Hegeman Electric Co v. Federal Trade Commission

• Decision Date: 12 March 1934
• Docket Number: ARROW-HART,No. 363,363
• Citation: 291 U.S. 587,54 S.Ct. 532,78 L.Ed. 1007
• Parties: & HEGEMAN ELECTRIC CO. v. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

291 U.S. 587

54 S.Ct. 532

78 L.Ed. 1007

ARROW-HART & HEGEMAN ELECTRIC CO.

v FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.

No. 363.

Argued Feb. 8, 1934.

Decided March 12, 1934.

Messrs. Charles Neave, of New York City, Arthur L. Shipman, of Hartford, Conn., Arthur F. Mullen, of Washington, D.C., and Charles Welles Gross and Wallace W. Brown, both of Hartford, Conn., for petitioner.

Mr. J. Crawford Biggs, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., Harold M. Stephens, Asst. Atty. Gen., Moses S. Huberman, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., and Robert E. Healy, Chief Counsel, Federal Trade Commission and Everett F. Haycraft, both of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from page 588 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Circuit Court of Appeals¹ affirmed an order of the Federal Trade Commission issued pursuant to section 7 of the Clayton Act.² A writ of certiorari was granted upon the claim of petitioner that the formation of a holding company which acquired all the voting shares of two manufacturing corporations was not in violation of the section, or, if it was, the merger of the two manufacturing corporations and dissolution of the holding company after complaint by the Federal Trade Commission deprived the latter of jurisdiction to make any order against the company formed by the merger. A proper understanding of these contentions requires a somewhat detailed statement of events prior and subsequent to the issuance of the complaint.

The Arrow Electric Company, hereafter called Arrow, and the Hart & Hegeman Manufacturing Company, hereafter called Hart & Hegeman, were Connecticut corporations engaged in the manufacture and sale in interstate commerce of electric wiring devices. Both were solvent and successful. There was no community of ownership of the stock of the two concerns. Each had valuable trade-names by which its goods were known to consumers. Shortly after the death of the principal stockholder, who was also the president, of Hart & Hegeman, the major interests in that company got into touch with those controlling Arrow, and, after some negotiation, it was agreed that economies could be effected if the business of both were brought under common control. In view, however, of the competition between the goods known by the names of the two manufacturing companies, it was thought that the trade-names and the identity of the goods could best be preserved by retaining the separate corporate entities and the sales forces of the two organizations. The plan evolved was therefore that of a holding company which should own all of the common shares of both corporations, under the control of which the manufacturing and sales organizations should be kept separate and distinct and in competition with each other as theretofore. In order to bring about an equitable division of the stock of the proposed holding corporation, Arrow issued to its common stockholders a dividend in preferred stock. The recipients sold the preferred shares to a syndicate, which in turn sold them to the public. Hart & Hegeman increased its common stock and issued the new stock as a stock dividend. It also created an issue of preferred stock, which was sold to the public. Prior to the acquisition of the common stock by the holding company, the capitalization was as follows:

Arrow—Common stock, $750,000, par $25. Preferred stock, $2,000,000, par $100.

Hart & Hegeman—Common stock, $500,000, par $25. Preferred stock, $1,333,300, par $100.

The holders of preferred stock in each company were without the right to vote for directors except upon default in the payment of six successive dividends, in which case the preferred stockholders were entitled to elect the board. In October, 1927, Arrow-Hart & Hegeman, Incorporated, hereafter called the holding company, was organized under the laws of Connecticut. It had only common stock. The owners of all of the common shares of Arrow exchanged them for 120,000 shares of the stock of the holding company, and the owners of all the common shares of Hart & Hegeman exchanged them for 80,000 shares of the same stock.

On March 3, 1928, the Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint in which it charged the effect of the holding and voting of all of the common shares of the two operating companies might be to substantially lessen competition between the companies in electrical wiring devices, to restrain commerce in those devices, and to create a monopoly. The holding company filed an answer traversing these allegations. Shortly thereafter counsel advised that the company be dissolved and its assets, consisting of the stock of Arrow and of Hart & Hegeman, be distributed amongst its stockholders, and that thereupon the two latter companies merge into a single corporation under the laws of Connecticut, thus transferring to the new corporation to be formed by merger all of the assets of Arrow and of Hart & Hegeman.

