Court Opinion

ID: 8880189
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 20:20:11.476566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:06:36.294399
License: Public Domain

HAYS, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result):
Since the injunction to be issued against the defendants will presumably be cast in general terms, restraining further violations of the Securities Exchange Act, I concur in the result. However I would formulate a somewhat broader basis for liability than that upon which the majority opinion relies.
The corporate officers who participated in the purchases of the mining properties were aware, or should have been aware, that finders’ fees were to be paid. They were under an obligation to inquire of the sellers of the property as to what part of the stock issued to them would be paid out as finders’ fees and to report this information to the GAI board of directors and include it in press releases and reports. A rule that makes it the duty of corporate officials to report such material information only if they happen fortuitously to receive it does not go far enough in the protection of the corporation against fraudulent practices.
The finders who were to share in the excessive finders' fees were also under a duty to inform the purchasers of the property of the amount of the fees. They knew or ought to have known that fees in the amount fixed would be a material fact to be considered by GAI in determining the price to be paid for *464the properties. Not only should they have been aware that knowledge of the amount of the fees would be material to traders in the stock of the corporation, but they themselves profited by any inflated value which the stock may have had by reason of their failure to disclose this material information.
Transactions in securities differ from ordinary buyer-seller deals. Other owners or potential owners of the same securities are directly affected by each transaction and the effects spread to other securities.
Moreover, although the role of the finders in the sales to GAI probably cannot correctly be classified as fiduciary in the traditional sense, neither were the finders engaging in what may be strictly characterized as an arm’s length transaction. They were something more than mere agents of the sellers since their function was to bring the parties together. They owed some duty to the buyers at least to warn them of the unusual nature of the transactions in which they were engaging.
I leave to a more appropriate occasion consideration of the duty of the sellers themselves in a situation involving the issuance of securities in return for property.