United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Superintendent of Ins. v. Bankers Life & Cas. Co., 404 U.S. 6 (1971)

Superintendent of Insurance v. Bankers Life & Casualty Co.

No. 70-60

Argued October 13, 1971

Decided November 8, 1971

404 U.S. 6

Syllabus

Petitioner, liquidator of Manhattan Casualty Co., alleged that the company was defrauded, in violation of federal securities laws, by a fraudulent sale of securities owned by it. Manhattan's sole stockholder agreed to sell all of its Manhattan stock to one Begole for $5 million. Begole conspired with others to use United States Treasury bonds owned by Manhattan to pay for the shares. Through a deceptive device, the bonds were sold and the proceeds used in the purchase of the stock. The depletion of Manhattan's assets was concealed by the purported transfer to it, in exchange for the proceeds of the bond sale, of a certificate of deposit which, in fact, had been assigned by Manhattan's new president, a coconspirator, to another corporation, and by it used as collateral for a loan. The District Court dismissed the complaint and the Court of Appeals affirmed, finding that "no investor [was] injured" and that the "purity of the security transaction and the purity of the trading process were unsullied."

Held: Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 makes it unlawful to use "in connection with the purchase or sale" of any security "any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance" in contravention of the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and regulations. Section 10(b) prohibits the use of any deceptive device in the "sale" of any security by "any person," and it is irrelevant that Manhattan was a corporation, rather than an individual investor; that the fraud was perpetrated by a corporate officer and his outside collaborators; that the transaction was not conducted through a securities exchange or an organized market; that the proceeds due the seller were misappropriated; and that the creditors of the defrauded corporate seller may be the ultimate victims. Pp. 404 U. S. 9-14.

430 F.2d 355, reversed.

DOUGLAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Page 404 U. S. 7