Minority Stockholders Defeat Tacoma Smelting Company
After a multi-year legal battle, a circuit court reverses a lower court decision, handing a victory to shareholders alleging disenfranchisement by the smelting company.
Word has been received from San Francisco stating that the circuit court of appeals has reversed the decision in the case of J. Hennessy and others against the Tacoma Smelting company, the court deciding in favor of the plaintiff. The case is four or five years old. It was a contest in which the minority of the stockholders alleged that they were deprived of their interests by the company. In a former trial the court found for the defendant, but now the stockholders have their innings.
“In a former trial the court found for the defendant, but now the stockholders have their innings.”
This early corporate governance dispute mirrors modern concerns regarding transparency and the rights of minority shareholders against consolidated industrial power in the Pacific Northwest. The Tacoma Smelter, a massive site on the Commencement Bay waterfront, remains a touchstone for industrial history, cleanup debates, and the city's complex relationship with its polluting past.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.