Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Madison Fund, Inc.

547 F. Supp. 1383, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9705
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedOctober 4, 1982
Docket82 Civ. 6108(MP)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 547 F. Supp. 1383 (Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Madison Fund, Inc.) 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
Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Madison Fund, Inc., 547 F. Supp. 1383, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9705 (S.D.N.Y. 1982).

Opinion

DECISION AND OPINION

MILTON POLLACK, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Todd Shipyards Corporation (“Todd” hereafter) sues for a permanent injunction to block the defendants Madison Fund, Inc. (the “Fund”) and Bernard L. Schwartz from making further purchases of Todd’s common stock and for various relief on their present holdings, charging that defendants violated § 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78m(d)(l) [the Williams Act] by the allegedly deficient Schedule 13D filed on September 3, 1982 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the New York Stock Exchange pursuant to the Act and the Rules and Regulations promulgated thereunder. Plaintiff also joined as defendants, the President, Gould, and the Vice-President, Breed, of the Fund and the defendant Furman, Selz, a corporate registered broker-dealer, and its Executive Vice-President, the defendant Mager. (The brokers are joined as alleged members of the purchasing group and as alleged beneficial owners of stock acquired by the group).

Jurisdiction is posited on the federal questions involved. Section 27 of the 1934 Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78aa, and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1337.

The matter was brought before the Court by order to show cause for a preliminary injunction and following expedited discovery, the issues were tried at a Bench trial. In conformity with Rule 65(a)(2) Fed. R.Civ.P. and on consent of the parties, the Court advanced and consolidated the trial on the merits of this action with the hearing on the preliminary injunction.

The proofs presented consisted of testimony of witnesses, depositions and exhibits. At the conclusion of the trial, decision was reserved. On due deliberation and weighing the evidence, circumstances and probabilities and assessing the credibility of the witnesses, the complaint must be dismissed for failure of the plaintiff to carry its burden of proof to establish its claims by a fair preponderance of the credible evidence. The background follows.

The Parties

Plaintiff Todd is a New York corporation whose stock is registered pursuant to Section 12 of the 1934 Act, 15 U.S.C. § 781, and which is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It has approximately 5,000,000 shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Todd’s business consists of shipbuilding and repair and a substantial portion of its revenues is derived from government contracts. Todd’s treasury contains approximately $100 million in what was described by a witness as “redundant cash”.

Defendant Madison Fund is an investor in the common stock of Todd. It is a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company registered under Section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. §§ 80a-8 (“the 1940 Act”). On April 21,1982, the Madison Fund shareholders voted to authorize the Fund to “cease” being a registered investment company and management of Madison Fund has engaged in a search for acquisition opportunities which would qualify it for exemption from the requirements of the 1940 Act. Thus, it has stated that investments would be made in majority owned and controlled subsidiaries to the extent that the Fund might be in a position to submit the appropriate applications to the SEC for deregistration as an investment company should it so desire.

Defendant Schwartz is the chairman of the board of directors of Loral Corporation (“Loral”), a corporation engaged primarily in the design and manufacture of defense electronic systems and electronic communications products. He owns and has the power to vote 134,200 shares of Todd’s outstanding shares.

The Relationship of Schwartz and Madison Fund with Respect to Todd

In July 1982 Schwartz approached Madison Fund, with which he was previously acquainted, and invited it to consider mak *1385 ing a substantial investment in Todd. Madison Fund after evaluating the possibility, agreed to go forward and said it would consider acquiring up to 25% of Todd’s outstanding stock. Schwartz had indicated that he was willing to commit approximately $5-6 million of his funds to purchase Todd stock which would translate into approximately 5% of the outstanding stock at the then prevailing market price. To equalize their relationship they entered into an agreement on August 24, 1982 whereby each granted to the other a right of first refusal if either were to decide to sell its or his Todd’s stock. Madison Fund also granted to Schwartz an option to purchase up to 15% of its shares of Todd under certain circumstances at a price based upon Madison Fund’s cost. Schwartz, in turn, granted Furman, Selz, the brokerage firm which introduced the matter, an option to acquire a portion of the Todd shares which were covered by the option agreement between Schwartz and Madison Fund if and after such shares were acquired by Schwartz. Furman, Selz also is being compensated up to $550,000 by Madison Fund and Schwartz as a “financial advisory fee”.

The Fund and Schwartz, each for their own account, and in advance of concluding an agreement between them, began purchasing Todd common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The on-going negotiations between them actually produced mutual assent on all essential terms and written contracts between them and with the stock brokers, came into being on August 24, 1982. They then called on the president of Todd, to explain their purposes and investment plan. They explained that they were interested stockholders who did not regard their investment as hostile and would not constitute a threat to management. They stated their high regard for Todd’s management and the effective job it had done and that they had no plans of acquiring a specific percentage of Todd stock, but that their investment might reach 30 percent.

Schwartz and the Fund’s president, Gould, also discussed in particular with Todd’s president their ideas for Todd’s possibly utilizing its excess liquid assets (“redundant cash”) to a greater benefit. They stated that,as important stockholders they would find a method for expressing their views to the board in a friendly posture and thus by their knowledge, skill and background, make a contribution to the welfare of Todd.

The reaction of Todd’s president was to tense up, prepare to resist intrusion by his callers into Todd’s affairs, and shortly to retain counsel with instructions to threaten Madison Fund with suit should it exceed the 5% level of stock ownership in Todd and proceed to file a Schedule 13D. Madison Fund was so told by counsel for Todd — his words being: “when they file the 13D, rockets will go off”. 1

Todd’s directors, management and employees own 7% of the outstanding shares of Todd, and an additional 11-12% of the shares are in the hands of shareholders closely related to management.

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Bluebook (online)
547 F. Supp. 1383, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/todd-shipyards-corp-v-madison-fund-inc-nysd-1982.