Court Opinion

ID: 9443058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:09:47.423352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:21.476880
License: Public Domain

L. HAND, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
The complaint alleged that Hertz “advised and caused the defendant Lehman Brothers to purchase -and sell 5000 shares of Vultee’s common stock.” Hertz denied this in his affidavit and the plaintiff has not stated any reason for doubting the truth of the denial; nor does he ask for a trial on the issue. Therefore, I think we may di&pose of the appeal on the assumption that Lehman Brothers bought and sold the shares without any advice or concurrence by Hertz; and the only question is whether' partners are liable for whatever profits the firm may make, whenever one of their members is a director, and only because he is a *567director. I 'agree that § 16(b) does not go so far; but I wish to say nothing as to whether, if a firm deputed a partner to represent its interests as a director on the board, the other partners would not be liable. True, they would not even then be formally “directors”; but I am not prepared to say that they could not be so considered; for some purposes the common law does treat a firm as a jural person. The provision eliminated from the earlier drafts of the Act does not seem to me to throw any light at all on such a situation as that.