Abraham & Co. v. Olivetti Underwood Corp.

• Decision Date: 05 November 1964
• Citation: 204 A.2d 740,42 Del.Ch. 95
• Parties: ABRAHAM AND CO. et al., Plaintiffs, v. OLIVETTI UNDERWOOD CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, Defendant.
• Court: Court of Chancery of Delaware

Page 740

204 A.2d 740

42 Del.Ch. 95

ABRAHAM AND CO. et al., Plaintiffs, v. OLIVETTI UNDERWOOD CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, Defendant.

Court of Chancery of Delaware, New Castle County.

Nov. 5, 1964.

Arthur J. Sullivan, of Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams, Wilmington, for certain stockholders.

Other stockholders appeared pro se.

Bruce M. Stargatt, of Morford, Young & Conaway, Wilmington, and Daggett H. Howard, Oscar Cox and Peter D. Ehrenhaft, of Cox, Langford & Brown, Washington, D. C., for defendant.

SEITZ, Chancellor:

Certain minority stockholders involved in a short form merger under 8 Del.C. § 253 seek a statutory appraisal. The resulting corporation ('corporation') objects and this is the decision after hearing.

The corporation first contends that certain brokers who are registered stockholders and who seek an appraisal are not entitled thereto because they have failed to submit satisfactory proof of their authority to act for the beneficial owners of the stock involved. The fact of separate beneficial ownership was established in the course of the merger proceedings. No direct authority is cited in support of the corporation's position. The case of Societe Internationale Pour Participations Industrielles Et Commerciales, S. A. v. Rogers, 357 U.S 197, 78 S.Ct. 1087, 2 L.Ed.2d 1255 has no application, as a cursory reading will show. The case of Reynolds Metal Co. v. Colonial Realty Corp., Del.Ch., 190 A.2d 752, dealt with the right of a broker registered owner to vote certain of such shares for a merger and then seek an appraisal as to other shares so held. Our Supreme Court ruled that such a broker was entitled to an appraisal even though it was not the beneficial owner. In discussing the case the court did say that the corporation could inquire into the authority of the registered stockholder to act as agent. The court cited Zeeb v. Atlas Powder Co., 32 Del.Ch. 486, 87 A.2d 123 as being applicable by analogy. In that case the corporation was held to have the burden of showing lack of authority in challenging a stockholder's right to an appraisal and in that connection was said to have the right to inquire

The Reynolds case involved the right of the corporation to question whether a stockholder had complied with statutory prerequisites to an appraisal. No such issue is here involved. The Zeeb case involved action by a purported agent of a registered stockholder and the issue was whether evidence of the agent's authority had to be presented by the agent. There is no question of any purported agent's authority here insofar as compliance with the appraisal statute is concerned. I conclude that neither the Reynolds nor the Zeeb case is applicable here.

In Salt Dome Oil Corp. v. Schenk, 28 Del.Ch. 433, 41 A.2d 583, 158 A.L.R. 975, our Supreme Court emphasized that in an appraisal proceeding the corporation is required to look only to the registered stockholder. It gave as one reason for its conclusion the fact that in this type of situation the corporation ought not to be involved in possible differences between the registered and beneficial owner. That reasoning is also pertinent when, as here, the corporation seeks to raise an issue of the registered owner's authority. To suggest that because a corporation learns that a registered owner seeking an appraisal is not the beneficial owner imposes on the corporation a duty to seek proof of his authority to act is to inject the corporation into one of the very problems from which it is insulated by being able to rely on the stock ledger. This is particularly true where, as here, the corporation has no evidence that the registered owners may be acting contrary to the wishes of the beneficial owners. The court cannot agree with the corporation's suggestion that as to some the record negatived the possibility that they acted with authority. Thus, in this posture of the case at least, the corporation has no right to raise any issue as to the right of a registered owner to seek a statutory appraisal and such a stockholder has no duty to supply proof as to that issue. It follows that these broker-registered stockholders are entitled to an appraisal.

The corporation next contends that the communications of certain stockholders (Shields & Co. and Teitelbaums) do not constitute the written demands for payment required by the appraisal statute.

As noted, this was a short form merger under 8 Del.C. § 253. That section provides in part that 'If any such stockholder [minority stockholder of the...