Gold v. Ernst & Ernst

73 F.R.D. 25
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedOctober 28, 1976
DocketNo. 75C 684
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 73 F.R.D. 25 (Gold v. Ernst & Ernst) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gold v. Ernst & Ernst, 73 F.R.D. 25 (E.D.N.Y. 1976).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

PLATT, District Judge.

Pursuant to this Court’s memorandum and findings dated April 5, 1976, holding “that the claims of the representative parties [plaintiffs] are typical of the claims of the class described below, that the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect their interests, and that the class should consist of all purchasers of common stock, preferred stock, or capital notes of Franklin New York Corporation who gave their orders for purchase between July 16, 1973 and May 16, 1974,” and pursuant to such memorandum and the decisions made at the pretrial conference held in this Court on September 3, 1976, the liaison attorneys for the class plaintiff have submitted a revised order certifying the class and designating the manner and time of notice and the attorneys for the defendant, Howard D. Crosse, have submitted a counter-order certifying the class and designating the manner and time of notice, and the parties have submitted affidavits and memoranda in support of their respective proposed orders.

The affidavits and memoranda raise two issues: first, whether the plaintiffs must pay the cost of forwarding the notice from the brokerage firms to class members whose securities are held in “street” name, and second, whether the notice to class members should include a voluntary proof of claim form.

In the consolidated amended complaint filed on or about April 1, 1976, in this class action, plaintiff alleges that he is suing on behalf of persons or entities who purchased securities, debt or equity of Franklin New York Corporation (“Franklin”) during the period between July 16, 1973 and May 16, 1974, and seeks to recover damages sustained by such purchasers as a result of alleged violations by the defendants of the Federal Securities Laws (§ 10-b of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10(b)(5) promulgated thereunder) and the common law. Plaintiff’s claims assertedly arise out of alleged failures by defendants to disclose material facts concerning the results of operations and the economic condition of Franklin’s subsidiary, the Franklin National Bank (“FNB”).

In essence, plaintiff contends that materially misleading representations and omis[27]*27sions occurred in various documents, including Franklin’s annual report to shareholders for 1972 and 1973, and Franklin’s interim reports to shareholders for the first three quarters of 1973 and the first quarter of 1974. The misrepresentations and omissions alleged include: (i) failure to disclose pervasive uncertainty concerning FNB’s ability to survive as a going concern; (ii) wrongful inflation of FNB’s income and assets by failing to set forth a sufficient reserve for loan losses; (iii) failure to reveal the importance to FNB’s operations of excessive and improper speculation and high risk foreign exchange transactions; (iv) failure to reveal inadequate internal control of foreign exchange trading activities and the existence of numerous activities designed to conceal material foreign exchange losses; (v) wrongfully reporting as an asset certain “tax benefits” which had unlikely prospects of being realized; (vi) overstatement of trading account income and of the value of investment account securities, and (vii) understating of trading account losses.

The main defendants are Franklin’s independent accountants, certain former officers and directors of Franklin and FNB and certain former employees in the foreign exchange and international division of FNB. The defendants have interposed general denials and have asserted various defenses, cross-claims and third-party claims.

With respect to the first of the two issues raised by the parties, there are two recent decisions in this Circuit, the first of which indicates and the second of which holds that the “plaintiff, and not the brokerage firms, must bear the cost of notifying class members.” Sanders v. Levy, et al., (2d Cir., Slip op. 4577, June 30, 1976); Weiss v. Drew National Corporation, et al., (S.D.N.Y. 75 Civ. 4816, July 15,1976).

In the Sanders case the plaintiffs were stockholders of a mutual fund who brought both class and derivative claims against the Fund’s directors and investment advisor. For purposes of the derivative claims only, the Fund itself was joined as a nominal defendant but no class claims were asserted against it. The District Court imposed the costs of extracting the names and addresses of the class members from the Fund’s magnetic tapes on the Fund. In reversing, the Court of Appeals held that it was “totally improper to impose costs on the Fund” because the Fund was not a party to the class action claims (Slip op. at p. 4583).

If anything, the facts in the case at bar present an a fortiori situation to the facts in the Sanders case because here the brokerage firms whose customers comprise a part of the class are not as involved as the mutual fund might be said to have been in the Sanders case.

In addition, as indicated, the facts in the Weiss case appear to be on “all fours” with those in the case at bar and Judge Stewart was of the opinion that the Court of Appeals decision in Sanders refusing to impose the costs on the mutual fund was determinative of the question presented here. We agree.

As to the second of the two issues, we fail to see the compelling need to forward at this time a voluntary proof of claim form1 but at the same time do not believe it would be improper for the defendants to forward such a notice with the class action notice if the defendants wish to do so. However, in the event they elect so to do they will be required to bear 50% of the costs of mailing (including 50% of the brokerage firm costs) of the class action notice to the class action members and will be required to label the form either “Information for Class Determination” or “Tentative and Voluntary Proof of Claim.”

With respect to paragraph 12 of plaintiffs’ proposed Notice, Section 1.45 of the Manual for Complex Litigation (1975 Ed.) at p. 54 suggests2 that inquiries by [28]*28potential members be made to the Court, and that the Court should supervise all responses to such inquiries. This paragraph should be amended to conform to this preferred practice.

The attorneys for the parties herein should confer and submit an appropriate order as soon as possible not inconsistent with the foregoing.

SUPPLEMENTAL MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Plaintiffs move for an order permitting reargument with respect to that portion of the Court’s order dated October 27, 1976, which requires class action plaintiffs to bear the expense of identifying class members who are beneficial owners of securities held in street or nominee name or, alternatively, for an order pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) amending the Court’s order of October 27, 1976, so as to certify an interlocutory appeal from the aforesaid portion of that order.

With respect to plaintiffs’ motion to rear-gue, the Court grants such motion and after further consideration adheres to its original decision in its Memorandum dated October 27, 1976.

With respect to the alternative portion of such motion, liaison counsel for class plaintiffs have stated that if the Court certifies the foregoing question for an interlocutory appeal, they will expeditiously appeal this question to the Court of Appeals for this Circuit.

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Related

In Re Franklin National Bank Securities Litigation
478 F. Supp. 577 (E.D. New York, 1979)
Gold v. Ernst & Ernst
574 F.2d 662 (Second Circuit, 1978)
In Re Nissan Motor Corporation Antitrust Litigation
552 F.2d 1088 (Fifth Circuit, 1977)
Hitt v. Nissan Motor Co.
552 F.2d 1088 (Fifth Circuit, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
73 F.R.D. 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gold-v-ernst-ernst-nyed-1976.