Shenk ex rel. Sirius XM Radio Inc. v. Karmazin

867 F. Supp. 2d 379
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedOctober 28, 2011
DocketNos. 11 Civ. 2943 (JSR), 11 Civ. 3506 (JSR)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 867 F. Supp. 2d 379 (Shenk ex rel. Sirius XM Radio Inc. v. Karmazin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shenk ex rel. Sirius XM Radio Inc. v. Karmazin, 867 F. Supp. 2d 379 (S.D.N.Y. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

JED S. RAKOFF, District Judge.

In these two derivative actions on behalf of Sirius XM Radio, Inc. (“Sirius XM”), plaintiffs separately allege that the defendants, all of whom are either officers or directors at Sirius XM, committed certain transgressions while persuading regulators and shareholders to approve a merger between Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (“Sirius”) and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (“XM”), which the companies completed and closed on July 29, 2008. Specifically, plaintiff Goe alleges breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and waste of corporate assets. Plaintiff Shenk alleges breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and securities fraud in violation of § 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5. Additionally, Shenk, but not Goe, alleges that defendants breached their fiduciary duties and unjustly enriched themselves when they approved a refinancing transaction in 2009 in which defendant John C. Malone purchased a large share of Sirius XM.

On July 7, 2011, the defendants jointly moved to dismiss both plaintiffs’ complaints in their entireties. After full consideration of the parties’ briefs and oral arguments, the Court, on August 30, 2011, dismissed the entirety of plaintiff Goe’s complaint and dismissed Shenk claims against defendants Gregory Maffei, David Flowers, Carl Vogel, and Vanessa Whitman, and his claims for unjust enrichment except with respect to defendant John Malone, but otherwise denied defendants’ motion to dismiss Shenk’s complaint. This Memorandum Order explains the reasons for the Court’s rulings, directs the entry of final judgment dismissing the Goe complaint, and also corrects the oversight in the Court’s “bottom-line” Order of August 30, 2011. Specifically, the Court also meant to dismiss, and now hereby does dismiss, Shenk’s claim against Malone for breach of fiduciary duty.

Defendants primarily challenge the two complaints under provisions of applicable Delaware law and federal rules of procedure that require shareholders with a corporate grievance to either demand action from the corporation’s board of directors or show why such a demand would [382]*382be futile. The demand requirement implements “the basic principle of corporate governance that the decisions of a corporation-including the decision to initiate litigation — should be made by the board of directors or the majority of shareholders.” Daily Income Fund, Inc. v. Fox, 464 U.S. 523, 530, 104 S.Ct. 831, 78 L.Ed.2d 645 (1984).

Turning first to Goe’s complaint, the defendants argue that Goe failed to comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.1(b), which requires a plaintiff to (1) allege that he was a shareholder “at the time of the transaction complained of’ and (2) state with particularity “any effort by the plaintiff to obtain the desired action from the directors or comparable authority.” Fed.R.CivJP. 23.1(b)(1) & (3). Defendants further argue that Goe failed to meet the standing requirements of Delaware law,1 pursuant to which a plaintiff must allow the board to “ascertain through the exercise of due diligence whether the demand ... is coming from a shareholder,” Richelson v. Yost, 738 F.Supp.2d 589, 600 (E.D.Pa.2010), and must also “identify the alleged wrongdoers, describe the factual basis of the wrongful acts and the harm caused to the corporation, and request remedial relief.” Allison v. Gen. Motors Corp., 604 F.Supp. 1106, 1117 (D.Del.1985). Rule 23.1(b) and Delaware law, taken together, require Goe to reasonably demonstrate his shareholder status and to state with particularity how he has identified the wrongdoers, wrongful acts, and harms on which he bases his demand for action.

To satisfy these requirements, Goe notes that he sent a letter on February 25, 2011 to defendant Hartenstein, requesting that the Board cause the company to commence a lawsuit against members of the Board and others. Goe Cmplt. ¶ 66 & exh. A. The letter identified the wrongdoers as “certain current and former executive officers and directors of the Company,” including “Mel Karmazin,” the wrongful conduct as related to an antitrust “class action lawsuit filed against the Company,”2 and the harm as the amount of damages caused by breaches of fiduciary duties and the costs associated with the lawsuit. Id. exh. A. To demonstrate that he held stock, Goe attached to his letter documents that showed that he held shares on February 10, 2011 and that Infinity Trading Group purchased shares of Sirius in April of 2008. Id. The defendants argue that Goe’s letter did not meet the aforementioned standards of Rule 23.1(b) and Delaware law.

The Court agrees for two reasons. First, reference to the antitrust class action, without more, does not sufficiently identify “the factual basis of the wrongful acts” over which Goe requested suit. Not every antitrust suit results from an actionable breach of fiduciary duty by a director or an officer. Even if Sirius had already settled the antitrust suit, as it did later, such settlement would not necessarily indicate breaches of fiduciary duty, but might simply indicate a desire to avoid the costs of litigating. Thus, Goe’s invocation of the pending suit required the defendants to guess at how Goe thought that their misconduct had provoked the suit. Delaware law and Rule 23.1(b) require more.

Second, although Goe’s letter demonstrated that he personally owned stock at the time he wrote his demand letter, it failed to show that he owned stock at the time of the events of which he complained. Rather, it showed only that, at those earlier times, stock was held by “Infinity Trading Group.” But according to Goe’s own demand letter, Brian Goe, plaintiffs brother, was the “Sole Proprietor” of Infinity [383]*383Trading Group. Goe Cmplt. exh. A. In contrast, Jeffrey Goe, the plaintiff here, was merely an “authorized trader.” Id. Thus, Goe’s demand letter demonstrated only that Brian Goe, as sole proprietor of Infinity Trading Group, owned Sirius stock in 2008, when the conduct of which Jeffrey Goe complained occurred. Thus, Goe failed to adequately demonstrate to the board that he was a. shareholder at the time of the transaction complained of. Accordingly, the Court dismisses Goe’s complaint for failure to make an adequate presuit demand.

Turning next to Shenk’s complaint, Shenk did not make a demand but relied instead on the assertion that such a demand would have been futile. Delaware law allows a plaintiff bringing a derivative action to forgo demanding action by a corporation’s board of directors only when he either has good reason to doubt whether a majority of. the board is disinterested and independent because they “appear on both sides of a transaction [ ]or expect to derive any personal financial benefit from it in the sense of self-dealing,” or can show that directors did not satisfy the requirements of the business judgment rule. Aronson v. Lewis, 473 A.2d 805, 812-14 (Del.1984), overruled in part on other grounds by Brehm v. Eisner, 746 A.2d 244, 254 (Del.2000). Under Rule 23.1, moreover, a plaintiff must make particularized showings to prove futility.3

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Bluebook (online)
867 F. Supp. 2d 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shenk-ex-rel-sirius-xm-radio-inc-v-karmazin-nysd-2011.