Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-12
DU POINT MILLIONS UP
AGAIN IN U. S. COURT
Defendants in Lost Suit File
Protest to Plaintiffs Petition
for Disposition
WILMINGTON. Del. June Il

WILMINGTON, Del, June l2
Protest was made in the United States
District Court here today by the defendants
in the suit to control the $240, 900, 900 assets
OF the du Pont Powder Company against
the petition Of the plaintiffs that the stock
formerly owned by General r. Coleman
du Pont, now worth about $780, 900, and
about which the litigation centers. be
turned back to the company's treasury
without a vote by the stockholders
Judge Thompson. I'm his decree giving
victory to the compainants. the principal
Of whom are. Alfred |. and Philip f. du
Pont, provided that the stockholders should
vote as TO the purchase of the Coleman du
Pont shares, which are now held by the du
Pont Securities Company. a corporation or
ganized by Pierre S. du Pont and other de-
PENDANTS especially to hold the common
stock
Alfred I. du Pont is a resident Of this
city; Philip lives at Merton
The protest, in the form Of brief pre-
pared by George S. Graham, of Phila-
delphia. and other counsel for the defend
ants, asserts that the view expressed by
Judge Thompson that purchase of the Cole
man du Pont shares should be voted upon
is clearly correct" II adds "No complica-
ton OF facts or eabora tlon of argument
can relieve the complainants Of their funda-
mental difi1culty-namelY, that today. as
heretofore, the corporation (du Pont Com
pany) has nothing more than an equitable
right TO buy its own stock cheap II II
wants to-"
ants attack the position of the complsinants
as extraordinary" and assert that they
have failed to cite substantial precedent to
support their stand
There are. of course" the protest con-
tinues. plenty Of decisions to the effect
,k,t Tor of h.,
Of the minority into their own pockets
There are also decisions that acts inherently
illegal or ultra wires can be enioined by a
single stockholder. But when the question
involved Is whether the corporation will or
will not exercise the equitable right to
compel a corporate officer to surrender
stock OF the corporation which he has
bought for himself, there Is no case In the
books, so far as can find. which even
hints at the right Of a minority stockholder
to force the hand Of the disinterested ma
jority."
The complainants further declare no sug-
gestion can be made successfully that the
vote by the stockholders on the question Of
buying the Coleman du Pont stock held
under the supervision of a special master
appointed by the court, will not be entirely
fair or that the result will not accurately
register the real wish of ne disnterested
stockholders"
II is added that bound up with the
question of the acquisition of the stock
s the problem Of what the corporation
shall do with II when acquired"
Doubt is expressed as to whether the
stockholders would favor resellng the
shares TO employees, as was contended by
the complainants should have been done
originally.
The protest concludes
"a decree which failed to make proyision
for a stock vote would not only be incon-
sistent with the decision of the court but
would involve a substitution Of judicial
discretion for that which is properly exer-
disable by the co-owners of the business
and In the management Of their own af-
fairs"