First National Bank v. ACCO USA, Inc.-IBT Retirement Plan

842 F. Supp. 311, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18685, 1994 WL 20217
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJanuary 7, 1994
Docket93 C 896
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 842 F. Supp. 311 (First National Bank v. ACCO USA, Inc.-IBT Retirement Plan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank v. ACCO USA, Inc.-IBT Retirement Plan, 842 F. Supp. 311, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18685, 1994 WL 20217 (N.D. Ill. 1994).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ZAGEL, District Judge.

This case emanates from First National Bank of Chicago’s (“the Bank”) attempt to satisfy matured redemption requests from its Institutional Real Estate Fund F (“Fund F”) by distributing, to the withdrawing participant plans, cash and quitclaim deeds to undivided fractional interests in each of the Fund F real estate parcels. 1 The defendant plans rejected the proposed distribution in early 1993. The Bank subsequently filed a complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, compelling each of the defendant plans to accept their fractional shares of Fund F real property, and directing the Trustee to manage the refused fractional shares under the terms of the Trust Instrument during the pendency of this litigation.

The defendants move to dismiss the complaint initially for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 12(b)(6) and ultimately for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1). 2 For the reasons set forth below, the defendants’ motion to dismiss Counts I and III is denied, and the motion to dismiss Count II is granted.

Count I of the Bank’s complaint is entitled “Breach of the Trust Instrument [and] the Comptroller’s Regulations and Violation of *314 ERISA.” Specifically, the Bank says that: 29 U.S.C. § 1105(a) makes the Bank a co-fiduciary of each of the defendant plans; 29 U.S.C. § 1104(a)(1)(D) requires fiduciaries to discharge their duties “in accordance with the documents and instruments governing the plan[s]”; “12 C.F.R. § 9.18(b)(6), as interpreted by the Comptroller and upheld by the Seventh Circuit, requires that in kind distribution be made by means of the grant of undivided fractional interests in each of the [Fund F] properties”; and in rejecting the quitclaim deeds to undiv d fractional interests, the defendants breached the Trust Instrument and their fiduciary duties in violation of § 1104(a)(1)(D).

Count II states that the Bank, as Trustee, advised the defendants that they were required by law to accept the proposed distribution and that their refusal would be interpreted as a direction to maintain the fractional interests in Fund F until ’ered otherwise by the court. The Bai requests a judgment against each defendant plan, declaring that the rejected fractional interests remain in Fund F and that the Bank, as Trustee, retains its full powers and protection under the Trust agreement until the Court orders otherwise. 3

The defendants urge that the entire complaint must be dismissed as moot because there is no justiciable case or controversy in Article III terms and, theref this Court has no federal jurisdiction. 1 ^ defendants argue that the case or controversy between the parties ceased to exist once the Bank decided to terminate Fund F and liquidate its properties pursuant to the Termination Plan. By letter dated April 29, 1993, the Bank advised the OCC of its intent to terminate Fund F and attached a copy of the Termination Plan. 4 Under the Plan, the Bank as trustee will establish a “Fund F Liquidating Account” of Fund F assets (excluding the Redeemed Former Participants’ rejected fractional interests) h sell all Fund F properties “as soon as feasible and prudent,” and will periodically and ratably distribute cash available after expenses, including budgeted capital improvements and operation costs. With respect to. “The Refused Fractional Interests of the Redeemed Former Participants,” the Termination Plan provides as follows:

The Trustee’s Termination Plan does not and should not be understood to operate^] to affect or override the claims, if any, of any Redeemed Former Participant. As noted above on January 15, 1993, the Trustee made a ratable distribution of cash and fractional interests in property to the Redeemed Former Participants. The Trustee asked each Redeemed Former Participant to confirm that pending resolution of the distribution by a court or otherwise the Trustee is empowered to deal with the refused fractional interests of the Redeemed Former Participants under the same terms as the Trust Instrument. Confirmation was received from each redeemed Former Participant. Consequent ly, pending resolution by a court or otherwise, the Trustee continues to retain the power and duties to administer the refused fractional interests of the Redeemed Former Participants in accordance with the terms of the Trust Instrument. The Trustee will administer the fractional interests refused by the Redeemed Former Participants within an “Interim Liquidation Account.” The Trustee intends to jointly manage the Interim Liquidation Account and the Fund F Liquidating Account for sale purposes and for other necessary investment decisions until such time as the distribution of the rejected fractional interests is resolved by a court or otherwise. (Emphasis added.)

“Mootness can kill a lawsuit at any stage.” Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 459 n. 10, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 1216 n. 10, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974). A case becomes moot ‘“when the *315 issues presented are no longer “live” or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.’” Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 481, 102 S.Ct. 1181, 1183, 71 L.Ed.2d 353 (1982). 5 To test for mootness, a court must ask whether “the relief sought, if granted, would make a difference to the legal interests of the parties (as distinct from their psyches, which might remain deeply engaged with the merits of the litigation).” Air Line Pilots Ass’n Int’l v. UAL Corp., 897 F.2d 1394, 1396 (7th Cir.1990). As Judge Posner noted in Air Line Pilots, the mootness test functions on a continuum, and:

it is usually possible to conjure up a set of facts under which the relief sought would make a difference to the parties. But if it would be a very little difference, then to economize on judicial resources as well as to give expression to policies thought inherent in Article III the ease will be declared moot and relief withheld.

Id. at 1396-97.

The Bank insists that the ease is not moot. It argues that the declaration (sought in Count II) will resolve a present dispute over the legal basis for the Trustee’s continuing powers over the refused fractional interests and the Trustee’s ability to deduct its fees.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Union Pacific Railroad v. Village of South Barrington
958 F. Supp. 1285 (N.D. Illinois, 1997)
Chisholm v. Foothill Capital Corp.
940 F. Supp. 1273 (N.D. Illinois, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
842 F. Supp. 311, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18685, 1994 WL 20217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-acco-usa-inc-ibt-retirement-plan-ilnd-1994.