AXA Versicherung AG v. New Hampshire Insurance

348 F. App'x 628
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedOctober 6, 2009
DocketNo. 08-2521-cv
StatusPublished

This text of 348 F. App'x 628 (AXA Versicherung AG v. New Hampshire Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AXA Versicherung AG v. New Hampshire Insurance, 348 F. App'x 628 (2d Cir. 2009).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Defendants-Appellants New Hampshire Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Company, and National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (collectively, “AIG”) appeal from a judgment entered in the Southern District of New York (Jed S. Rakoff, Judge) after a jury trial holding AIG liable for $34,373,170, including $5,750,000 in punitive damages, on claims of fraudulent inducement with respect to two reinsurance facilities, and from the denial of AIG’s post-trial motions for relief under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50(b) and 59(e).

AIG argues that (1) the claims brought by Plaintiff-Appellee AXA Versicherung AG (“AXA”) should have been arbitrated; (2) AXA’s claims should have been tried to the bench not the jury; (3) AXA’s claims are barred by the statute of limitations; and (4) punitive damages were improperly assessed and insufficiently supported. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts, procedural history, and scope of the issues presented on appeal. For the reasons that follow, we remand this case to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this order.

With respect to the first issue on appeal, AIG contends that AXA’s claims should have been arbitrated because they sound in contract. In response, AXA, though not disputing that contract claims are subject to arbitration under the parties’ agreements, argues that its claims sound in fraud and thus were properly litigated in the District Court. AXA further argues that, in any event, AIG waived its right to arbitration.

New York law distinguishes between “a claim based on fraudulent inducement of a contract” and a breach of contract claim. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. v. Allegheny Energy, Inc., 500 F.3d 171, 184 (2d Cir. 2007). Merely falsely indicating an intent to perform under a contract “is not sufficient to support a claim of fraud under New York law.” Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. v. Recovery Credit Servs., Inc., 98 F.3d 13, 19 (2d Cir.1996); see also Guilbert v. Gardner, 480 F.3d 140, 148 (2d Cir.2007) (misrepresentations that pension plan was “ ‘taken care of when, in fact, defendants knew this to be false” were merely duplica-tive of contract claim); TVT Records v. Island Def Jam Music Group, 412 F.3d 82, 90 (2d Cir.2005) (“[Ujnder New York law, the failure to disclose an intention to breach is not actionable as a fraudulent concealment.”), cert. derded, 548 U.S. 904, 126 S.Ct. 2968, 165 L.Ed.2d 951 (2006); Manas v. VMS Assocs., LLC, 53 A.D.3d 451, 453-54, 863 N.Y.S.2d 4, 7 (1st Dep’t 2008). “General allegations that defendant entered into a contract while lacking the intent to perform it are insufficient to support [a fraud] claim.” N.Y. Univ. v. Continental Ins. Co., 87 N.Y.2d 308, 318, 639 N.Y.S.2d 283, 662 N.E.2d 763, 769 (1995) (holding that allegations of breach of contract “and any covenants implied” do not sound in fraud).

To maintain a claim of fraud in such a situation, a plaintiff must either: (i) demonstrate a legal duty separate from the duty to perform under the contract; or (ii) demonstrate a fraudulent misrepresentation collateral or extraneous to the contract; or (iii) seek special damages that are caused by the misrepresentation and unrecoverable as contract damages. [630]*630Bridgestone/Firestone, 98 F.3d at 20 (citations omitted); see, e.g., Coppola v. Applied Elec. Corp., 288 A.D.2d 41, 42, 732 N.Y.S.2d 402, 403 (1st Dep’t 2001). While a misrepresentation that is collateral to the contract may support a fraud in the inducement claim distinct from a breach of contract claim, see Wall v. CSX Transp., Inc., 471 F.3d 410, 416-17 (2d Cir.2006), “the non-disclosure of collateral aims,” such as “allegations about defendants’ states of minds used to support the contention that they intended to breach the contract (i.e. the motives for the breach)[,] ... is insufficiently distinct from the breach of contract claim,” TVT Records, 412 F.3d at 91.

AIG argues that AXA’s fraudulent inducement claims sound in contract at least insofar as they rely on allegations that: (a) AIG promised that the reinsurance facilities would be operated on a facultative obligatory basis, but treated them as purely facultative; (b) AIG selected certain policies to cede to the facilities instead of a cross-section of risks; and (c) AIG increased AXA’s share of risk beyond AXA’s original understanding. AIG contends that to the extent AXA claims AIG secretly intended to treat the facilities as faculta-tive rather than facultative obligatory, this simply reflects an undisclosed intention to breach, not a collateral misrepresentation. It makes the same argument with regard to AXA’s assertions that AIG intended to choose an improper selection of risks to cede to the facilities and to manipulate AXA’s percentage stake in the ceded risks. AIG further argues that whether it did such things in order to offload unprofitable business and eliminate its own exposure only suggests a motive for breaching the parties’ reinsurance agreements. On the other hand, AXA argues that AIG’s misrepresentations were collateral to the parties’ agreements and thus sufficiently distinct to support its claims of fraudulent inducement.

It is not clear, on the record before us, whether the District Court gave these arguments sufficient consideration. The basis for the stay of the arbitration commenced by AIG entered in March 2006 by then-Judge Mukasey is not entirely clear. Although the District Court denied AIG’s in limine motion in January 2008 on the ground that this issue had already been decided, the District Court’s denial of summary judgment in July 2007 did not clearly address the parties’ arguments on this issue. See AXA Versicherung AG v. N.H. Ins. Co., No. 05 Civ. 10180, 2007 WL 2142302, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54295 (S.D.N.Y. July 23, 2007). The District Court referred to the distinction between fraud and contract claims in analyzing AIG’s punitive damages arguments, both at summary judgment and post-trial, but the Court did not explain why AXA’s claims “did not involve a breach of contract.” See id., 2007 WL 2142302, at *2, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54295, at *7-8; AXA Versicherung AG v. N.H. Ins. Co., No. 05 Civ. 10180, 2008 WL 1849312, at *2 & n. 1, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33950, at *4-6 & n. 1 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 22, 2008). Rather, the portions of the trial transcript it relied upon during the course of this discussion explain only that a rescission claim should be litigated before any arbitration of a contract counter-claim by AIG because if AXA were to win rescission, there would be nothing left to arbitrate. See Trial Tr. at 1472-75. Nor does the rest of the record, including the portions cited in AXA’s post-argument submission to us, establish why the District Court apparently rejected AIG’s argument that at least some of AXA’s claims were subject to arbitration.

We believe a remand is appropriate to allow the District Court, which is intimately familiar with the full scope of AXA’s evidence after presiding over the jury trial and issuing several rulings in this case, the

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Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. v. Allegheny Energy, Inc.
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Guilbert v. Gardner
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Bluebook (online)
348 F. App'x 628, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/axa-versicherung-ag-v-new-hampshire-insurance-ca2-2009.