Court Opinion

ID: 9447801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:45:06.153956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:12.138488
License: Public Domain

SHACKELFORD MILLER, Jr., Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the ruling of the majority opinion that the judgment of the District Court should be reversed, and that the case be remanded to the District Court for hearing and determination of declaratory judgment relief with respect to the validity or invalidity of the proxies, as encompassed in appellants’ amended complaint.
The majority opinion holds that the District Court lacked jurisdiction to grant appellants’ demand that, in the event certain proxies be found to have been illegally solicited and obtained, the corporate transactions referred to be rescinded and set aside. I am in accord with the ruling that appellants are not entitled to the requested relief of rescis*218sion, even though certain proxies may be found to have been illegally solicited and used, but I do not base the ruling upon lack of jurisdiction.
The District Court either had or did not have jurisdiction to hear and consider this case, which question must be decided' as of the time when the action was filed. Mullen v. Torrance, 9 Wheat. 537, 539, 6 L.Ed. 154; St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Co., 303 U.S. 283, 58 S.Ct. 586, 82 L.Ed. 845. I agree that it is correctly held that jurisdiction existed under the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Sec. 78aa, Title 15 U.S.C.A. If jurisdiction exists it is not a contingent jurisdiction or a partial one. St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Co., supra, 303 U.S. 283, 58 S.Ct. 586. Having taken jurisdiction in the case, jurisdiction continued in the Court to enable it to dispose of all issues raised by the pleadings. Ober v. Gallagher, 93 U.S. 199, 206, 23 L.Ed. 829; Hood ex rel. North Carolina Bank & Trust Co. v. Bell, 4 Cir., 84 F.2d 136, 137; Wichita Railroad & Light Co. v. Public Utilities Comm., 260 U.S. 48, 54, 43 S.Ct. 51, 67 L.Ed. 124; United Fuel Gas Co. v. Railroad Comm., 278 U.S. 300, 307, 49 S.Ct. 150, 73 L.Ed. 390.
It may be that only partial relief or no relief will be eventually granted, but this is not because of lack of jurisdiction, but because the particular facts of the case and the applicable law as construed by the Court do not entitle appellants to all of the relief demanded. Di Giovanni v. Camden Fire Ins. Ass’n, 296 U.S. 64, 69, 56 S.Ct. 1, 80 L.Ed. 47.
I am of the opinion that jurisdiction existed in the District Court to consider appellants’ complaint, including their prayer for rescission, but that rescission was correctly denied on the merits, in that (1) the statute does not provide retroactive relief of that nature, and (2) in his balancing of the equities under the particular facts of the case, the District Judge did not abuse his discretion in denying such relief. Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 329-331, 64 S.Ct. 587, 88 L.Ed. 754; Jimenez v. Barber, 9 Cir., 252 F.2d 550, 554; Di Giovanni v. Camden Fire Ins. Ass’n, supra, 296 U.S. 64, 70, 73, 56 S.Ct 1.