Brink v. Raymond James & Assocs., Inc.

341 F. Supp. 3d 1314
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedOctober 9, 2018
DocketCASE NO. 15-60334-CIV-DIMITROULEAS
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 341 F. Supp. 3d 1314 (Brink v. Raymond James & Assocs., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brink v. Raymond James & Assocs., Inc., 341 F. Supp. 3d 1314 (S.D. Fla. 2018).

Opinion

WILLIAM P. DIMITROULEAS, United States District Judge

THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon Defendant Raymond James & Associates, Inc. ("Defendant" or "RJA")'s Motion for Summary Judgment [DE 51]. The Court has carefully considered the Motion, Plaintiff Jyll Brink ("Brink" or "Plaintiff")'s Response [DE 66/69], Defendant's Reply [DE

*131780/82], Defendant's statement of facts and Plaintiff's opposition thereto [DE's 52, 67/70], the evidence submitted in the record, arguments by counsel at the October 5, 2018 hearing, and is otherwise fully advised in the premises.

I. BACKGROUND

On February 17, 2015, Plaintiff Jyll Brink, on her own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated (collectively, the "Customers" or "putative Class Members"), filed the instant action against Defendant RJA. A First Amended Class Action Complaint was filed on September 18, 2018. See [DE 124]. Plaintiff asserts that RJA Customers were charged an unauthorized and unreasonable "Processing Fee," sometimes labelled as a "Misc. Fee," by RJA when it executed trades for these Customers in their "Passport Investment Account Program" (hereinafter the "Passport Account") - RJA's commission free based account. Plaintiff claims that, despite the fact that the Passport Agreement expressly provides that "Processing Fees are not commissions," in fact, "the Processing Fee charged by Raymond James contained up to a 1000% mark-up for profit in some instances (and a significant mark-up in all instances), and as such, was transaction based remuneration to Raymond James - an unauthorized commission in an account that is supposed to be commission free." See [DE 124].

Plaintiff alleges two claims against RJA pertaining to the processing fee: a claim for breach of contract (Count I) and a claim for negligence (Count II).

Defendant now moves for summary judgment as to both claims. Defendant argues that Plaintiff's claims for breach of contract and negligence fail under Florida's voluntary payment doctrine because Plaintiff voluntarily, and without protest, paid RJA the Processing Fees at issue. Defendant contends that Plaintiff's negligence claim also fails because it is actually a claim under a private exchange rule that does not grant a private right of action.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Under Rule 56(a), "[t]he court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The movant bears "the stringent burden of establishing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Sauve v. Lamberti , 597 F.Supp.2d 1312, 1315 (S.D. Fla. 2008) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett , 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) ).

"A fact is material for the purposes of summary judgment only if it might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law." Kerr v. McDonald's Corp. , 427 F.3d 947, 951 (11th Cir. 2005) (internal quotations omitted). Furthermore, "[a]n issue [of material fact] is not 'genuine' if it is unsupported by the evidence or is created by evidence that is 'merely colorable' or 'not significantly probative.' " Flamingo S. Beach I Condo. Ass'n, Inc. v. Selective Ins. Co. of Southeast , 492 F. App'x 16, 26 (11th Cir. 2012) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242, 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) ). "A mere scintilla of evidence in support of the nonmoving party's position is insufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment; there must be evidence from which a jury could reasonably find for the non-moving party." Id. at 26-27 (citing Anderson , 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505 ). Accordingly, if the moving party shows "that, on all the essential elements of its case on which it bears the burden of proof at trial, no reasonable jury could find for the nonmoving party" then "it is entitled to summary judgment unless the nonmoving party, in response, comes *1318forward with significant, probative evidence demonstrating the existence of a triable issue of fact." Rich v. Sec'y, Fla. Dept. of Corr. , 716 F.3d 525, 530 (11th Cir. 2013) (citation omitted).

III. DISCUSSION

In its summary judgment motion, Defendant submits that there are no disputed issues of material fact and it is entitled to summary judgment in its favor as to both claims. Defendant argues that Plaintiff's claims for breach of contract and negligence fail under Florida's voluntary payment doctrine because Plaintiff voluntarily, and without protest, paid RJA the Processing Fees at issue. Defendant also contends that Plaintiff's negligence claim fails because it is actually a claim under a private exchange rule that does not grant a private right of action. The Court will address these arguments in turn.

I. Whether Florida's Voluntary Payment Doctrine Bars Plaintiff's Claims

Plaintiff's claims that RJA beached the Passport Agreement every time it charged its Passport Account Customers a Processing Fee per transaction which was far in excess of the actual costs associated with executing and clearing of Customer's transactions, i.e. , by taking what amounts to a "disguised commission."

In its June 29, 2015 Order Denying Motion to Dismiss, to Strike, and for More Definite Statement, the Court found that Plaintiff sufficiently stated a claim for breach of contract. See [DE 27].

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341 F. Supp. 3d 1314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brink-v-raymond-james-assocs-inc-flsd-2018.