Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.

289 F. Supp. 3d 870
District Court, E.D. Illinois·Decided December 11, 2017·No. 14 C 1437·Published·Cited by 32 cases

Opinion

Gary Feinerman, United States District Judge

In this putative class action, Gregory Greene, Joseph Lack, Anthony Motto, and Gregory Pearce allege that Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and Mark Karpeles are liable for financial losses arising from the demise of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. Doc. 245. Plaintiffs bring only state law claims, and subject matter jurisdiction lies under the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d). Earlier in the litigation-when Greene, an Illinois citizen, and Lack, a California citizen, were the only named plaintiffs-the court issued an opinion, familiarity with which is assumed, denying Mizuho Bank's motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2) to dismiss the claims against it for lack of personal jurisdiction. Docs. 199-200 (reported at 169 F.Supp.3d 855 (N.D. Ill. 2016) ). For complicated reasons explained in the opinion, the denial was conditioned on putative class counsel's adding as a named plaintiff an Illinois resident alleged to be a member of the Deposit Subclass. The third amended complaint met that condition by adding Anthony Motto, an Illinois citizen, as a named plaintiff and class representative of the putative Deposit Subclass. Docs. 205-206. In February 2017, putative class counsel moved for leave to file a fourth amended complaint adding Gregory Pearce, a Pennsylvania citizen, as a named plaintiff. Doc. 242. After Mizuho informed the court that it did not oppose the amendment, the motion was granted, Doc. 244, and the fourth amended complaint, now the operative complaint, was filed, Doc. 245.

The complaint names Motto, Greene, Lack, and Pearce as representatives of the putative Mt. Gox Class, defined as "[a]ll persons in the United States who had bitcoins or money stored with Mt. Gox on February 24, 2014." Id. at ¶ 89. The complaint names Motto and Lack as representatives of the putative Deposit Subclass, defined as those members of the putative Mt. Gox Class "who deposited money into their Mt. Gox account through Mizuho Bank after the date [when] Mizuho Bank stopped processing withdrawals." Ibid. The complaint names Pearce as the sole representative of the putative Withdrawal Subclass, defined as those members of the putative Mt. Gox Class "who initiated a request to withdraw[ ] Fiat Currency from their Mt. Gox account after the date [when] Mizuho Bank stopped processing withdrawals, and whose withdrawal request was not fulfilled." Ibid.

Three months after the operative complaint's filing, the Supreme Court issued Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 1773, 198 L.Ed.2d 395 (2017). Bristol-Myers holds that specific personal jurisdiction does not lie over a nonresident plaintiff's claim against a defendant not subject to general personal jurisdiction solely because the nonresident plaintiff's claim is similar, or even identical, to a resident plaintiff's claim in the same suit. Id. at 1780-82. Citing Bristol-Myers , Mizuho moves under Rule 54(b) for partial reconsideration, as to Lack and Pearce, of the court's denial of its Rule 12(b)(2) motion. Doc. 282. At argument on the motion, Doc. 304, Plaintiffs agreed to the dismissal of Lack's claims as a named plaintiff against Mizuho; they did so because putative Deposit Subclass, of which Lack can be an absent member, may proceed with *872Motto as its representative. Plaintiffs oppose the dismissal of Pearce's claims as a named plaintiff against Mizuho; they do so because Pearce is the only representative of the putative Withdrawal Subclass. The motion is granted as to Pearce's claims against Mizuho.

Background

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Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd., 289 F. Supp. 3d 870 (illinoised 2017).

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