CORPORATIONS-APPRAISAL STATUTES-DEMAND BY DISSENTING SHAREHOLDER FOR CASH VALUE OF HIS SHARES

Plaintiff shareholder, who dissented from a plan to sell all of defendant corporation\u27s assets, sued under the Ohio statute to obtain appraisal of his shares. At plaintiff\u27s request, an objection to the sale and a demand for the cash value of his shares was served upon defendant by his, attorney. Although the demand was made within the required period after the shareholders\u27 meeting at which the plan was accepted, the trial court refused to allow appraisal on the ground that plaintiff did not make the demand personally and had not notified the corporation that his attorney was authorized to act in his behalf in making the demand. On appeal, held, affirmed. Where demand for payment is made by an attorney, there must be an appointment in writing, signed by the shareholder, and exhibited to the corporation within the statutory period allowed for demand. Klein v. United Theaters Co., (Ohio 1947) 74 N.E. (2d) 319

CORPORATIONS-STOCKHOLDER\u27S DERIVATIVE SUIT-LIABILITY OF DIRRECTORS FOR ACTS IN LABOR DISPUTE

Plaintiff, for himself and all other stockholders of R corporation similarly situated, brought action against the directors of the corporation, alleging that they had caused the dismantling and removal of corporate factories and the curtailment of production, that great loss to the corporation had been caused thereby, and that these things were done solely to discourage and punish the corporation\u27s employees by removing hope of re-employment. Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a cause of action. The trial court denied the motion. The appellate division reversed, stating that the complaint showed only a reasonable exercise of business judgment. On appeal, held, reversed. The alleged acts amount to actionable breaches of duty by the directors. Abrams v. Allen, 297 N.Y. 52, 74 N.E. (2d) 305 (1947)

EQUITY-JURISDICTION TO ENJOIN ACTS OF A FEDERAL OFFICER IN EXCESS OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY

As a device for recovering excessive profits, federal legislation authorized the Secretary of War to order concerns holding contracts with the government to withhold and pay over to the government amounts due from them to parties against which the excessive profits had been determined. Acting under this authority, the Secretary ordered twelve government contractors to withhold sums due or to become due to plaintiff, of which they were customers, after a determination against the plaintiff of $7,000,000 in excessive profits. Plaintiff sought to enjoin defendant from using this means of collection, contending that because the order was not limited to amounts already due on subcontracts for government work, it was in excess of his statutory authority. Defendant moved to dismiss, on the ground that plaintiff stated no basis for equitable jurisdiction. Held, motion denied. Plaintiff has a right to test the validity of the withholding order. Its remedy at law is inadequate, because a multiplicity of actions against its customers would be required, impairing its business relationships. Lord Mfg. Co. v. Stimson, (D.C. D.C. 1947) 73 F. Supp. 984

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--THE PRESIDENT\u27S LOYALTY ORDER--STANDARDS, PROCEDURE AND CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS

In the most recent of the efforts of the last several years to protect the ranks of officers and employees of the federal government from infiltration by foreign agents and persons whose interests are inimical to those of the United States, President Truman, on March 21, 1947, issued his Loyalty Order. The first item in the pattern of statutes, orders, and regulations which supplies the background for the controversial Order No. 9835 was the Hatch Act of 1939, by which Congress prohibited federal employees from membership in organizations advocating the overthrow of the constitutional form of government. One year later, an addition to the Civil Service Act conferred on the War and Navy Departments the power to remove from the classified civil service anyone guilty of conduct opposed to public interest in the defense program, and this was followed in 1941 by the initiation of the now routine Congressional practice of attaching to appropriations bills, provisos that no funds should be paid to anyone advocating the overthrow of the government by force. Under the authority of two preceding Executive Orders, the Civil Service Commission, in March, 1942, issued its War Service Regulations, denying examination or appointment in the classified civil service, if there were a reasonable doubt as to the loyalty of the individual to the United States. To implement further these statutes and regulations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was authorized to investigate federal employees who were members of subversive organizations or who allegedly advocated the overthrow of the federal government by force. No consideration of the background of the order would be complete without including the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which from its inception in 1938 has exerted a substantial force in the direction of anti-subversive measures. The last measure in the overture to Order No. 9835 came late in 1946 with the establishment of the President\u27s Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty, to investigate and determine whether security provisions in the executive branch afforded adequate protection against disloyal and subversive persons, and to recommend procedures and standards for judging the loyalty of employees and applicants. Acting upon the report of this commission, the President issued his Order, Prescribing Procedures for the Administration of an Employee Loyalty Program in the Executive Branch of the Government

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-CIVIL RIGHTS-DENIAL UNDER COLOR OF STATE LAW OF RIGHT TO SERVE ON FEDERAL JURY

Plaintiff, a probationary high school teacher, was dismissed by the Board of Education of New York City upon the complaint of Keyes, the principal of her school, that she was absent from her duties for almost a month while serving on a federal jury. The state commissioner of, education and the state court denied her appeal for reinstatement, on the ground that her status under New York law was merely probationary. Plaintiff sued defendant Keyes in the federal district court, to recover damages under the Civil Rights Act for the deprivation of a right secured to her by the law of the United States. The district court dismissed the complaint. Held, reversed. Plaintiff has stated a cause of action under the Civil Rights Act. The cause was remanded for determination of the question whether or not plaintiff\u27s exercise of her federal privilege was unreasonable in the light of her duties as a teacher. Bomar v. Keyes, (C.C.A. 2d, 1947) 162F. (2d) 136,certiorari denied, (U.S.1947) 68S.Ct. 166

