Associated Mortgage Bankers, Inc. v. Calcon Mutual Mortgage LLC

159 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 WL 519659
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 5, 2016
Docket13-cv-5927 (ADS)(AKT)
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 159 F. Supp. 3d 324 (Associated Mortgage Bankers, Inc. v. Calcon Mutual Mortgage LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Associated Mortgage Bankers, Inc. v. Calcon Mutual Mortgage LLC, 159 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 WL 519659 (E.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION & ORDER

SPATT, District Judge

This case arises from a dispute related to the unwinding of a merger between the Plaintiff Associated Mortgage Bankers, Inc. (the “AMB”) and the Defendant Cal-Con Mutual Mortgage LLC, doing business as One Trust Home Loans (“Cal-Con”).

Presently before the Court is a motion by AMB pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ. P.”) 15(a) for leave to file a second amended complaint.

For the reasons set forth below, the motion by AMB is granted in part and denied in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Proposed Amended Complaint

Unless otherwise stated, the following facts are drawn from the proposed second amended complaint (“SAC”) and are construed in the light most favorable to AMB.

1. The Parties

AMB is a New York corporation with its principal place of business in Garden City, New York. It is a “small New York bank that specialized in home mortgages.”

CalCon is a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in San Diego, California. It is a mortgage broker.

Joshua Erskine is the majority owner of CalCon and its current Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”).

Shane Erskine is a minority owner of CalCon and its current Chief Operating Officer (“COO”).

Rosemere Investments, LLC (“Rosem-ere”) is a Delaware limited liability corporation that is a shareholder and a member of CalCon.

Arlene Baltazar (“Baltazar”), Mathew Dlugolenski (“Dlugolenski”), and Matthew Glynn (“Glynn”) are former employees of AMB who are now currently employed by CalCon.

Joseph Tako (“Tako”) was employed by AMB from June 8, 2012 to April 2, 2013 and worked for CalCon until July 2013.

2. The Merger

On December 1, 2011, AMB and CalCon entered into an agreement (the “Merger Agreement”). Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, AMB purchased all outstanding stock of CalCon in exchange for issuing 400 shares of AMB’s stock, which represénted a 40% interest in the company, to Joshua Erskine, the CEO of CalCon.

[328]*328According to the SAC, the New York State Banking Department (“NSBD”) rules and regulations required NSBD to approve a merger before it becomes final.

In 2011, prior to receiving the approval of the NSBD, both companies transferred their assets, employees, and leases to a new company, which the SAC refers to as “CalCon Mutual.” This new entity appears to share the same name as CalCon. Thus, it is not entirely clear from the SAC what the difference between CalCon and CalCon Mutual. However, for ease of reference, the Court will refer to “CalCon Mutual” as a separate entity representing the combined assets of CalCon and AMB.

From December 1, 2011 to the Fall of 2012, the parties operated CalCon Mutual and worked to expand its operations in west coast offices located in California, Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

During this period, Joshua Erskine allegedly “sought to control increasingly large portions of CalCon Mutual’s operations,” which according to the SAC, “was not in the best interest of the company or its employees.”

In the Fall of 2012, when AMB allegedly refused to give complete control of CalCon Mutual to Joshua Erskine, he sought to rescind the Merger Agreement. Thereafter, the parties began to negotiate the terms of an agreement to rescind the Merger Agreement and unwind CalCon Mutual.

3. The Rescission Agreement

On January 8, 2013, the parties finalized an agreement to rescind the Merger Agreement and to transfer CalCon Mutual’s assets and West Coast business operations to Joshua Erskine and CalCon (the “Rescission Agreement”). The Agreement provided for a transition period, from January 8, 2013 through June 30, 2013 (the “Transition Period”), during which time “CalCon agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to make a transition of the West Coast Business to CalCon as promptly as possible.”

Similarly, Section 11(h) of the Agreement obligated CalCon to use its “best efforts to consummate the unwinding and facilitate a smooth transition of the West Coast Business to [CalCon], including, but not limited to, transition of the assets, contracts, employees and independent contractors involved and associated with the West Coast Business.”

Also under Section 11(h), the parties agreed to “communicate regularly to enable AMB and [CalCon] to maintain their operations and transition the West Coast Business to [CalCon] as quickly as possible” and to “use their best efforts to identify the nature and extent of all transition services that each of them may require.”

Finally, CalCon allegedly agreed to hire 48 former CalCon Mutual employees. According to the SAC, Section IV(h) of the Rescission Agreement stated that following the end of the Transition Period, AMB “shall not be obligated to incur any additional costs or expenses in connection with [the transition of the Transition Employees] and any such expenses or costs shall be paid or reimbursed by [CalCon].”

4. CalCon’s Alleged Wrongful Acts

The SAC alleges that CalCon committed seven alleged wrongful acts during and after the Transition Period.

First, as of April 2, 2013, three months after the Transition Period began, CalCon had not hired any individuals from the list of CalCon Mutual employees it had agreed to hire under the Rescission Agreement. During the Transition Period, AMB was [329]*329apparently required to pay the costs and overhead of these employees.

On April 2, 2013, AMB allegedly requested that CalCon move more quickly to re-assign the 48 employees. However, CalCon waited until June 30, 2013, the end of the Transition Period, to hire the “vast majority” of the 48 employees. According to the SAC, during this period of delay, AMB was paying these employees to do work which was exclusively for the benefit of CalCon.

Second, according to the SAC, after the employees were transferred to CalCon from CalCon Mutual, CalCon delayed in paying them their new salaries and benefits. As a result, many of the employees allegedly initiated wage claims against AMB for their lost salaries and benefits, at the behest of CalCon.

Third, on March 2013, during the Transition Period, Tako, then a CalCon Mutual employee, worked with Joshua and Shane Erskine to create a reverse mortgage platform. At the time, Tako was being paid by AMB. However, the reverse mortgage platform was allegedly solely for the benefit of CalCon and not AMB.

Fourth, under the Rescission Agreement, during the Transition Period, AMB was allegedly required to pay expenses associated with loans originated by Cal-Con in exchange for receiving the profits from the closing, funding, and sale of those loans. A separate provision of the Agreement allegedly required CalCon to reimburse AMB for a portion of the loan expenses if the monthly loan volume decreased below $20 million.

In June 2013, the loan volume decreased below the $20 million threshold, and AMB demanded that CalCon pay its share of the, loan expenses. However, CalCon allegedly refused to do so.

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Bluebook (online)
159 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 WL 519659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-mortgage-bankers-inc-v-calcon-mutual-mortgage-llc-nyed-2016.