Gordon Lawrie v. Ginn Development Company, LLC

656 F. App'x 464
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 28, 2016
Docket14-14758
StatusUnpublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 656 F. App'x 464 (Gordon Lawrie v. Ginn Development Company, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon Lawrie v. Ginn Development Company, LLC, 656 F. App'x 464 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In pleading, as in many aspects of life, quality matters more than quantity. Plaintiffs in this lawsuit have tried to plead a cause of action for real estate fraud four times, with their most recent complaint launching a 142-page barrage of allegations against Defendants. Despite the pleading’s impressive magnitude, the district court found that Plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint lacked, among other things, the quality of pleading demanded by Rule 9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and it dismissed the case with prejudice. After reviewing the parties’ pleadings and arguments, and with the benefit of oral argument, we now affirm.

*466 I.

Plaintiffs-Appellants in this case include individuals who purchased real estate in several planned residential developments 1 conceived by Defendants-Appellees Ginn Development Company, LLC (“Ginn”), and Lubert-Adler Partners, L.P. (“Lubert-Adler”), during the real-estate boom of the mid-2000s. Plaintiffs have alleged that their purchases have since lost significant value. But they do not attribute their losses to the collapse of the real-estate bubble and subsequent economic downturn. Instead, Plaintiffs allege that their losses result from a conspiracy among Ginn, Lu-bert-Adler, Defendant-Appellee Ginn Title Services, LLC (“GTS”) (collectively, “the Defendants”), and several now-dismissed banks to fraudulently inflate the sale prices of the properties purchased by Plaintiffs above then known fair market values. 2

To vindicate their losses, Plaintiffs filed a class-action civil complaint alleging that the Defendants and the banks violated provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (“RICO”), as well as several state laws. Plaintiffs amended their complaint once on their own initiative, but the district court dismissed that First Amended Complaint for failing to satisfy the plead-, ing standards of Rules 8 and 9(b), Fed. R. Civ. P. In that first dismissal order, the district court thoughtfully explained the deficiencies of Plaintiffs’ allegations and granted leave for Plaintiffs to file another complaint.

Plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint that was about half the length of the First Amended Complaint but still failed to allege sufficient facts to connect the individual Plaintiffs’ transactions and losses to specific fraudulent activities by Defendants. The district court once again dismissed the action but granted Plaintiffs one final opportunity to amend their complaint to satisfy pleading requirements.

In response, Plaintiffs submitted their fourth attempt at pleading a cause of action. Plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint (“TAC”) spans 142 pages with 866 numbered paragraphs, includes another 85 pages of exhibits, and is, as accurately described by the magistrate judge, “an unwieldy, prolix ‘shotgun pleading.’ ”

Count I of the TAC alleges that Defendants conducted an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity—namely mail fraud and wire fraud—in violation of RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c). Count II asserts a RICO conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d). Count III charges, apparently under state law, a claim for “civil conspiracy” based on Defendants’ “agree *467 ment to artificially inflate the value of properties ... through numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations with intent to defraud.” 3

Defendants’ motions to dismiss the TAC were referred to the magistrate judge, who recommended the dismissal with prejudice of Plaintiffs’ claims. Among other bases, the magistrate judge justified his recommendation on grounds that Plaintiffs failed once again “to meaningfully connect any specific fraudulent conduct to any specific damages suffered by any specific Plaintiff.” As a result of this deficiency, the magistrate judge concluded, the TAC did not meet the pleading standards of Rules 8 or 9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Because Plaintiffs had repeatedly failed to cure the deficiencies of their complaint and, in the magistrate judge’s view, further amendment would be futile, the magistrate judge recommended dismissal with prejudice. After a de novo review, the district judge adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss the case with prejudice for “violations of Federal. Rules of Civil Procedure 8 and 9.” Plaintiffs now appeal the dismissal of their TAC, arguing that they adequately pled their fraud-premised RICO and civil conspiracy claims.

II.

A.

We review de novo a district court’s dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6), “accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Ironworkers Local Union 68 v. AstraZeneca Pharm., LP, 634 F.3d 1352, 1359 (11th Cir. 2011) (quoting Am. Dental Ass’n v. Cigna Corp., 605 F.3d 1283, 1288 (11th Cir. 2010)). To survive a motion to dismiss, plaintiffs must allege sufficient facts to push their “claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.” Am. Dental Ass’n, 605 F.3d at 1289 (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1974, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

B.

To state a claim under RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), plaintiffs must allege four elements: “(1) conduct (2) of an enterprise (3) through a pattern (4) of racketeering activity.” Williams v. Mohawk Indus., Inc., 465 F.3d 1277, 1282 (11th Cir. 2006). Additionally, plaintiffs bringing a civil RICO action for damages must show (1) that an injury occurred to business or property and (2) “that such injury was ‘by reason of the substantive RICO violation.” 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c); Williams, 465 F.3d at 1283. The “by reason of’ standard requires that the defendant’s misconduct directly and proximately cause the plaintiffs injury. Id. at 1287. When evaluating proximate cause in a RICO case, a court must ask “whether the alleged violation led' directly to the plaintiffs injuries,” Id. (quoting Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply Corp.,

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Bluebook (online)
656 F. App'x 464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-lawrie-v-ginn-development-company-llc-ca11-2016.