Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.

289 F. Supp. 3d 870
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedDecember 11, 2017
Docket14 C 1437
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 289 F. Supp. 3d 870 (Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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

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

Much of the relevant background is set forth in the court's opinion denying Mizuho's Rule 12(b)(2) motion and also the court's opinion resolving Mizuho's Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Docs. 229-230 (reported at 206 F.Supp.3d 1362 (N.D. Ill. 2016) ). As noted in the personal jurisdiction opinion, the relevant background on a Rule 12(b)(2) motion includes the complaint's well-pleaded allegations and the evidentiary materials submitted by both sides. No party has requested an evidentiary hearing, so the court must accept Plaintiffs' factual averments and resolve all genuine factual disputes in their favor. See Felland v. Clifton , 682 F.3d 665, 672 (7th Cir. 2012) ("[W]here, as here, the issue [of personal jurisdiction] is raised on a motion to dismiss, the plaintiff need only make a prima facie showing of jurisdictional facts. We therefore accept as true all well-pleaded facts alleged in the complaint and resolve any factual disputes ... in favor of the plaintiff.") (citation omitted); Purdue Research Found. v. Sanofi-Synthelabo, S.A. , 338 F.3d 773, 782-83 (7th Cir. 2003). The court must also consider "documents attached to the complaint, documents that are critical to the complaint and referred to in it, and information that is subject to proper judicial notice," along with additional facts set forth in Plaintiffs' brief, so long as those facts "are consistent with the pleadings." Phillips v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am. , 714 F.3d 1017, 1020 (7th Cir. 2013) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Defender Sec. Co. v. First Mercury Ins. Co. , 803 F.3d 327, 335 (7th Cir. 2015). The facts are set forth as favorably to Plaintiffs as those materials allow. See Meade v. Moraine Valley Cmty. Coll. , 770 F.3d 680, 682 (7th Cir. 2014). In so doing, the court does not vouch for their accuracy. See Jay E. Hayden Found. v. First Neighbor Bank, N.A. , 610 F.3d 382

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Bluebook (online)
289 F. Supp. 3d 870, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greene-v-mizuho-bank-ltd-illinoised-2017.