General Protective Committee for the Holders of Option Warrants of the United Corporation v. Securities and Exchange Commission et al. (346 U.S. 521)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 4, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 346 U.S. 521 · 74 S. Ct. 261
- Decided
- January 4, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. The United Corporation is a holding company registered under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, 49 Stat. 803, 15 U. S. C. § 79 et seq. Section 11 (b) of that Act requires each holding company, with exceptions not material here, to limit the operations of the holding-company system of which it is a part to a single integrated public-utility system and to businesses reasonably incidental or economically necessary or appropriate to that system. Section 11 (e) allows a registered holding company to submit a plan to the Commission which will enable it to comply with § 11 (b). United controlled, directly or indirectly, various gas and electric utility companies in the East. It submitted a plan to the Commission which, it claimed, would complete its compliance with § 11 (b). The Commission rejected United’s plan. 13 S. E. C. 854, 898-899. The Commission, however, withheld issuance of a dissolution order so as to afford United an opportunity to comply with the Act by divesting itself of control over its subsidiaries and by transforming itself into an investment company. Id., p. 899. The Commission accordingly directed that United cease to be a holding company and limit its corporate structure to a single class of stock, namely, common stock. No review of that order was sought. Thereafter United retired its…
Excerpt of a 28,062-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.