| Page 956 636 A.2d 956
CEDE & CO., Cinerama, Inc.
v.
TECHNICOLOR, INC., et al. Supreme Court of Delaware.
Feb. 24, 1994. Motion for reargument.
Arthur L. Dent, Wilmington, DE,
for Cede & Co., Cinerama, Inc.
Rodman Ward, Stephen E. Herrmann,
Wilmington, DE, for Technicolor, Inc., et
al.
Upon Motion for Reargument
Cinerama seeks reargument of this
Court's January 18, 1994 decision, 634 A.2d
345, following return from remand to the
Court of Chancery. We requested the court to
clarify its reasoning for its ruling that
the Technicolor directors' failure to inform
its shareholders of Director Ryan's
self-interest in the merger did not
constitute a breach of the directors' duty
of disclosure. Because we found the court to
have employed the materiality analysis
standard of Rosenblatt v. Getty Oil Co.,
Del.Supr.,
493 A.2d 929 (1985), in reaching
its finding, we affirmed the court's
disclosure ruling as the product of a
logical and deductive reasoning process and
correct as a matter of law.
On motion for reargument,
Cinerama argues that, this Court having
found Director Ryan's self-interest to be
material, the board's failure to disclose
such material interest to its shareholders
was a breach of its duty of disclosure as a
matter of law. Cinerama asserts that
"material self interest amounting to lack of
objectivity by a director-fiduciary voting
on a merger transaction is legally always a
material fact which must be disclosed ...
especially in this case where the corporate
charter mandated a unanimous vote...."
The premise for Cinerama's
argument of legal error is misplaced.
Cinerama assumes that this Court has now
found Ryan's undisclosed self-interest to be
material. The apparent basis for that
assumption is the following statement in our
January 18, 1994 ruling: "We therefore
affirm the court's finding
Page 957 that the defendant directors did not breach
their duty of disclosure to the Technicolor
shareholders in failing to disclose Ryan's
material self-interest in the transaction."
In retrospect, we should have said "assumed"
material self-interest.
This Court's decision on
reargument is not premised on a finding,
either by this Court or by the trial court,
that Ryan's self-interest was, in fact,
material. As the record bears out, the trial
court made no such finding. We so indicated
in our original decision, see 634 A.2d at
372 and 362 n. 30. There we stated, "... we
find that we must remand for further
consideration of the Chancellor's purported
findings with respect to the lack of
materiality of Ryan's apparently undisclosed
self-interest."
We did not find any error of law
in the trial court's formulation of the
first part of the materiality test, id. at
362-64, and we affirmed the Chancellor's
ruling that Cinerama had "retained the
burden of proof of showing that the alleged
nondisclosures [of the director defendants]
were material, as defined under Rosenblatt,
493 A.2d at 944-45." 634 A.2d at 372.
Our remand of the disclosure
issue with respect to Director Ryan and his
undisclosed self-interest was for a limited
purpose. We asked the Chancellor to clarify
whether Ryan's self-interest "was rendered
immaterial by the Technicolor board's
unanimous approval of the transaction" or
was rendered immaterial "upon a traditional
analysis regarding the hypothetical effect
of a failure to disclose a material fact
upon a reasonable shareholder's 'total mix'
of information through a Rosenblatt
analysis." 634 A.2d at 372. Since we had not
previously found Ryan's self-interest to be
material, we did not mean to imply in our
decision following remand either a contrary
finding or that the trial court found Ryan's
self-interest to be material.
We must defer to the factfinder
on a mixed question of fact and law, as to
which reasonable minds may differ on the
question of materiality.
TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway Inc., 426
U.S. 438, 96 S.Ct. 2126, 48 L.Ed.2d 757
(1976). The Chancellor's reasoning that
Ryan's hope or expectation of employment
"would certainly not have been thought [to
be] very important ... to a shareholder
asked to decide whether to accept or reject
the MAF offer" must be sustained under
Levitt v. Bouvier, Del.Supr.,
287 A.2d 671
(1972), and is not erroneous as a matter of
law.
However, Cinerama is correct in
arguing that any analysis of the disclosure
issue requires consideration of the
Technicolor charter requirement of director
unanimity--for approval of a sale of the
company to be ratified by less than 95
percent of the issued and outstanding shares
of the corporation. See 634 A.2d at 365-66.
We conclude that Technicolor's charter
requirement of director unanimity must be
taken into consideration in determining
whether Ryan's undisclosed self-interest
would have been material to a reasonable
shareholder. We also conclude that that
issue should be addressed in the first
instance by the trial court. Therefore, we
remand the disclosure issue to the trial
court for the limited purpose of addressing
the question of the materiality of Ryan's
nondisclosure in the context of
Technicolor's charter requirement of
director unanimity.
In this respect only, we modify
our decision dated January 18, 1994, and
otherwise deny Cinerama's motion for
reargument.
* * *
Remanded, without jurisdiction
reserved and with mandate to issue
forthwith. |