It was discovered that such a program might cast heavy taxes upon the stockholders, and a modification was suggested to work out the plan in accordance with the reorganization sections of the Revenue Act of 1928. The stockholders of the holding company and the preferred stockholders of both the operating companies were notified of the original plan and of its modification, and proxies were asked so that their votes might be recorded at corporate meetings intended to be held to carry out the proposal. A two-thirds vote of both preferred and common stock is required by the law of Connecticut to authorize a merger.

In lieu of the original program of distribution of the shares owned by the holding company to its stockholders, the shares of Arrow were transferred to a new company called the Arrow Manufacturing Company, and those of Hart & Hegeman to another new company, known as the H. & H. Electric Company, against the issue of all of the shares of these companies respectively. The stock so to be issued by these two new holding companies was, by the direction of the original holding company, issued directly to its stockholders. As soon as this transfer of all its assets had been made to the two new holding companies by the old one, the latter by corporate action dissolved. Thereafter, pursuant to directors' action, the stockholders, preferred and common, of the four companies having an interest in the assets (Arrow, Hart & Hegeman, Arrow Manufacturing Company, and the H. & H. Electric Company), approved a merger agreement whereby the petitioner, the Arrow-Hart & Hegeman Electric Company, was formed, which directly owned in its own right all of the assets formerly belonging to Arrow and to Hart & Hegeman. These transactions were consummated on or prior to December 31, 1928, except that the dissolution of the first holding company did not become final until April 11, 1929; the law of Connecticut providing that a final certificate of dissolution should not issue until four months after the filing of the resolution for dissolution.

January 11, 1929, counsel notified the Commission of the dissolution of the holding company and the formation of the petitioner. June 29, 1929, the Commission issued a supplemental complaint, entitled jointly against the holding company (the original respondent) and the petitioner (the corporation formed by the merger). After reciting in greater detail than above set forth the action taken, this complaint asserted that the formation of the petitioner was brought about by the contrivance and at the instigation of the holding company; that the conveyance of the stocks of Arrow and Hart & Hegeman to the two new holding companies failed to restore the assets to the ownership and control of separate groups in the manner the shares were held and controlled before the formation of the original holding company; that the result of the whole plan was not a restoration of competition as required by the act of Congress, and that the Commission's jurisdiction having timely attached could not be ousted by the steps subsequently taken.

Petitioner answered the supplemental complaint, the matter was heard, and the Commission made its findings. In addition to the facts above recited, the Commission found that, at the time of the acquisition of the stocks of Arrow and Hart & Hegeman by the holding company, those corporations were in direct and substantial competition in interstate commerce, and, after the formation of the holding company, competition between them had been substantially curtailed. The Commission concluded: The acquisition by the holding company of the shares of the two manufacturing companies might substantially lessen competition between them, restrain interstate commerce, and create a monopoly; the divestment by the holding company was not a compliance with the Clayton Act; the petitioner was organized by the holding company, and its creation was an artifice to evade the provisions of sections 7 and 11 of the Clayton Act (15 USCA §§ 18, 21); and the effect of the organization of the petitioner and 'the acquisition by it of the common or voting stocks of' Arrow and Hart & Hegeman has been, is, and may be, to suppress competition between the two manufacturing companies, to restrain interstate commerce, and to create a monopoly.

The Commission entered an order commanding the petitioner to cease and desist from violation of the provision of section 7 of the Clayton Act, and to divest itself 'of all the common stock of' Hart & Hegeman 'so as to include in such divestment' the said company's manufacturing plants and equipment, and all other property necessary to the conduct and operation thereof as a complete going concern, and so as neither directly nor indirectly to retain any of the fruits of the acquisition of common stock of Hart & Hegeman; or, in the alternative, to divest itself of 'all the common stock of' Arrow in the same manner. It was further ordered 'that such divestment of the common stock or assets' of Arrow or Hart & Hegeman, as the case...