North American Utilities Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner

36 B.T.A. 320, 1937 BTA LEXIS 742
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJuly 13, 1937
DocketDocket Nos. 75039, 75960, 75961, 75900. *
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 36 B.T.A. 320 (North American Utilities Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
North American Utilities Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner, 36 B.T.A. 320, 1937 BTA LEXIS 742 (bta 1937).

Opinion

[321]*321OPINION.

Harron:

In the petitions, Docket Nos. 75039, 75960, and 75961, the facts have been stipulated by the parties. Attached to the stipulation of facts and made part thereof are certain exhibits. We adopt the stipulation of facts with the appended exhibits as our findings of fact and incorporate them by reference. The petitioner and respondent in Docket No. 75900 have stipulated that the decision in the above petitions will control and be accepted as final.

The North American Utility Securities Corporation is a Maryland corporation with offices in New Jersey. In 1931 it owned 50,000 shares of the common stock of the Newport Co., which cost $1,155,252.64. The other petitioners are individuals who owned stock of the Newport Co. in 1931 as follows: Armin A. Schlesinger, president of the Newport Co., owned 48,789 shares of common stock, of which he had owned for over two years 43,005 shares which cost $606,265.76, and for less than two years he had owned 5,784 shares which cost $116,297.17. He also purchased in 1931, 600 additional. shares which cost $9,262.50; Kathleen M. Schlesinger was beneficiary of the A. A. Schlesinger trust and was entitled to two-thirds of the income of the trust. In 1931 the trust owned 41,463.6 shares of common stock which cost $595,886.07. Mabel B. Smithers owned 1,430 shares of common stock of which 1,200 shares costing $661.30 had been held for more than two years and 230 shares costing $5,679.79 had been held for less than two years.

The Newport Co., hereinafter referred to as “Newport”, in October 1931, had outstanding 32,945 shares of class A convertible stock of $50 par value and 519,347 shares of no par common stock. Newport stock was widely held.

Newport was a Delaware corporation. It was engaged in the dyestuffs and chemical business, which it carried on through wholly owned subsidiaries. It also carried on itself a wood distillate business through an operating division called the Wood Distillate Division. Newport owned all the capital stock of Newport Chemical Corporation, which owned property and carried on the dyestuffs and chemical manufacturing business and also owned all .the stock of four subsidiaries engaged in the chemical manufacturing business. The Newport Chemical Corporation will be referred to as “Chemical.”

[322]*322Pursuant to an agreement dated July 31, 1931, amended August 13, 1931, made by Newport with E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., hereafter called “du Pont”, the dye and chemical business of Newport, carried on through Chemical, was conveyed to du Pont August 25,1931. Property, assets, and business of Chemical were exchanged for 103,500 shares of 6 percent nonvoting debenture stock of du Pont of a par value of $100 per share. Newport received 3,785 shares of the total du Pont stock directly from du Pont in exchange for all the outstanding stock of Chemical. Newport received from Chemical 99,715 shares of the du Pont stock and $459,366.24 cash, which was the consolidated net earnings and cash on hand and in banks of Chemical and its wholly owned subsidiaries. Chemical thereafter had no assets and Newport had du Pont stock and cash in return for the dye business it formerly owned. Chemical was dissolved in December 1931.

On September 1, 1931, the directors of Newport resolved to organize a new company for the purpose of taking over the wood distillate business and to thereafter dissolve Newport. Stockholders were notified of this entire plan September 5. Newport Industries, Inc., was organized and, effective September 28, the wood distillate business and property of Newport and $1,400,000 working capital consisting of cash and du Pont 6 percent debenture stock was transferred to Newport Industries in return for 519,347 shares of capital stock of Newport Industries. Effective October 3, the Newport Industries stock having a value of $8 per share was distributed as a dividend to the common stockholders of Newport on a share for share basis in accordance with the plan of reorganization. ■ Newport common stockholders did not surrender their Newport common stock. The respondent concedes that there was a reorganization effected by this transaction between Newport and Newport Industries, within section 112 (i) (1) (B) of the Revenue Act of 1928.

Dissolution of Newport was contemplated in the plan of reorganization and was formally approved by the stockholders October 23. Thereafter, the remaining assets of Newport, consisting of cash and du Pont debentures, were distributed to the stockholders as follows: Class A convertible stock was redeemed at $55 per share with accrued dividends; each common stockholder received 5 cents on each share of common, plus one share of du Pont stock for 6½ shares of common stock of Newport, fractional shares being paid for in cash at the rate of $107,125 per share of du Pont Debenture Stock (the net price realized for shares of such stock sold for that purpose on October 26, 1931) equal to $16,481 per share of the Newport Common Stock representing a fractional interest. The Newport Common stockholders surrendered their common stock on this distribution. Newport was dissolved October 26,1931.

[323]*323The petitioners in this proceeding have treated the distribution of Newport Industries stock as a tax-free distribution under section 112 (g).1 (All references to statutory provisions herein refer to the Revenue Act of 1928.) They have treated the distribution of du Pont stock and cash as a distribution in liquidation under section 115 (c).1 Treating these distributions as two separate transactions they have computed gains and loss on an adjusted basis for the Newport stock, allocating the original cost of Newport common between Newport common and Newport Industries stock. (Art. 600, Regulations 74.) The respondent alleges error in this procedure and contends that there was a general plan of reorganization of Newport encompassing both the transfers of property and stock of its subsidiary, Chemical, to du Pont and the transfer of property to Newport Industries; that section 112 (g) is not applicable and that the exchange of Newport common stock was for the Newport Industries stock as well as du Pont stock and cash; and that since section 115 (c) is limited by section 112, section 112 (e)1 is applicable and no loss may be allowed in Docket No. 75039, and that the distribution of Newport Industries stock comes under the provisions of section 112 (b) (3)1 notwithstanding that the certificates of common stock of Newport were not surrendered, so that gain or loss on the entire series of distributions should be recognized only to the extent provided in sections 112 (b) (3), (c) (1) and (e).1 -*

Section 112 (g) and its counterparts2 were contained in the statute from the Revenue Act of 1924 until omitted by the Revenue Act of 1934. Section 115 (c) in its present form also appeared for the first [324]*324time in the Revenue Act of 1924 (section 201 (c)). The interrelation of these two sections has been considered in several cases and the respondent here does not seem to advance any theory of recovery which has not been considered before. See James M. Harrison, 30 B. T. A. 966 Rudolph Boehringer, 29 B. T. A. 8; Gross v. Commissioner, 88 Fed. (2d) 567.

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Related

Park & Tilford v. Commissioner
43 B.T.A. 348 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1941)
Mellon v. Commissioner
36 B.T.A. 977 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)
North American Utilities Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner
36 B.T.A. 320 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 B.T.A. 320, 1937 BTA LEXIS 742, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/north-american-utilities-sec-corp-v-commissioner-bta-1937.