Eyman v. Marsha Development Corp.

301 F. Supp. 931, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10973
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 26, 1969
DocketNo. 67 C 359(1)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 301 F. Supp. 931 (Eyman v. Marsha Development Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eyman v. Marsha Development Corp., 301 F. Supp. 931, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10973 (E.D. Mo. 1969).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HARPER, Chief Judge.

The plaintiffs herein have filed a three-count complaint seeking certain monetary and other statutory relief. Jurisdiction is founded upon diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332 and upon the provisions of 15 U.S.C.A. § 77a et seq., The Securities Act of 1933.

For the purpose of this decision, the pertinent testimony and exhibits disclose that the plaintiff, Charles E. Wilson, on December 1, 1965, executed a formal instrument purporting to create an irrevocable ten-year income tax trust. The plaintiff Eyman was to be the trustee under the terms of that instrument. Said trust was to have a life of 121 months, at which time the property was to revert to Wilson, or if he were deceased, to his wife. Wilson’s wife was the primary income beneficiary of the trust.

Following an extended period of negotiations between Wilson and Ruppert, Wilson paid to the Marsha Development Corporation (Marsha) the sum of $30,-000.00, in return for which Marsha agreed to convey to Eyman as trustee, a one-half working interest in certain oil leases and further to give an option on certain other oil leases. It is this transaction, and more particularly the events leading up to it, which form the factual basis for this suit.

Count One alleges certain violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and seeks the remedy provided by section 771 thereof.

Count Two alleges a common law action for fraud and misrepresentation and requests actual and punitive damages.

Count Three alleges violations of the Missouri Securities Act, Chapter 409, RSMo 1959, as amended, Y.A.M.S.

At the conclusion of the trial on the merits, the plaintiffs filed a motion to amend the complaint to conform to the evidence, urging that the evidence presented therein established a violation of section 10 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and more specifically a violation of rule 10 B 5 promulgated thereunder. Plaintiffs urge that federal case law decisions have established a private remedy for proven violations of said rule. Said motion was granted by this court’s order of June 25,1969.

Having fully considered the matter, it is the opinion of this court that the plaintiffs here are not entitled to maintain this action by reason of a prior suit which went to final judgment in the [933]*933United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.

On January 13, 1967, plaintiff Wilson instituted an action, being Cause No. 2176, in the Western District of Kentucky, against the defendants Marsha and Ruppert. His complaint in that suit alleges that the defendants entered into a written agreement, denominated a “Joint Venture Agreement” (Defendants’ Exhibit 1), with Eyman, “as Trustee for the use and benefit of plaintiff and with plaintiff,” whereby for $30,-000.00 paid by Wilson, Eyman was to get the one-half working interest and an option for the purchase of one-half of an additional lease or set of leases. The oil lease in question in this action is the same one which was the subject matter of the Kentucky litigation. Wilson continued to affirmatively urge the validity of the Joint Venture Agreement and sought specific performance thereof. He prayed for an order requiring Marsha to make formal assignment of the one-half working interest, and further for an order requiring Marsha to recognize Wilson’s acceptance of the option.

On October 16, 1967, final judgment was entered. That order (Part Five of Defendants’ Exhibit L) affirmed the validity of the contract (agreement) and ordered the formal assignment to be made, but denied specific performance of the option clause on an unrelated factual basis. No appeal was taken from this order and judgment. Thereafter, Wilson sought to amend his complaint to seek recision (the remedy provided by 15 U.S.C.A. § 77l), but leave to so amend was denied, from which order again no appeal was taken (Defendants’ Exhibit L). It is important to note that at the onset of this litigation in Kentucky, Wilson filed lis pendens against all of the oil leases involved. It is clear from the uncontroverted evidence that such action had debilitating effects on Marsha and that several potential buyers of the leases were discouraged from pursuing any purchase talks. To place the effect of the lis pendens in context, at this time there was in southern Illinois and northwest Kentucky an oil boom in progress. Several new wells had come in and there was much new prospecting and investment activity taking place.

The evidence presented at the trial of this present cause reveals that at the time of the filing of the Kentucky litigation Wilson had full knowledge of all of the relevant facts upon which this present suit is predicated. Further, it is apparent that as soon as three to four weeks after having executed the Joint Venture Agreement, and certainly no later than two to three weeks after the filing of the Kentucky suit, Wilson firmly believed that he had been defrauded (Wilson’s Deposition, pp. 150-53 and 157-58).

This summary constitutes the basic factual setting leading up to the action of Wilson and Eyman in filing this suit. It is obvious that basic equitable principles mitigate against the maintenance of this suit. In bringing such action, Wilson is reversing his legal allegations arising from the same facts previously existing and of which he had knowledge. The prior action presumtively caused the defendant Marsha damage by virtue of the lis pendens which restricted its ability to deal in its oil lease properties during the very height of the investment speculation in the area.

Professor Moore succintly states what this court finds to be the applicable principle of law (Vol. 1B, at page 764, par. 0.405):

“One fraudulently induced into a contract, for instance, may, as a matter of substantive law, either affirm or disaffirm the agreement. An election of the substantive right to affirm extinguishes the substantive right to disaffirm. And so an attempt to invoke the remedy of recision after an action on the contract may fail, not because of election of inconsistent remedies, but because the plaintiff no longer has the substantive right to dis-affirm.”

[934]*934This is the precise situation in which Wilson finds himself. He has by means of the institution and maintenance of the Kentucky litigation affirmed the contract with full knowledge of the facts, and having done so is now precluded from asserting the contrary. Whether the label of res judicata, collateral estoppel, estoppel by judgment, election of inconsistent remedies, or some other label is applied to describe the situation, the result must be the same. The validity and finality of the Kentucky judgment must be sustained. To rule in any other manner would cut the heart out of that judgment and render it a nullity.

As to the second and third counts of this suit; Professor Moore’s statement is clearly applicable. See, e. g., Dalton v. Dabbas, Mo., 276 S.W.2d 150; Nelson v. Swing-a-Way Mfg. Co., 8 Cir., 266 F.2d 184; Inland Waterways Corp. v. Doyle, 8 Cir., 204 F.2d 874, 879; Berger v. Mercantile Trust Co., Mo., 352 S.W.2d 644; United States v.

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Bluebook (online)
301 F. Supp. 931, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eyman-v-marsha-development-corp-moed-1969.