First State Bank v. DANIEL AND ASSOCIATES, PC

491 F. Supp. 2d 1033, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41714, 2007 WL 1652175
District Court, D. Kansas·Decided June 7, 2007·No. 05-2505-JWL·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LUNGSTRUM, District Judge.

In this lawsuit plaintiff First State Bank alleges that defendant Daniel and Associates, P.C. d/b/a Daniel, Schell, Wolfe and Associates, P.C. (Daniel & Associates) was negligent in performing accounting and auditing work for non-party Law Enforcement Equipment Company (LEECO). The bank alleges that it relied on erroneous audit reports and financial statements prepared by Daniel & Associates in connection with extending credit to LEECO. On March 20, 2007, the court granted Daniel & Associates’ motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the bank’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations. See generally First State Bank v. Daniel & Assoc., P. C., 478 F.Supp.2d 1279 (D.Kan.2007). This matter is now before the court on the bank’s motion for reconsideration (doc. # 75). For the reasons explained below, this motion is granted in part and denied in part. Specifically, the court finds that it erred in concluding as a matter of law based on the existing summary judgment record that the bank suffered legal injury at the time it made the loan, but the court rejects the bank’s argument that it necessarily did not suffer legal injury before January of 2005. Consequently, the court will vacate its prior ruling granting Daniel & Associates’ motion for summary judgment and permit Daniel & Associates to file a renewed motion for summary judgment on or before June 27, 2007, based on the legal standards set forth in this Memorandum and Order.

LEGAL STANDARD FOR A MOTION TO RECONSIDER

Because the bank filed its motion to reconsider within ten days after the entry of final judgment, the court construes it as a motion to alter or amend pursuant to Rule 59(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Servants of Paraclete v. Does, 204 F.3d 1005, 1012 (10th Cir.2000) (a motion to reconsider filed within ten days after entry of judgment is considered a Rule 59(e) motion). Grounds “warranting a motion to reeonsid *1035 er include (1) an intervening change in the controlling law, (2) new evidence previously unavailable, and (3) the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice.” Id. Thus, a motion for reconsideration is appropriate where the court has misapprehended the facts, a party’s position, or the controlling law. Id. It is not appropriate to revisit issues already addressed or advance arguments that could have been raised in prior briefing. Id.

ANALYSIS

The court will presume familiarity with its prior order granting Daniel & Associates’ motion for summary judgment. See generally First State Bank, 478 F.Supp.2d at 1279. In that order, the court stated that the term “substantial injury” in K. S.A. § 60 — 513(b) means that “the victim must have sufficient ascertainable injury to justify an action for recovery of the damages, regardless of extent.” Moon v. City of Lawrence, 267 Kan. 720, 728, 982 P.2d 388, 395 (1999). “The true test to determine when an action accrues is that point in time at which the plaintiff could first have filed and prosecuted his [or her] action to a successful conclusion.” Kansas Pub. Employees Ret. Sys. v. Reimer & Koger Assocs., Inc., 262 Kan. 110, 116, 936 P.2d 714, 719 (1997) (quotation omitted). The court held in its prior order that “the bank suffered legal injury sufficient to trigger the running of the statute of limitations at the time it made the loan.” First State Bank, 478 F.Supp.2d at 1284 (citing Corsicana Nat’l Bank v. Johnson, 251 U.S. 68, 86, 40 S.Ct. 82, 64 L.Ed. 141 (1919); FDIC v. Jackson, 133 F.3d 694, 696-97 & n. 2 (9th Cir.1998); Farmers & Merchants Nat’l Bank v. Bryan, 902 F.2d 1520, 1522 (10th Cir.1990); and Fed. Sav. & Loan Ins. Corp. v. Haralson, 813 F.2d 370, 377 (11th Cir.1987)).

The bank now contends that the court committed clear error by concluding that the bank suffered actionable injury at that time. The bank argues that it could not have brought an accounting malpractice claim against Daniel & Associates until LEECO stopped making payments on its loan in January of 2005. Upon further consideration of the arguments presented in the bank’s motion to reconsider, the court believes that it erred in concluding as a matter of law based on the existing summary judgment record that the bank suffered legal injury sufficient to trigger the running of the statute of limitations at the time it made the loan. In reaching this conclusion, the court relied on cases which seemed apposite because they involved claims based on improper loans. In retrospect, however, they are distinguishable because in those cases the plaintiff banks were not asserting the type of claim asserted in this case, which is a third-party claim for an accountant’s alleged negligence. Corsicana National Bank, Jackson, and Bryan all involved various claims brought by banks against the banks’ officers and/or directors. Haralson is distinguishable for other reasons. Haralson, like this case, involved a claim by a bank against an accountant arising out of misrepresentations in a financial statement. That case involved the application of Alabama law under which, much like Kansas law, the cause of action accrues for statute of limitations purposes “as soon as the party in whose favor it arises is entitled to maintain an action.” 813 F.2d at 377. The Eleventh Circuit stated that the bank “suffered a legal injury by virtue of the misrepresentation in the financial statement when it was induced to make a loan ... on the basis of that financial statement.” Id. This court discounts the persuasive value of this statement primarily because the Eleventh Circuit did not provide any meaningful legal analysis of how *1036 it reached that conclusion. The court may not have devoted much attention to the issue because, as the bank suggests, the fact of legal injury was obvious because the misrepresentation claim at issue in Haralson was a fraud claim and, under Alabama law, nominal damages are sufficient to maintain such a claim. First Bank v. Fielder, 590 So.2d 893, 898 (Ala.1991), overruled on other grounds, Life Ins. Co. v. Smith, 719 So.2d 797 (Ala.1998).

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First State Bank v. DANIEL AND ASSOCIATES, PC, 491 F. Supp. 2d 1033, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41714, 2007 WL 1652175 (D. Kan. 2007).

491 F. Supp. 2d 1033 (First State Bank v. DANIEL AND ASSOCIATES, PC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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