Within a week, the Third Circuit is expected to rule on a case that could change Wal-Mart's policy on the sale of guns with high-capacity magazines.

The company has to go to the printer with its annual report to shareholders, called a proxy statement, by April 16. Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who headed the three-judge panel that heard arguments on the case Wednesday, indicated the court would rule by April 15 on whether Wal-Mart would have to include in that report a proposal from one of its shareholders, an Episcopal church in New York that filed under the name Trinity Wall Street, that would ask shareholders to vote on putting the oversight of policies concerning the sale of certain merchandise, including guns with high-capacity magazines, in the hands of the board.

Whether the company has to include that proposal in its report to shareholders is a close call, Ambro said, noting the trial judge in the District of Delaware had changed his mind on the question, first denying Trinity's motion for preliminary injunction, but, later, reversing course and ruling in December that it did have to include the proposal. Wal-Mart appealed that decision.