Nationwide Corp. v. Schneider

218 N.E.2d 611, 7 Ohio St. 2d 59, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 48, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 315
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 1966
DocketNo. 39895
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 218 N.E.2d 611 (Nationwide Corp. v. Schneider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nationwide Corp. v. Schneider, 218 N.E.2d 611, 7 Ohio St. 2d 59, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 48, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 315 (Ohio 1966).

Opinions

Brown, J.

The tax overpayment which is claimed was payable upon the total value of the stock of the corporation issued and outstanding. Section 5733.05, Revised Code, requires the Tax Commissioner to divide that value into two equal parts. That section further requires the Tax Commissioner to determine the fraction which represents the ratio of the corporation’s property in Ohio to all its property wherever situated and to determine the fraction which represents the ratio of the corporation’s business done within this state to all its business wherever done. The Tax Commissioner is then required to apply one of the fractions against one of the two parts of the company’s total value and the remaining fraction against the remaining part of the company’s total value for the purpose of determining the base upon which the Ohio franchise tax is payable.

The appellant does not contest the tax assessed against that one-half of the certified value which is based on the application of the property-value ratio. It does, however, contest the assessment of the tax which is based upon application of the “business-done” ratio formula. It claims that the company is a quiescent holding company which, under this court’s holding in Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., 152 Ohio St. 404, was not engaged in a profit-making activity and was not doing business within the meaning of Section 5733.05. Revised Code. If this is true, the fraction applicable to business done would be zero over zero. As a result, one half of the company’s total value would not be considered in arriving at the base subject to the franchise tax.

The Tax Commissioner and the Board of Tax Appeals disagreed with this position, argued that the activities in which the company had engaged in the year in question amounted to doing business as defined in this court’s holding in Cliffs Corp. v. Evatt, Tax Commr., 138 Ohio St. 336, and did not fall within Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., supra.

Cliffs Corp. v. Evatt, Tax Commr., supra, recognizes the rule that a holding company which is no more than an intermediary or instrumentality for its shareholders and acts only as a conduit in the receipt and distribution of dividends for shareholders is not engaged in the doing of business. However, [61]*61some of the acts discussed in Cliffs as being evidence of “doing business” are discussed in Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., supra, as being proper activities of “quiescent” or “dormant holding companies.” For example, in Cliffs Corp. v. Evatt, Tax Commr., supra, it is said:

“The business in which the appellant was engaged was gathering and distributing profits growing out of the iron and steel industry, by the management and ownership of stocks in corporations engaged in such industry, and it was to engage in that business that the appellant was organized and has continued in existence. Appellant’s activities in the care and management of those stocks during the year 193'8 constituted business done within the meaning of the statute.” (Emphasis added.)

On the other hand, Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., supra, clearly holds that such activities are “not doing business,” even though additional shares are purchased during the year in question, dividends are received and proxies are executed which authorized the voting of the shares held in the subsidiary company.

To the extent that Cliffs Corp. v. Evatt, Tax Commr., supra, is irreconcilable with Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., supra, the latter case should be considered as overruling the former. The two cases agree that holding companies which participate and assert influence in the management of the companies whose stocks make up their investment portfolio are doing business. In Standard Carloading Corp. v. Glander, Tax Commr., supra, the presence of participation and influence in the affairs of the subsidiary company were found not to exist as a matter of fact and in the opinion in that case the following appears at page 409: “In the absence of the showing of some active participation for profit in a business activity the corporation is not doing business.”

Nationwide Corporation points to the statement of the Board of Tax Appeals in its opinion which says: “* * * the evidence of any intervention or active management by the Nationwide Corporation in the affairs of its subsidiaries is very small and may only be assumed from such facts as the interlocking of appellant’s officers and directors with those of the subsidiaries,” the appellant corporation was “actively engaged in the invest[62]*62ment' business and was not a dormant holding corporation as was the Standard Carloading Corporation.”

This assumption is a violent one, not borne out by the evidence. In Continental Baking Corp. v. Higgins, Collr. (C. C. A. 2), 130 F. 2d 164, 167, the suggestion that such an assumption could stand in the presence of evidence refuting it was rejected by Judge Augustus N. Hand, in these words:

“The suggestion that the identity of the directors and officers of the various affiliated corporations indicates Chat the plaintiff was actively interfering with the conduct of the business of the operating corporations and thereby had a status other than that of a mere holding company is not borne out by the evidence. The statement of its president to the contrary is met only by evidence elicited on cross-examination of the secretary-treasurer of all the companies who testified that directors of Continental Baking Corporation were ‘kept * * * informed of our operations’ and that the financial statements of the subsidiaries were discussed and reviewed. To have done less than these directors did would have been to neglect their obvious duties and their legal obligations. They were bound not only to be familiar with the situation but as fiduciaries for the sole stockholder, to keep themselves in a position, in which by removal of the directors of the operating companies at the next corporate elections or by other appropriate means they ivould be able to check any neglect or abuse on the part of such companies. To maintain the status as a holding company was far different from actively interfering in the business of the subsidiaries * * (Emphasis added.)

It seems to us that Nationwide passes the test laid down by both Carloading and Cliffs in that it did not actively participate or interfere in the business of its subsidiaries. Hence, its relationship to its subsidiaries is consistent with its claimed status as a quiescent holding company.

The Board of Tax Appeals found also that Nationwide was “actively engaged in the investment business.”

Since its incorporation in 1955, appellant has held substantially all the voting shares of the same eleven subsidiary corporations. There is no evidence that any of these were held for the purpose of resale at a profit so as to make these holdings [63]*63the stock-in-trade of the Nationwide Corporation.

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Bluebook (online)
218 N.E.2d 611, 7 Ohio St. 2d 59, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 48, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nationwide-corp-v-schneider-ohio-1966.