Cincinnati Insurance v. Ruch

940 F. Supp. 2d 338, 2013 WL 1683669, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55361
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedApril 17, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 3:12cv877
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 940 F. Supp. 2d 338 (Cincinnati Insurance v. Ruch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cincinnati Insurance v. Ruch, 940 F. Supp. 2d 338, 2013 WL 1683669, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55361 (E.D. Va. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROBERT E. PAYNE, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before this Court on Defendants John S. Ruch (“Ruch”) and Westover Bon Air Insurance, LLC’s (“Westover”) (collectively, “Defendants”) MOTION TO DISMISS (Docket No. 20), the Amended Complaint filed against them by The Cincinnati Insurance Company (“Cincinnati”), the assignee of Hylton Hall Properties, LLC (“Hylton Hall”). For the reasons set forth below, the motion will be denied.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Hylton Hall owned property located at 700 Lanier Avenue in Danville, Virginia [340]*340(the “Property”). Am. Compl. ¶9, ECF No. 19. The Property was subject to a deed of trust (“Deed of Trust”) that required Hylton Hall to maintain property insurance, which was to provide protection against, inter alia, fire damage. Id. ¶ 10. According to Cincinnati, sometime before April 15, 2012, Hylton Hall instructed its insurance agent, Ruch, who sold West-over’s insurance plans, to reapply for, and to put into force, sufficient property insurance on the Property. Id. ¶ 11. Defendants deny that Hylton Hall ever gave this instruction. Answer to Am. Compl. ¶ 11, ECF No. 22. However, the parties agree that the then-existing property insurance policy lapsed before April 15, 2012 and that, on April 15, a fire (the “Fire”) destroyed the Property. Am. Compl. ¶ 12; Answer ¶ 12.

Paragon Commercial Bank (“Paragon”), the beneficiary of the Deed of Trust, maintained a mortgage insurance policy (the “Policy”) with Cincinnati. Am. Compl. ¶ 14. Pursuant to the Policy, Cincinnati paid Paragon $618,224.11 for its lost interest in the Property and, as a result, became subrogated to the extent of its payment. Id. ¶¶ 15-16. Cincinnati, in its capacity as subrogee, then sued Hylton Hall for failing to maintain property insurance under the terras of the Deed of Trust. Id. ¶ 17. The parties to that action settled, and, in return for a dismissal with prejudice, Hylton Hall assigned to Cincinnati: “any and all rights, claims, causes of action, suits in equity, or other rights of relief, if any, it may possess to recover from Westover [], or its agents, representative, employees, directors, officers for the failure to place property insurance on the Property on or before April [15], 2012” (the “Assignment”). Pl.’s Resp., Ex. 1, ECF No. 24. As assignee, Cincinnati filed this action against Defendants to recover the amount paid to Paragon.

Count One of the Amended Complaint alleges negligence on the part of Ruch and Westover individually, jointly, severally, or in the alternative. It is alleged that the Defendants had a duty to place the insurance, that they breached their duty, and that the breach was the direct and proximate cause of damages in excess of $618,224.11. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 22-26. Count Two of the Amended Complaint alleges breach of fiduciary duty, claiming specifically that a fiduciary relationship existed by virtue of Defendants’ dealings with Hylton Hall, and that Defendants breached their fiduciary obligation to Hylton Hall by failing to place the property insurance. Id. ¶¶ 29-30. Count Three alleges a breach of contract, specifically that Defendants entered into an oral contract with Hylton Hall to place insurance and subsequently breached that contract by not placing the property insurance. Id. ¶¶ 33-36.

In their Answer, Defendants raise a number of affirmative defenses, including failure to state a claim, invalid assignment, contributory negligence, and lack of proximate causation. See Answer at 1-2. In their Memorandum in Support of their Motion to Dismiss, Defendants first argue that Hylton Hall’s assignment of its claims to Cincinnati was invalid, arguing that the failure of an insurance agent to procure insurance is a personal action and therefore not assignable. See Defs.’ Mem. in Supp. of Mot. to Dismiss 3-5, ECF No. 21. Defendants also argue that Cincinnati’s only potential claim must sound exclusively in contract rather than negligence or breach of fiduciary duty. Id. at 5-9. Finally, Defendants allege that Ruch must be dismissed as a defendant because at all times he was acting as an agent for a disclosed principal, Westover. Id. at 9-[341]*34110.1

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) seeks to test the legal sufficiency of the factual allegations made in the Complaint. F.R.C.P. 12(b)(6). Under Rule 8(a)(2), a pleading must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” F.R.C.P. 8(a)(2). As the United States Supreme Court has held, the pleading standard that Rule 8(a) announces does not require “detailed factual allegations,” but it demands more than an unadorned accusation. Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). A pleading that offers mere “labels and conclusions” or “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Id. Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders only “naked assertion[s]” devoid of “further factual enhancement.” Id. at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted by the court as true, to “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. A claim has facial “plausibility” when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. The plausibility standard is not akin to a “probability requirement,” but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully. Id. Where a complaint pleads facts that are “merely consistent with” a defendant’s liability, it “stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of entitlement to relief.” Id. at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court repeatedly emphasized that alleging plausible grounds for a claim “simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence” to prove the alleged claim. Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. This pleading standard governs “all civil actions and proceedings in the United States district courts.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 684, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

DISCUSSION

To decide the motion to dismiss, it is necessary to address four issues: (i) whether the Assignment is valid; (ii) whether Ruch should be dismissed as a named defendant; (iii) whether Cincinnati may maintain a negligence action; and (iv) whether Cincinnati may maintain a breach of fiduciary duty action against Defendants. They will be addressed in turn.

I. Whether the Assignment is Valid

Defendants’ argument that the Assignment is invalid is a dispositive issue in this case. If the assignment was indeed void ab initio, then Cincinnati lacks standing to bring this action and the motion to dismiss should be granted with prejudice. However, for the following reasons, the Court concludes that the Assignment is valid.

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940 F. Supp. 2d 338, 2013 WL 1683669, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cincinnati-insurance-v-ruch-vaed-2013.