Opinion ID: 1799426
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hostilities Between Brainin and Management.

Text: Prior to the March, 1963, annual meeting of the board of Fenestra, the Brainin group had acquired something in excess of 243,000 shares of Fenestra stock. [1] Although the Brainin group were the major stockholders of Fenestra, no one of the group was an officer of the corporation and at no time did their influence exceed that of having four members on an 11-man board of directors. However, the group were members interested in control but, for one reason or another, did not seek it. Immediately after the acquisition of the Wyman shares, Brainin, Taub, and Projansky were elected to the board of directors of Fenestra, that is, on July 24, 1962. The fourth member of the Brainin group, Kaiserman, was not elected until the annual stockholders' meeting in March, 1963. Differences between the Brainin group and the management directors started to develop almost immediately after the group's large acquisition of stock and the election of its first three men to the board. These three directors, Brainin, Taub, and Projansky, requested of President Leslie that they be permitted to inspect the various Fenestra plants around the country. The request was first rejected in its entirety, but later Brainin alone was permitted to make inspections. Hostilities between the Brainin group and the management directors became more open at a board meeting held in April, 1963. The dispute occurred over the makeup of a newly-revived executive committee, a committee which was given no power except that of making recommendations. Brainin, as chairman of the executive committee, wanted Projansky as a member of that committee but was opposed by President Leslie and Director Klein. A heated argument took place between the Brainin group directors and the management directors, or at least some of them. The matter was resolved; however, it left some bitterness. Thereafter, the Brainin group decided to sell its large shareholdings in Fenestra and so advised a broker, who, in turn, advised a member of the Pritzker group, which group already owned 20,000 shares of Fenestra and had indicated an interest in purchasing additional Fenestra shares.