Texas Intern. Airlines v. National Airlines, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 September 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-2215,82-2215 |
| Citation | 714 F.2d 533 |
| Parties | Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 99,488 TEXAS INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NATIONAL AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Alvin M. Owsley, Jr., Joseph A. Cialone, II, Houston, Tex., George A. Davidson, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.
David T. Harvin, Houston, Tex., Martin S. Thaler, Richard J. Morvillo, Washington, D.C., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before GARZA, POLITZ and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges.
Texas International (TI) appeals the grant of summary judgment for National Airlines (National) holding TI liable to National under section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) for the "short swing profits" made on the sale of 121,000 shares of National common stock. Section 16(b), 15 U.S.C.A. § 78p(b) provides, in pertinent part:
For the purpose of preventing the unfair use of information which may have been obtained by such beneficial owner, director, or officer by reason of his relationship to the issuer, any profit realized by him from any purchase and sale, or any sale and purchase, of any equity security of such issuer (other than an exempted security) within any period of less than six months, unless such security was acquired in good faith in connection with a debt previously contracted, shall inure to and be recoverable by the issuer, irrespective of any intention on the part of such beneficial owner, director, or officer in entering into such transaction of holding the security purchased or of not repurchasing the security sold for a period exceeding six months.
The three factors which trigger section 16(b) liability were all present--TI was a ten percent beneficial owner of National that purchased and sold National stock within a six-month period. The district court, therefore, found TI subject to automatic section 16(b) liability to National for the short swing profits TI made on the sale. 1 On appeal, TI argues that equity bars any recovery by National and, in the alternative, that proof of "nonaccess" to inside information should be decisive in a section 16(b) inquiry. This Court affirms the grant of summary judgment for National.
On March 14, 1979, during an attempt by TI to gain control of National, TI purchased 121,000 shares of National common stock in open market brokerage transactions. 2 On March 14, the date of the purchase, TI was a beneficial owner of more than ten percent of National's common stock. On July 28, 1979, within six months of the March 14 purchase, TI and Pan American World Airways, Inc. (Pan Am) entered into a stock purchase agreement whereby TI agreed to sell 790,700 shares of National common stock to Pan Am at $50 per share. 3 The closing was held on July 30, 1979. Under the matching rules of section 16(b) the 790,700 shares sold by TI on July 28, 1979 are deemed to include the 121,000 shares purchased by TI in March.
On September 6, 1978, National and Pan Am 4 had entered into a merger agreement which provided for the merger of National into Pan Am contingent upon certain conditions and, in connection with the merger, for the exchange by Pan Am of not less than $50 in cash for each share of National common stock, other than the shares held by Pan Am. On May 16, 1979, National stockholders approved the merger agreement dated September 6, 1978, as amended. TI, as a National stockholder, stood to receive $50 per share for its National stock if and when the merger closed. For whatever reason, TI decided not to wait until the merger went through to negotiate for the disposition of its holdings to Pan Am. It was not until after the July 28, 1979 sale by TI of its National stock to Pan Am that the National-Pan Am merger was effectuated.
On August 2, 1979, only five days after TI sold its National stock to Pan Am, TI sought declaratory relief 5 that it was not liable to National under section 16(b) for profits realized on the purchase and sale of National common stock. In the alternative, TI sought to reduce its short swing profits by deducting expenses it allegedly incurred in connection with the purchase and sale of its National stock. On September 26, 1979, National counterclaimed, seeking recovery of TI's short swing profits under section 16(b). National moved for summary judgment on November 24, 1980. 6
On May 11, 1981, the district court granted National's motion in part, finding that TI's purchase and sale of the 121,000 shares of National stock constituted a violation of section 16(b). The district court squarely rejected TI's contention that the control contest situation rendered the transaction at issue "unorthodox" within the meaning of Kern County Land Co. v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 411 U.S. 582, 93 S.Ct. 1736, 36 L.Ed.2d 503 (1973). In reaching its conclusion that TI was liable under section 16(b), the district court stated that no court has exempted the type of transaction at issue here--a cash-for-stock transaction--from the automatic application of section 16(b). The court also determined that TI could deduct from the short swing profits for which it was liable, brokerage commissions, transfer taxes, and other incidental expenses incurred in the purchase and sale of the 121,000 shares of National common stock. However, the court ordered TI to submit a breakdown of its claimed expenses incident to the purchase and sale. Following further submissions by both parties, the district court entered an order on March 31, 1982, allowing TI to deduct brokerage commissions and transfer taxes in the amount of $10,117.50 from the short swing profits for which it was liable. The court disallowed, however, all of TI's other requested expense deductions as not incidental to the purchase and sale of the 121,000 shares of National stock. On May 10, 1982, the district court issued its final judgment, dismissing TI's complaint for declaratory judgment and awarding National the sum of $1,149,195 on its counterclaim, together with prejudgment interest and costs.
