Mitchell Partners, L.P. v. Irex Corp.

656 F.3d 201, 2011 WL 3841007
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 31, 2011
Docket10-4040, 10-4091
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 656 F.3d 201 (Mitchell Partners, L.P. v. Irex Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mitchell Partners, L.P. v. Irex Corp., 656 F.3d 201, 2011 WL 3841007 (3d Cir. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

This matter comes to us under our jurisdiction over diversity of citizenship cases. 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Beginning with the First Judiciary Act of 1789, Congress authorized federal courts to hear suits “between a citizen of the State where the suit is brought, and a citizen of another State.” § 11, 1 Stat. 73, 78 (1789). The grant of diversity jurisdiction to federal courts was controversial at its inception and continues to be. See Charles Alan Wright, Law of Federal Courts § 23 (5th ed.1994). A byproduct of that jurisdiction is the requirement that the federal court must apply the law declared by the supreme court of the relevant state. See Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 496-97, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). If there is no applicable decision of the highest court of the state, then federal courts must make a prediction as to the law that would be applied were the issue before it, an issue that has occupied many judges and courts.1 The issue, however, does arise in the present case and the Supreme Court has made clear that a federal court is not free to [204]*204decline jurisdiction in a diversity case merely because the issue is a difficult one.

Therefore, we must decide the important issue of Pennsylvania corporate law that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has not yet explicitly addressed. The issue is whether the Pennsylvania statute providing for appraisal of the value of the shares of minority shareholders who are “squeezed out” in a cash-out merger precludes all other remedies. In this case, a substantial minority shareholder of Irex Corp., that is, Mitchell Partners, L.P., which is participating in an appraisal proceeding in state court, also asserted a post-merger claim for damages in federal district court in Pennsylvania, alleging breach of fiduciary duties by the majority shareholders in connection with Irex’s cash-out merger with North Lime Holdings. The District Court held that the appraisal remedy was exclusive and therefore dismissed Mitchell Partners’ complaint in its entirety. Mitchell Partners filed this timely appeal.

I.2

Appellant Mitchell Partners, L.P., a California limited partnership, was formerly a minority shareholder of Irex Corporation (“Irex”), owning more than 11,000 shares of Irex common stock. Irex was a privately held Pennsylvania corporation with its shares traded over the counter and not on a public stock exchange. Irex was the parent corporation of several companies that installed and maintained mechanical insulation, sheet metal, and passive fire protection. Irex’s companies also removed asbestos, lead, and other hazardous materials.

Irex was governed by a board of directors and several corporate officers. Collectively, the directors and officers owned approximately 43% of Irex stock. With the exception of two officers, the Irex directors and officers are all defendants in this case.3

On April 26, 2006, defendant W. Kirk Liddell, President, CEO and Chairman of the Irex board, sent a confidential memorandum to the directors and officers outlining a plan, referred to as the North Lime Proposal, that was designed to enhance their own net worth by consolidating ownership of Irex among themselves and a handful of other “participating” shareholders by buying out the minority Irex shareholders. The directors, officers, and certain other favored participating shareholders are the insider or North Lime shareholders. Under the North Lime Proposal, the insider shareholders were to create a separate holding company, North Lime Holdings Corporation, under the insiders’ exclusive ownership and control. North Lime would then acquire 100% of Irex through a cash-out merger between Irex and a wholly-owned North Lime subsidiary, Irex Acquisition Corporation.

Specifically, the North Lime Proposal detailed that prior to the merger, the insider shareholders would exchange their Irex stock for North Lime stock. By so doing, North Lime would obtain majority ownership of Irex. At the same time, the insider shareholders would retain owner[205]*205ship of Irex indirectly through their ownership of North Lime.4 Under the terms of the merger, the non-participating, non-insider minority shareholders would be given cash in exchange for their ownership interest in Irex. The defendants proceeded as planned.

Once Liddell had garnered sufficient insider shareholder support for the North Lime Proposal, the insider defendants, through defendant Lori Piekell, Irex’s CFO, informed all Irex shareholders by mail of the proposed merger. The letter explained that “[a] group of Irex shareholders holding approximately 50% of the outstanding Irex shares will contribute their shares to a new holding company [North Lime Holdings]; ... [that] Irex will become a subsidiary of [North Lime]; ... [and that] Irex shareholders, other than [North Lime] shareholders, will receive $60 per share in cash in exchange for their Irex shares.” App. at 183. A week later, Mitchell Partners wrote to Piekell and lodged its opposition to the proposed merger, which it viewed as a squeeze out of minority shareholders at an unfair price.

On May 31, 2006, a special meeting of the Irex board was convened to discuss the North Lime Proposal. At the meeting, the board amended its bylaws to add three additional directors who were supposedly “disinterested” in the North Lime Proposal. That is, unlike the rest of the board, they had no financial stake in the outcome and did not sit on either side of the proposed merger. These “disinterested” board members would form a Special Committee charged with reviewing and commenting on the fairness of the proposed merger and independently negotiating with North Lime on behalf of the minority shareholders.

However, as alleged in the complaint, rather than being neutral, the selected Special Committee members had strong ties to the North Lime insiders: two were former Irex directors and the third was a businessman who provided services to one or more of the insider defendants.5 In June 2006, the Irex bylaws were once again amended to indemnify the Special Committee from liability for actions taken in the course of their evaluation of the proposed merger.

The complaint alleges that once the Special Committee began its review, the insider directors influenced and controlled the Special Committee’s consideration of fair value for the minority stock in several ways, thereby breaching the fiduciary duties they owed to minority shareholders. First, the insiders influenced the Special Committee and its financial advisor, Curtis Financial Group (“Curtis”), to accept the conclusion that the bankruptcy filed by one of Irex’s subsidiaries, AC & S, had greatly depressed the value of Irex stock. AC & S had filed for bankruptcy in 2002 because it was the subject of approximately 100,000 unresolved asbestos litigation claims. But in 2000, AC & S had initiated litigation of its own against its insurer, Travelers Indemnity Company (“Travelers”), for coverage of those claims. By the summer of 2006, the insiders knew or had reason to know that the litigation between AC &

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
656 F.3d 201, 2011 WL 3841007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-partners-lp-v-irex-corp-ca3-2011.