Donovan v. Bierwirth

• Decision Date: 10 May 1982
• Docket Number: No. 880,D,880
• Citation: 64 ALR Fed. 580,680 F.2d 263
• Parties: , 3 Employee Benefits Ca 1417 Raymond J. DONOVAN, Secretary of the United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John C. BIERWIRTH, Robert G. Freese and Carl A. Paladino, Defendants-Appellants. and Joseph W. Ullman, Lillian E. Baldissard, Rita V. Hafner, Anthony Pancella, Jr., Kathleen T. Chew and Benjamin L. Crews, Intervenors-Appellants. ocket 82-6004.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 263

680 F.2d 263

64 A.L.R.Fed. 580, 3 Employee Benefits Ca 1417

Raymond J. DONOVAN, Secretary of the United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John C. BIERWIRTH, Robert G. Freese and Carl A. Paladino Defendants-Appellants and Joseph W. Ullman, Lillian E. Baldissard, Rita V. Hafner Anthony Pancella, Jr., Kathleen T. Chew and Benjamin L. Crews, Intervenors-Appellants.

No. 880, Docket 82-6004.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 19, 1982.

Decided May 10, 1982.

Robert N. Eccles, Atty., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C. (T. Timothy Ryan, Jr., Sol. of Labor, Monica Gallagher, Associate Sol., and Norman P. Goldberg, Sherwin S. Kaplan and Jane M. Kheel, Attys., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

Raymond L. Falls, Jr., New York City (Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, David R. Hyde and P. Kevin Castel, New York City, of counsel), for defendants-appellants.

Before FRIENDLY and PIERCE, Circuit Judges, and METZNER, District Judge. ^*

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge:

I. The Nature of the Action and the Proceedings in the District Court

This action was brought on October 19, 1981, by the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) under § 502(e)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(e)(1), in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, against John C. Bierwirth, Robert G. Freese and Carl A. Paladino, Trustees of the Grumman Corporation Pension Plan (the Plan). The action stems from the unsuccessful tender offer by LTV Corporation (LTV) in the fall of 1981 for some 70% of the outstanding common stock and convertible securities of Grumman Corporation (Grumman) at $45 per share. At the time of the offer the Plan owned some 525,000 shares of Grumman common stock, which it had acquired in the mid-1970's. As hereafter recounted, the Plan not only declined to tender its stock but purchased an additional 1,158,000 shares at an average price of $38.27 per share, at a total cost of $44,312,380. These acts, the Secretary's complaint alleged, constituted a violation of §§ 404(a) and 406(b) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1104(a) and 1106(b) which we set out in the margin. ¹

Simultaneously with filing the complaint, the Secretary moved for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, to prohibit the Trustees of the Plan from buying, selling or exercising any rights with respect to Grumman securities and to appoint a receiver for the securities already held by the Plan. On October 19 the motion for a temporary restraining order came on for hearing before Judge Mishler, who had already, on October 14, 1981, issued an order temporarily enjoining the tender offer because of inadequate disclosure and threatened violation of § 7 of the Clayton Act, Grumman Corp. v. LTV Corp., 527 F.Supp. 86, which this court was later to affirm on November 13, 1981, 665 F.2d 10. Counsel appearing for the trustees agreed to maintain the status quo until the motion for a preliminary injunction and the appointment of a receiver could be brought on for hearing on October 30, 1981; on that basis the motion for a temporary restraining order was withdrawn. No testimony was taken at the October 30 hearing; the matter was submitted on affidavits, depositions, public filings and a stipulation of background facts. A number of participants in the Plan were allowed to intervene as defendants; a supporting affidavit of one of the Plan participants alleged that:

(S)pontaneously and within days after this suit was commenced, Grumman employees at all levels and in all departments began to circulate petitions expressing their approval of the trustees' actions, as participants in the Pension Plan. To date, petitions have been signed by approximately 17,000 of the 22,000 employees who are Plan participants and beneficiaries.