In making its argument that equitable estoppel should be allowed as a defense in a section 16(b) action, TI first states the purpose of section 16(b): the evil Congress sought to curb was market speculation by corporate insiders based on abuse of their positions of trust and access to confidential information. TI urges that section 16(b) embodies the equitable remedy of restitution traditionally imposed on fiduciaries. If a fiduciary profits by inside information concerning the affairs of his principal, the fiduciary's profits go to the principal. Given that the section is merely an application of an equitable doctrine, equitable defenses must be allowed, according to TI. TI eschews the section 16(b) cases disallowing equitable defenses as a matter of law by claiming that the instant case is factually distinguishable from those cases. Here, TI urges, there are no innocent outside stockholders of the issuer who need protection. Rather, Pan Am, the only party that would benefit from a recovery, is the very party that has engaged in conduct giving rise to an estoppel. This conduct, according to TI, consisted of Pan Am's involvement in the transaction that created section 16(b) liability at a time when Pan Am was the controlling stockholder of National and had an agreement in place requiring the shareholders to accept $50 for their shares.
The case law uniformly rejects equitable defenses in section 16(b) cases. See, e.g., Roth v. Fund of Funds, Ltd., 405 F.2d 421, 422-23 (2d Cir.1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 975, 89 S.Ct. 1469, 22 L.Ed.2d 754 (1969); Magida v. Continental Can Co., 231 F.2d 843, 846 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 351 U.S. 972, 76 S.Ct. 1031, 100 L.Ed. 1490 (1956); Tyco Laboratories, Inc. v. Cutler-Hammer, Inc., 490 F.Supp. 1, 8 (S.D.N.Y.1980); Cutler-Hammer, Inc. v. Leeds & Northrup Co., 469 F.Supp. 1021, 1023 (E.D.Wis.1979). The facts of this case do not warrant an aberration from the principle that holds equitable defenses in section 16(b) cases insufficient as a matter of law. Indeed, the courts have not accepted equitable defenses even in cases where the issuer participated in the transaction or where the transaction giving rise to the profit occurred at the incentive of the issuer itself. See, e.g., Roth, 405 F.2d at 422-23; Magida, 231 F.2d at 846. Although disgorgement of profits benefits the shareholders of the issuer, the courts do not entertain equitable defenses which could operate to bar recovery by these shareholders. This Court is not disposed to create an exception to the disallowance of equitable defenses in section 16(b) cases based on the mere difference that in this instance Pan Am, who participated in the section 16(b) transaction, was a shareholder of the issuer (National) who subsequently merged into its shareholder (Pan Am). Allowance of equitable defenses in section 16(b) cases would only serve to thwart the remedial purpose of the statute.
TI places great reliance in a recent case of this Circuit, Regional Properties v. Financial & Real Estate Consulting Co., 678 F.2d 552 (5th Cir.1982) for the proposition that equitable remedies created by the federal securities laws may be barred by equitable defenses. Regional Properties held that a defendant in a suit brought under section 29(b) of the Exchange Act may invoke traditional equitable defenses. Regional Properties, however, is of no avail to TI in this section 16(b) case. The question this Court faced in Regional Properties was whether real estate developers were entitled to rescind their agreements with the broker under the contract-voiding provisions of section 29(b) of the Exchange Act. An action for rescission of a contract is by its very definition equitable in nature. In the instant case, the question before this Court is not whether the contract between TI...
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