GW Holdings Grp., LLC v. U.S. Highland, Inc.

367 F. Supp. 3d 78
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 13, 2019
DocketNo. 18 Civ. 4997 (JFK)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 367 F. Supp. 3d 78 (GW Holdings Grp., LLC v. U.S. Highland, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
GW Holdings Grp., LLC v. U.S. Highland, Inc., 367 F. Supp. 3d 78 (S.D. Ill. 2019).

Opinion

JOHN F. KEENAN, United States District Judge:

Before the Court is a motion by Defendant US Highland, Inc. ("Highland" or "Defendant") to dismiss Plaintiff GW Holdings Group, LLC's ("Plaintiff" or "GW") complaint. For the reasons below, Defendant's motion is granted.

I. Background

A. Factual Background

The Court takes the following facts and allegations from the complaint and, for the purposes of this motion, deems them to be true.

Plaintiff GW is a New York limited liability company with a place of business in Brooklyn, New York and members residing in New York and California. (Compl. ¶¶ 2-3.) On information and belief, Defendant Highland is a Nevada corporation with principal place of business in Atlanta, Georgia. (Id. ¶ 5.)

Following "arm's-length negotiations," Plaintiff and Defendant executed two securities purchase agreements-on May 17, 2016 and March 15, 2018-that provided for the Plaintiff's purchase of two Convertible Redeemable Promissory Notes (the "First Note" and "Second Note" respectively, collectively the "Notes"). (Id. ¶¶ 11-12, 21-22.) Both Notes (1) required Defendant to reserve a certain amount of shares of its *80common stock for Plaintiff's conversion, (2) gave Plaintiff "the right to periodically request that the number of Reserved Shares be increased [so as to equal at least] 400% of the number of shares of" Defendant's common stock issuable upon conversion of that Note, and (3) required Defendant to maintain with a transfer agent four times the amount of shares required if the Notes were to be fully converted. (Id. ¶¶ 13, 23.)

On or around March 21, 2018, Plaintiff "issued a notice of conversion, seeking to convert a portion of the First Note into shares of stock." (Id. ¶ 25.) Defendant honored the notice but used a portion of the stock reserve set up for the Second Note to comply. (Id. )

On or around April 27, 2018, Plaintiff issued an additional notice of conversion. (Id. ¶ 26.) Although Highland's CEO Everett Dickson ("Dickson") initially indicated that Highland would not honor the notice, Highland eventually permitted the conversion. (Id. ¶¶ 26-27.)

On or around May 10, 2018, however, Dickson advised Plaintiff that he would "block" future conversions. (Id. ¶ 28.) The next day, Highland's attorney sent a letter to the transfer agent instructing it not to honor conversion notices and asserting that past conversions were improper. (Id. ¶ 29.)

On or around May 14, 2018, Plaintiff requested that Defendant increase the number of shares in reserve in accordance with both Notes. (Id. ¶ 31.) Defendant refused in violation of both Notes and the securities purchase agreements. (Id. )

On May 11, May 22, and May 29, 2018, Plaintiff submitted notices of conversion which Defendant refused to honor in violation of the terms of the Notes. (Id. ¶¶ 32-39, 50.) Apparently around this time Defendant also became delinquent in various filings which also materially breached the terms of both Notes. (Id. ¶¶ 40-49.)

Plaintiff alleges that it is impossible for it to accurately calculate its losses from Highland's refusal to honor their conversion notices as Highland's stock price traded at various values throughout the periods when Plaintiff sought conversion, and it is impossible to discern with any accuracy precisely when and how many converted shares Plaintiff would have sold had Highland honored the conversion. (Id. ¶ 54.)

B. Procedural Background

On June 6, 2018, Plaintiff filed a complaint for specific performance, breach of contract, permanent injunction, and recovery of costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees. (Id. ¶¶ 57-87.) The complaint alleges that the Court has diversity jurisdiction over these state law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(2) because there is complete diversity of citizenship between the parties and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000. (Id. ¶¶ 7-8.) Although Plaintiff acknowledged that its losses are "impossible" to calculate, it estimates its breach of contract damages to be "in excess of $225,000." (Id. ¶¶ 54, 72.)

On July 11, 2018, Defendant brought this motion to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1)1 for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim.

II. Defendant's 12(b)(1) Motion

When faced with a motion to dismiss pursuant to both Rule 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), a court should decide the "jurisdictional question [under Rule 12(b)(1) ] first because a disposition of a 12(b)(6) motion is a decision on the merits, and *81therefore, an exercise of jurisdiction." Waldman v. Escobar, No. 08 Civ. 6405 (FM), 2009 WL 861068, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 27, 2009) (quoting Tirone v. N.Y. Stock Exch., Inc., No. 05 Civ. 8703 (WHP), 2007 WL 2164064, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. July 27, 2007) ).

Rule 12(b)(1) requires dismissal when "the district court lacks the statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate it." Makarova v. United States, 201 F.3d 110, 113 (2d Cir. 2000). Under Rule 12(b)(1), "the court must accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true and draw inferences ... in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Jaghory v. N.Y. State Dep't of Educ., 131 F.3d 326, 329 (2d Cir. 1997).

To invoke the Court's diversity jurisdiction, a plaintiff must show that (1) the parties are of diverse citizenship and (2) the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000. Waldman, 2009 WL 861068, at *4 (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) ). A plaintiff "has the burden of proving that it appears to a 'reasonable probability' that the claim is in excess of the statutory jurisdictional amount." Tongkook America, Inc. v. Shipton Sportswear Co., 14 F.3d 781, 784 (2d Cir. 1994).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gottlieb v. Hot Forex
E.D. New York, 2021
Adler v. Payward, Inc.
S.D. New York, 2019

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
367 F. Supp. 3d 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gw-holdings-grp-llc-v-us-highland-inc-ilsd-2019.