On December 3, 1981, the district court, 538 F.Supp. 463, rendered an opinion containing its findings of fact and conclusions of law. Joint App. 193a. After rejecting the Secretary's contention that the trustees committed per se violations of ERISA and making a detailed survey of the evidence, the judge concluded that the Secretary had "shown a likelihood of success on his claim that each of the trustees has acted imprudently with respect to their recent investment decisions concerning Grumman stock". He invited suggestions with respect to the form of preliminary relief. The trustees proposed that if the court felt it necessary to go beyond a preliminary injunction with respect to dealings in Grumman securities, it should adopt a proposal of the Grumman board, embodied in a resolution passed on December 17, 1981, that the board, with all management directors abstaining, should appoint three non-management directors as interim trustees. Declining this proposal the judge entered an order which preliminarily enjoined the trustees from buying, selling or exercising any rights with respect to Grumman securities except upon further order of the court and directed the appointment of a receiver to serve as an "Investment Manager" for Grumman securities owned by the Plan, with "power to sell, tender for sale, or otherwise dispose of all or part of such stock or securities." The order contained elaborate provisions concerning the qualifications, method of appointment and compensation of the Investment Manager. The provisions with respect to the Investment Manager were stayed on condition "that defendant promptly request and diligently pursue an expedited appeal" to this court, which was done.

II. The Facts

The LTV tender offer followed a scenario that has become familiar. On September 21, 1981, in the absence of defendant Bierwirth, Chairman of the Board of Grumman, who was on vacation, Joseph O. Gavin, Jr., President of Grumman, received a telephone call from Paul Thayer, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of LTV, inviting him to discuss a possible merger. Gavin rejected the invitation. Evidently unsurprised, LTV, prior to the opening of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on September 23, issued a press release announcing that it was planning to make a cash tender offer at $45 per share for up to 70% of Grumman's common stock and securities representing or convertible into common stock. According to the press release, the offer constituted "the first step in a plan to acquire 100% of the voting equity of the Grumman Corporation". On September 21 and 22 Grumman stock had sold on the New York Stock Exchange at prices ranging between 237/8 and 271/4. Later in the morning of September 23 Grumman put out a release on the Dow Jones News Service in Bierwirth's name stating that the Grumman directors would promptly consider the proposed offer. The release noted that the board would "consider legal factors including antitrust implications," ² warned stockholders not to act hastily and said that Dillon, Read & Co. had been retained to provide advice regarding the LTV offer. On the same day LTV delivered to Bierwirth's office a letter expressing regret at the lack of a meeting in which LTV would have had an "opportunity to spell out in a personal way how ... combination would be beneficial to the shareholders, employees, and communities served by Grumman", and stating that "(t)he headquarters of a combined Grumman-Vought aerospace operation would be established in Bethpage, Long Island (Grumman's headquarters) under a top management team that would include you as CEO as well as Joe Gavin and George Skurla from Grumman and Bob Kirk from Vought." Thayer continued to hope for "the opportunity to explain to you in more detail the advantages of the synergistic combination" he had proposed and enclosed a copy of the press release.

The LTV offer was made on September 24. It was conditioned upon the tender of a minimum of 50.01% of Grumman's common stock and securities representing or convertible into common stock. The withdrawal/proration date was 12:01 A.M. on October 16, 1981; the termination date was 12:01 A.M. on October 23. Bierwirth cut short his vacation and reached the Grumman office at midday on September 24.

Although SEC Rule 14e-2, 17 C.F.R. § 240.14e-2, gave the Grumman board 10 business days from the commencement of the offer to communicate its position, if any, the board lost no time in going into action. It met on September 25. By then the LTV offer had caused the price of Grumman stock to rise to a range of 325/8 to 341/4. The board had before it a two page letter of Dillon, Read & Co., Inc., which had served Grumman as investment banker, stating in a conclusory fashion that it was "of the opinion that the offer is inadequate from a financial point of view to holders of the Grumman securities." The letter said this conclusion was based on

certain information of a business and financial nature regarding Grumman which was either publicly available or furnished to us by Grumman and (on) discussions with the management of Grumman regarding its business and prospects.

The letter made no attempt at quantification of these factors, and no representative of Dillon, Read attended the meeting for questioning, although apparently there were some supporting financial materials available. Defendant Robert G. Freese had also prepared some projections which are not in the record. The board unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose the tender offer, and issued a press release to that effect, saying that the board had concluded that "the offer is inadequate, and not in the best interests of Grumman, its shareholders, employees or the United States."

On September 28 Grumman began the previously mentioned action which was to lead to the injunction of the tender office. On the same day defendant Bierwirth, Chairman of the Board of Grumman, sent a letter to the company's shareholders seeking their help in defeating the offer. The letter stated:

We're very optimistic about our chances of defeating the takeover bid....