THE CHURCH AND SPIEGEL CASES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE POSSESSION OR ENJOYMENT CLAUSE OF I.R.C. 811 ©

Although federal tax statutes have provided for over thirty years that transfers intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after death shall be included in the grantor\u27s gross estate for estate tax purposes attempts to define precisely the scope of this language have not been outstanding for their success. In two recent decisions by the Supreme Court, Commissioner v. Church and Spiegel v. Commissioner, a further attempt at clarification has been made

Metagenomic Evidence for H2 Oxidation and H2 Production by Serpentinite-Hosted Subsurface Microbial Communities

Ultramafic rocks in the Earth’s mantle represent a tremendous reservoir of carbon and reducing power. Upon tectonic uplift and exposure to fluid flow, serpentinization of these materials generates copious energy, sustains abiogenic synthesis of organic molecules, and releases hydrogen gas (H2). In order to assess the potential for microbial H2 utilization fueled by serpentinization, we conducted metagenomic surveys of a marine serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal chimney (at the Lost City hydrothermal field) and two continental serpentinite-hosted alkaline seeps (at the Tablelands Ophiolite, Newfoundland). Novel [NiFe]-hydrogenase sequences were identified at both the marine and continental sites, and in both cases, phylogenetic analyses indicated aerobic, potentially autotrophic Betaproteobacteria belonging to order Burkholderiales as the most likely H2-oxidizers. Both sites also yielded metagenomic evidence for microbial H2 production catalyzed by [FeFe]-hydrogenases in anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria belonging to order Clostridiales. In addition, we present metagenomic evidence at both sites for aerobic carbon monoxide utilization and anaerobic carbon fixation via the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway. In general, our results point to H2-oxidizing Betaproteobacteria thriving in shallow, oxic–anoxic transition zones and the anaerobic Clostridia thriving in anoxic, deep subsurface habitats. These data demonstrate the feasibility of metagenomic investigations into novel subsurface habitats via surface-exposed seeps and indicate the potential for H2-powered primary production in serpentinite-hosted subsurface habitats

Carbon assimilation strategies in ultrabasic groundwater: clues from the integrated study of a serpentinization-influenced aquifer

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Seyler, L. M., Brazelton, W. J., McLean, C., Putman, L. I., Hyer, A., Kubo, M. D. Y., Hoehler, T., Cardace, D., & Schrenk, M. O. . Carbon assimilation strategies in ultrabasic groundwater: clues from the integrated study of a serpentinization-influenced aquifer. mSystems, 5(2), (2020): e00607-00619, doi: 10.1128/mSystems.00607-19.Serpentinization is a low-temperature metamorphic process by which ultramafic rock chemically reacts with water. Such reactions provide energy and materials that may be harnessed by chemosynthetic microbial communities at hydrothermal springs and in the subsurface. However, the biogeochemistry mediated by microbial populations that inhabit these environments is understudied and complicated by overlapping biotic and abiotic processes. We applied metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and untargeted metabolomics techniques to environmental samples taken from the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory (CROMO), a subsurface observatory consisting of 12 wells drilled into the ultramafic and serpentinite mélange of the Coast Range Ophiolite in California. Using a combination of DNA and RNA sequence data and mass spectrometry data, we found evidence for several carbon fixation and assimilation strategies, including the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle, the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle, the reductive acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway, and methylotrophy, in the microbial communities inhabiting the serpentinite-hosted aquifer. Our data also suggest that the microbial inhabitants of CROMO use products of the serpentinization process, including methane and formate, as carbon sources in a hyperalkaline environment where dissolved inorganic carbon is unavailable.We thank McLaughlin Reserve, in particular Paul Aigner and Cathy Koehler, for hosting sampling at CROMO and providing access to the wells, A. Daniel Jones and Anthony Schilmiller for their advice regarding metabolite extraction and mass spectrometry, Elizabeth Kujawinski for her guidance in metabolomics data analysis and interpretation, and Julia McGonigle, Christopher Thornton, and Katrina Twing for assistance with metagenomic and computational analyses

Deeply-Sourced Formate Fuels Sulfate Reducers but Not Methanogens at Lost City Hydrothermal Field

Hydrogen produced during water-rock serpentinization reactions can drive the synthesis of organic compounds both biotically and abiotically. We investigated abiotic carbon production and microbial metabolic pathways at the high energy but low diversity serpentinite-hosted Lost City hydrothermal field. Compound-specific 14C data demonstrates that formate is mantle-derived and abiotic in some locations and has an additional, seawater-derived component in others. Lipids produced by the dominant member of the archaeal community, the Lost City Methanosarcinales, largely lack 14C, but metagenomic evidence suggests they cannot use formate for methanogenesis. Instead, sulfate-reducing bacteria may be the primary consumers of formate in Lost City chimneys. Paradoxically, the archaeal phylotype that numerically dominates the chimney microbial communities appears ill suited to live in pure hydrothermal fluids without the co-occurrence of organisms that can liberate CO2. Considering the lack of dissolved inorganic carbon in such systems, the ability to utilize formate may be a key trait for survival in pristine serpentinite-hosted environments