Opinion ID: 389315
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Field's Filing of the Antitrust Suit.

Text: 92 The plaintiffs contend that the defendants made four omissions of material fact in public statements about the antitrust suit it filed against CHH on December 12, 1977. First, the plaintiffs cite three omissions in the Field's press release of December 12, 1977, which announced the filing of the suit; failure to disclose that Field's antitrust counsel was not present at the meeting when the defendants decided to file the suit; failure to mention CHH's offer to attempt to cure perceived antitrust violations; and failure to mention Field's motive in filing the suit, which the plaintiffs allege was to further the secret policy of independence. Second, the plaintiffs contend that Field's press release of December 22, 1978, again omitted to disclose CHH's willingness to cure any perceived antitrust problems. In light of our finding that the decision to bring the antitrust action falls, again, within the scope of directors' acts insulated from our scrutiny by the doctrine of Santa Fe Industries v. Green, supra, we pass over the materiality of these omissions, which is called into question by the opinion of Field's experienced antitrust counsel that such curative attempts would be futile. As appellants concede in their brief to this court, the 'antitrust issue' is relevant to plaintiffs' case only to the extent that the initiation of antitrust litigation (was) an additional circumstance from which defendants' improper intent could be inferred. As we discussed above in the matter of the alleged policy of independence, the decision to resist a takeover is within the scope of directors' state law fiduciary duties, and there is no federal securities law duty to disclose one's motives in undertaking such resistance. In re Sunshine Mining, supra, at 96,635-36; Berman v. Gerber Products Co., 454 F.Supp. at 1318, 1323; Altman v. Knight, 431 F.Supp. at 314. See Chemetron Corp. v. Crane Co., 1977-2 Trade Cas. P 61,717 (N.D.Ill.1977). Therefore even assuming the antitrust suit was filed with the impure intent to preserve the directors' position at the expense of the shareholders' best interests, no federal securities claim can lie for failure to disclose that intent. 93