New England Wooden Ware v. United States

289 F. Supp. 111, 22 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5465, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11943
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedAugust 29, 1968
DocketCiv. A. No. 67-99
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 289 F. Supp. 111 (New England Wooden Ware v. United States) 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
New England Wooden Ware v. United States, 289 F. Supp. 111, 22 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5465, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11943 (D. Mass. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

WYZANSKI, Chief Judge.

This is an action to recover income taxes collected from New England Wooden Ware Corporation for the three fiscal years ending April 30, 1962, 1963, and 1964. The issue is whether, as the language' of § 532 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 provides, that corporation was “availed of for the purpose of avoiding the income tax with respect to its shareholders * * * by permitting earnings and profits to accumulate instead of being divided or distributed.’'

In May 1929, to centralize control of certain of their operations in the manufacture of wooden pails and tubs, 3 independent enterprises manufacturing wooden ware products united to form plaintiff taxpayer. New England Box Company transferred its plant in Swanzey, New Hampshire to the taxpayer; E. Murdock Inc. (which had grown from a business begun in 1834 by an ancestor of William W. Whitney) in return for plaintiff’s stock, transferred to it a plant in Winchendon, Massachusetts; and Menasha Wooden Ware Company of Wisconsin, also in return for plaintiff’s stock, transferred to it the Keene, New Hampshire plant of a Menasha affiliate', Keene Wooden Ware Company.

In 1946, the market for wooden pails and tubs having declined, plaintiff sold the Keene plant and used the proceeds towards conversion of the Winchendon plant from the manufacture of wooden pails to the manufacture of corrugated boxes. Later plaintiff sold its Swanzey plant. Those sales followed extensive discussions by directors.

At all material times after 1946, 1,535 of the 3,000 shares of plaintiff’s stock have been held by or for the benefit of the Whitney family, and the remaining 1,465 shares by the Menasha company. Responding to their stock interest, the Whitneys have filled 3 of the 6 directorships, and Menasha the other 3. The most prominent and influential Menasha director has been Mowry Smith, a chief managing officer of Menasha. It was at his urging, and based on his experience at Menasha, that plaintiff converted to corrugated box manufacture.

During the directors’ discussions preceding plaintiff’s entry into the corru[113]*113gated box business, all directors showed awareness that wooden ware manufacture was no longer profitable for plaintiff. Indeed in 1946 plaintiff lost $39,-000, and the directors feared that the downhill trend would lead to liquidation, if not insolvency. The directors resolved on September 15, 1947 that “The Corporation is faced with complete liquidation in the near future, or entering into another line of business.”

Deciding to manufacture corrugated boxes, plaintiff immediately used its $106,000 profit from sale of the Keene plant. Then in June 1949, plaintiff’s directors decided it needed additional capital of over $300,000. By April 30, 1954 plaintiff had invested more than $322,000 in its corrugated box department. Most of this money came from loans by its stockholders. In 1956 the borrowing had created a then debt of $198,000. All the borrowings were not repaid until the year ending April 30, 1961.

At all times, both before and during the taxable years, plaintiff’s directors not only in form but in substance voted unanimously, and in particular William Whitney and Mowry Smith consulted orally and in writing with frequency to make certain that with respect to all action and inaction, including dividends in particular, there was a perfect meeting of the minds. Innumerable letters attest convincingly to this genuine mutuality, in no sense feigned to deceive others, or achieved out of deference or subservience to conciliate one another. One illustrative example is that in considering dividend action in the spring of 1961, the Menasha directors favored $15,000 and persuaded the Whitney directors to vote that amount rather than $9,000.

There is ample evidence that both the Whitney and Menasha interests were mindful of, and thought of benefitting from, Menasha’s own experience in expanding in corrugated box manufacture, sheet plants, paper-board plants, a plywood plant, a wood floor plant, ownership of timber land, and the plastics industry. Also all plaintiff’s directors were conscious of plaintiff’s “cellar position” with respect to other box manufacturers in New England, and to plaintiff’s national competition from concerns as widely known as Container Corporation, International Paper, West Virginia Pulp & Paper, St. Regis, and Union Bag.

In a letter to Smith in early 1961 Whitney expressed his views about what should be done with the plaintiff’s earnings: “I personally do not get any particular benefit out of retention of earnings, although I admit liking a substantial bank balance; but if the business stands still it goes back. If it has money enough to expand, it is far more apt to do more than if it has to borrow money for such expansion. New England Wooden Ware is mighty small in the box business, and unless it is plenty strong financially, it would not take competition very long to put us out of business” (Ex. 1, letter of January 27, 1961).

A few months later Whitney wrote again about the need for growth, asking for Smith’s advice: “A considerable while ago, you wrote me a letter asking what my plans were for New England Wooden Ware. I cannot remember what I answered you, but I think I said I wanted to get out of debt and expand the business. You did not criticize me for this ambition. Now I would like to ask you what New England Wooden Ware should plan to do, now that we are out of debt, but have not expanded very much” (Ex. 1, letter of May 21, 1961).

A month later Whitney wrote again about the same subject: “We for so long made no progress in the pail business, that it is the last thing I want to do now, if I can help it. I sincerely believe that if one stands still, he is going back. I should in some way increase sales. Menasha Wooden Ware has been able to do it, and I need help to do it here” (Ex. 1, letter of June 23, 1961).

The correspondence between Whitney and Smith specifically considers the pos[114]*114sibility of plaintiff’s expansion, like Menasha’s, into the plastic business. As a result of these discussions Whitney traveled to Watertown, Wisconsin, in December, 1961, and examined the G. B. Lewis Company plant (Ex. 1, letters of December 22, 27, 1961, February 2, 5, 8, 12, 1962). In the spring of 1962 one of Smith’s sons came to Winchendon and spent ten days visiting various local companies with Whitney to determine what the market was for plastics in New England (Ex. 1, letters of February 21, April 13, 1962; report of April 18, 1962).

In the summer of 1962, with the approval of the plaintiff’s other directors, Whitney made arrangements to have the well-known firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc. of Cambridge make a study of how the plaintiff could best enter the plastics industry. After a preliminary consideration of reinforced plastics, of the type manufactured by G. B. Lewis Company, Jenest of Arthur D. Little, Inc. reported that reinforced plastics was not a promising product opportunity for the plaintiff. The product that Jenest did recommend for further detailed study was a spiral wound fibre paint can with a plastic liner. There were two principal reasons for exploring this product opportunity: first, spiral wound fibre cans were being used successfully to package other liquid products, such as orange juice and motor oil; and, second, a substantial portion of the plaintiff’s customers for corrugated boxes were in the paint industry and would therefore constitute an established clientele for the sale of paint cans.

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Bluebook (online)
289 F. Supp. 111, 22 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5465, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-england-wooden-ware-v-united-states-mad-1968.