putnam Funds (hereafter referred to as the Funds) which are open-end mutual funds. All of the Funds are investment companies registered pursuant to The Investment Com[443]*443pany Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. §§ 80a—1 to 80a—52. The trustees of the Hilda Winslow Patrick Trust, who own shares of one of the several Putnam Funds, oppose the settlement and seek to intervene by means of a class action.

The complaint in the amended consolidated action alleges numerous violations of law. Among the main contentions are the following:

1. The merger of Putnam Management Company of Massachusetts (hereafter referred to as Old Management Company) and Putnam Management Company of Delaware (hereafter referred to as New Management Company) in 1970 constituted an illegal sale of the investment advisory office which breached Old Management’s fiduciary duty to the Funds.
2. The Funds are alleged to have engaged in brokerage practices known as give-ups in which brokerage commissions resulting from the Funds’ own portfolio transactions are awarded to those brokers who sell shares or who furnish services to the, management company. Old Management Company allegedly did not inform the directors of the Funds about the possibility of recapturing portions of the brokerage commissions.
3. Churning allegedly occurred in that the turnover of the Funds’ portfolio securities was excessive, resulting in excessive brokerage commissions.
4. The advisory fees charged by the investment advisor were excessive.
5. Proxy materials relating to the merger and other practices were false and misleading.

Voluminous briefs and depositions are on file with the Court, and oral argument was heard on May 3,1973.

I

The objectors have moved to intervene individually and as shareholder class representatives pursuant to Rule 24(b) and Rule 23. At the outset, the objectors have not filed a pleading to accompany their motion. The Court notes that the objectors did not seek to intervene until April 13, 1973, just one day prior to the two month cut-off point for the making of objections to the settlement. The objectors contend that they would represent the class of persons who have redeemed shares in the Funds since 1970 and whose ownership is diluted through this redemption. The significance of this, they contend, is that these shareholders and former shareholders will not partake of the recovery on the proposed settlement commensurate with the loss sustained by them. The proposed settlement will be a windfall for all of the new shareholders who suffered no harm by the previous wrongdoings.

The Court finds that it must deny the motion to intervene, for such intervention, if allowed, would indeed prejudice the rights of all of the other shareholders of the Funds and the Funds themselves. No further delay in the instant action should be tolerated. Only after lengthy negotiations and pre-trial discovery procedures did the proposed settlement come into being. The objectors knew of the pending litigation and certainly could have sought intervention at an earlier time. The present motion appears to the Court to be merely a dilatory tactic.

The Court also denies the designation of a class action in the case at bar: The objectors argue that a mutual fund is a unique entity that can not be equated with a business corporation; and as a result, the shareholder of a mutual fund has a right to sue as an individual. The Court rejects this argument. The shareholder of a mutual fund does not attain a primary right to sue because the value of his share reflects the net asset value of the fund. Kauffman v. Dreyfus Fund Inc., 434 F.2d 727 (3rd Cir. 1970). Rather, it is the nature, of the right sought to be enforced that determines the proper way to bring suit. See 3b Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 23.1.16 at 23.1-103 (1973). [444]*444If the right belongs to the corporation, a suit seeking to enforce that right must be brought derivatively. On the other hand, a shareholder can bring an individual or a class action to enforce a personal right.

The rights sought to be enforced in the instant case clearly belong to the corporation and are enforceable derivatively. The sale of the advisory contract claim arises out of the contract and duty existing between the Funds and the adviser. Rosenfeld v. Black, 336 F.Supp. 84, (S.D.N.Y.1972). The right to sue for a breach of that duty is clearly with the Funds. The harm which a stockholder suffers from proxy violations ordinarily results from the harm done to the.corporation. J. I. Case Co. et al. v. Borak, 377 U.S. 426, 84 S.Ct. 1555, 12 L.Ed.2d 423 (1964). Although the Court recognizes that proxy claims can in certain circumstances be personal, the violations alleged here give the Court no reason to believe that they are rights which are personal to these particular shareholders. Similarly, churning, recapture of give-ups, and excessive advisory fees are all claims which belong to the Funds and to all shareholders in general.

Other considerations involved in the denial of the class action include the procedural difficulties in defining the class and giving notice to all members, plus the difficulties in effecting a distribution of recovery to all members. Notice problems and the difficulties in ascertaining who comprised the class were sufficient reasons for the court to deny a class action in King v. Kansas City Southern Industries Inc., 56 F.R.D. 96 (N.D.Ill.1972). In Eisen v. Carlisle and Jacquelin, 479 F.2d 1005 (2nd Cir. 1973), the court denied the class action since giving notice to individual members of the class was an impossibility.

The objectors do not convince the Court that they are any more entitled to share in any potential recovery than are present or future shareholders. An important factor in Rosenfeld v. Black, 445 F.2d 1337 (2nd Cir., 1971), was the concern that the purchaser of the advisory office who pays a substantial price for that office might not exercise the office with the best interests of the shareholders in mind. As a result, it may appear that the present and future shareholders are the ones who suffer by such a sale and are in an equitable sense entitled to recovery over the objectors and their class. See King v. Kansas City Southern Industries Inc., supra, 56 F.R.D. at 100.

Therefore the Court denies the objectors’ motion to intervene either individually or as shareholder class representatives.

II

The Court finds no valid reason to postpone action on the proposed settlement. Objectors’ motion to defer determination on the proposed settlement is consequently denied.

The proposed settlement includes two provisions. First, certain of defendants who are former shareholders are to place $1,000,000 of Marlennan stock in escrow, which will be turned over to the Funds upon Court approval of the settlement.

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Bluebook (online)
60 F.R.D. 441, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marcus-v-putnam-mad-1973.