Gissen v. Colorado Interstate Corp.
Gissen v. Colorado Interstate Corp.
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On May 3, 1973 an action entitled Cecilia R. Gissen v. Colorado Interstate Corporation, et al., Civil Action No. 4645 (“Gissen action”) was filed in this District. The complaint as amended in that action charges that Colorado Interstate Corporation (“CIC”), Coastal States Gas Corporation (“Coastal") and their respective directors, in violation of Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) and the rules promulgated thereunder, engaged in an illegal course of conduct whereby they failed adequately to disclose and falsely represented allegedly material circumstances in connection with the dissemination of a joint proxy statement issued by CIC and Coastal incident to a merger of the two companies.
Thereafter, on July 30, 1972 an action entitled Osher Chechik v. Coastal States Gas Corporation, et al., Civil Action No. 4697 (“Chechik action”) was transferred to this Court from the United States District Court For The Eastern District of New York. The Chechik action had been filed there on June 21, 1973. When the Chechik action was transferred to this District, plaintiff moved for an order (a) determining that the suit could be maintained as a class ac
A hearing was held on that motion on August 2, 1973. At that hearing, CIC and Coastal moved (a) to stay all discovery pending in both the Gissen and Chechik actions, and (b) to stay the sending of the class action notices ordered by the Court in the Gissen action on July 16, 1973.
After fully reviewing the record in both eases and hearing counsel, the Court ruled from the bench that (1) Chechik’s motion to consolidate his action with the Gissen action for pretrial purposes under Rule 42(a) was granted, (2) Chechik’s motion to give a joint notice to the classes in both actions was denied, (3) CIC and Coastal’s motions to stay discovery and stay sending class action notices were denied, and (4) decision was reserved on Cheehik’s motion for a determination that his action could be maintained as a class action.
This brings the Court to the point of determining the remaining question whether the Chechik action should be maintained as a class action as provided by Rule 23(c) (1).
Upon the present record the Court concludes that the Chechik action may be maintained, at least at present, as a class action representing a sub-class, that is, persons who were stockholders of CIC continuously from July 7, 1972 to January 2, 1973 with respect to the First and Fourth Claims of the Chechik complaint.
The Second and Third Claims of the Chechik complaint are identical to the claims asserted in the Gissen action. Since the Gissen action has been determined to be a class action brought under Rule 23(b)(3) representing those persons, other than defendants, who were CIC stockholders on November 1, 1972 and since it has also been determined that the plaintiff Gissen would adequately and fairly represent the class with respect to the charges that the defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 14 (a) of the Act and the rules promulgated thereunder, there is no good reason to permit the Chechik action to duplicate this effort and to proceed as a class action for the same class members in
However, Chechik contends that its First and Fourth Claims asserted in the complaint are in fact broader than the claims asserted in the Gissen action. The First Claim asserted in the Chechik action on behalf of CIC stockholders who held stock continuously from July 7, 1972 to January 2, 1978 (referred to as the “Forced Seller Class”) is based on Section 10(b) of the Act and appears to be as follows: As a result of a collusive agreement between the management of CIC and Coastal, which resulted in misleading information contained in a tender offer and disseminated to the shareholders of Colorado, 47 % of CIC’s shareholders were induced to sell their stock to Coastal. Thereafter the defendants forced a merger of CIC into Coastal. This merger was assured because Coastal together with CIC’s management controlled a majority of CIC’s stock. Thus, in a continuous pattern dating from the July 1972 tender offer, the defendants forced a merger between Coastal and CIC on January 2, 1973 in which a minority of CIC’s shareholders received an inadequate return for the CIC stock they were forced to surrender in the merger.
The Fourth Claim asserts a common law cause of action and charges that Coastal and the management of CIC in not opposing the tender offer and in forcing the merger in which the minority shareholders of CIC received an inadequate and unfair return for the shares they were forced to surrender, breached their common law fiduciary duty which they owed as majority shareholders to the minority shareholders of CIC.
While the operative facts alleged in both actions are identical, it does appear at this time that the Chechik action asserts two additional theories of recovery not specifically asserted in the Gissen action. This now appearing to be the case, the Court determines that the members of the sub-class, those persons, other than the defendants, who held CIC stock continuously from July 7, 1972 to January 2, 1973, should have the benefit of the different theories of recovery asserted in the First and Fourth Claims of the Chechik action.
Since the class sought to be represented on allegedly different theories in the Chechik action are included within the broader class of the Gissen action who have received notice of the pendency of the Gissen action, it does not appear necessary at this time to require a discretionary notice under Rule 23(d)(2) of these additional claims allegedly asserted in the Chechik action. The more inclusive class membership in the Gissen action has been given the opportunity to request exclusion from the proxy fraud claims. There is no reason to expect that those who do not request exclusion from the Gissen action in which relief is sought based on Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Act would desire to be excluded from the Chechik action simply because allegedly additional theories of recovery are advanced in the latter ease. Therefore, the Court will not at this time order additional notice of the pendency of the Chechik action.
In making this determination regarding the sub-class in the Chechik action, the Court reserves the right under Rule 23(c)(1) to amend or modify its order before decision on the merits. It should also be made clear that discovery in these actions should not be duplicative nor should the services rendered by the attorneys representing the class in the Gissen action and the sub-class in the Chechik action be duplicative.
Submit order promptly.
. Docket Items 1 & 6’ in O.A. 4645.
. Docket Items 34 & 35 in O.A. 4645.
. Docket Item 5 in C.A. 4697.
. Docket Item 11 in C.A. 4697.
. These rulings were embodied in an Order, dated August 9, 1973. See Docket Item 11 in C.A. 4697.
. Joan Weisberg v. Coastal States Gas Producing Company, et al., 73 C.A. 161.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Cecilia R. GISSEN v. COLORADO INTERSTATE CORPORATION, Defendants Osher CHECHIK v. COASTAL STATES GAS CORPORATION
- Status
- Published