Pennsylvania Securities Commission v. Robinson Development Corp.

20 Pa. D. & C.2d 337, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 383
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedMarch 16, 1959
DocketCommonwealth docket, 1957, no. 352
StatusPublished

This text of 20 Pa. D. & C.2d 337 (Pennsylvania Securities Commission v. Robinson Development Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania Securities Commission v. Robinson Development Corp., 20 Pa. D. & C.2d 337, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 383 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

Herman, J.,

— This case comes before us by way of an appeal by Robinson Development Corporation, appellant, from an adjudication of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. The appeal was taken under authority contained in the Administrative Agency Law of June 4,1945, P. L. 1388, 71 PS §1710.1 et seq., and in conformity with Pa. R. C. P. 1 to 13 inclusive.

We are principally concerned here with the construction of section 2(f) (8) and the proviso following section 2(f) (17) of The Pennsylvania Securities Act of June 24, 1939, P. L. 748, as reenacted by the Act of July 10, 1941, P. L. 317, 70 PS §31 et seq.

This act, as so aptly said by Judge Neely of this court in Pennsylvania Securities Commission v. Sheridan, 65 Dauph. 104, 107 (1953), “is a ‘Blue Sky Law’ of the type known as a ‘Fraud Act/ that is to say, it has for its purpose the protection of the investing public from fraud in the sale of securities. To accomplish this purpose, it registers the persons engaged in the sale of securities as dealers and salesmen.” It further enumerates the things that a dealer and salesman may or may not do, and provides penalties for violations by such persons. In defining the word “dealer” it is shown in section 2(f) of the act that a corporation [339]*339selling its own stock through its officers, or directors, or agents may be a dealer, but this section further sets forth a number of types of transactions which do not1 constitute a person a dealer within the meaning of the act, and therefore not subject to regulation, and subdivision (8) thereof describes the type of transaction with which we are here involved. That subdivision provides that a person is not a dealer when the transactions in which he engages are:

“Sales wherein the issuer, a company organized under the laws of this State . . . disposes of its own securities in good faith and not for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this act for the sole account of the issuer, without any commission or fee and at a total expense of not more than three per centum of the proceeds realized thereon, and where no part of the issue is used, directly or indirectly, in payment for patents, services, good will, or for property located outside of this State”: 70 PS §32.

And then further in section 2 (/) of the act, after subdivision (17), it is said:

“Provided, however, That the exemptions granted by subdivisions (8), (9) and (10) of this subsection (f) shall not be effective to exempt any person as a ‘dealer’ until five (5). days after such person shall have filed in the office of the commission or mailed to the commission at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by prepaid registered mail, a statement, in such form as the commission may prescribe, of the facts relied on by such person to bring the proposed transaction within the terms of one or more of said subdivisions (8), (9) or (10) and shall not be effective if the commission shall have notified such person that exemption has been denied70 PS §32.

In the instant case Robinson Development Corporation, a domestic corporation, was incorporated on July [340]*3406, 1956, and the form required by the commission to secure the exemption pursuant to the above section was filed by it on July 25, 1956. On this form the preamble recites that it is a “Statement of facts relied on to bring the sale of securities within the terms of subdivision (8) of subsection (f) of Section 2 of ‘The Pennsylvania Securities Act,’ ” and then quotes the section, the pertinent parts of which appear above.

There then follows on the form 12 numbered paragraphs, some containing blanks to be filled in by the applicant, which when completed include its name, the date of its incorporation, the stock which it proposes to issue and sell, the names of its officials, a statement that the securities are to be issued for the sole account of the corporation applying for the exemption, a statement that no commission or fee is to be paid to any person or organization for or in connection with the offer or sale of said securities, a statement of the total expenses of the corporation in connection with the sale of said securities, the minimum price at which the shares will be sold, a statement that if any of the securities are to be sold for consideration other than cash, then the description of such property to be received and its minimum fair market value shall be set forth, a statement that the cash or other consideration to be received by the corporation from the sale of the securities will not be employed directly or indirectly for the purchase of patents, services, good will or property located outside of Pennsylvania, from any person to whom said securities are sold, and a statement that the securities are to be disposed of by the corporation in good faith and not for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of The Pennsylvania Securities Act.

Appellant stated on this form that 300,000 shares of common stock at $1 par value would be issued and offered for sale; that all of it was to be sold for cash [341]*341at the minimum price of $1 per share and that no part was to be sold for a consideration other than cash.

Paragraphs 8 and 10 of the form which are particularly applicable here read as follows:

“8. The cash or other consideration to be received by the undersigned from the sale of said securities will not be employed directly or indirectly for the purchase of patents, services, good will, or property located outside of Pennsylvania, from any person to whom said securities are sold.”

“10. Said securities are to be disposed of by the undersigned in good faith and not for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of ‘The Pennsylvania Securities Act.’ ”

The form, after having been completed by appellant, was then executed by the corporation, and the truth of the facts therein was sworn to by its secretary.

On the strength of this application, on August 11, 1956, the exemption was granted, and then, on or about August 14, 1956, 60,000 shares of the common stock of the corporation were issued to Louis M. Robinson and his wife, or as later stated in Mr. Robinson’s testimony, 40,000 shares to Louis M. Robinson and his wife, Emma, 10,000 shares to Maurice Robinson, a brother, and 10,000 shares to M. R. Lloyd, a sister, as his nominees. The only consideration moving to the Robinson Development Corporation for these shares was variously testified by Robinson to be the right “to assemble and distribute the Robinson patents,” the “exclusive rights for assembling and developing this mechanism in the State of Pennsylvania,” the “exclusive rights to assemble and distribute this product in the State of Pennsylvania,” “a license to assemble it and sell the finished product,” “the franchise” and the “exclusive right to receive all profits from the sale of this device in the State of Pennsylvania.”

[342]*342Louis M. Robinson had testified that he was the inventor of, among other things, a skid control device, which, according to his claims, when attached to automobiles and trucks, would enable the operator to avoid skids and to get out of snow drifts and off icy roads. It was never clearly shown whether the patent for this device had actually been issued or only applied for, but it does appear that “L. Robinson” had, in April of 1957, received at least two patents, and at that time several others were pending.

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Bluebook (online)
20 Pa. D. & C.2d 337, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 383, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-securities-commission-v-robinson-development-corp-pactcompldauphi-1959.