Harbinger Capital Partners LLC v. Deere & Co.

632 F. App'x 653
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 7, 2015
DocketNo. 15-408-cv
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 632 F. App'x 653 (Harbinger Capital Partners LLC v. Deere & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harbinger Capital Partners LLC v. Deere & Co., 632 F. App'x 653 (2d Cir. 2015).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiffs-Appellants (collectively “Harbinger”) appeal from a judgment entered on February 10, 2015, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Berman, J.), dismissing Harbinger’s third amended complaint (the “Complaint”). Harbinger asserted securities fraud and related claims under federal and state law. The district court explained its reasoning in a memorandum and order filed February 5, 2015. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts and procedural history of the case.

Harbinger, an investment fund, invested in LightSquared, Inc. (“LightSquared”), a company that sought to develop a new wireless broadband communications network. Three of the Defendants-Appellees (the “Manufacturer Defendants”) are manufacturers and sellers of global positioning system (“GPS”) devices, which are dependent on the use of wireless spectrum. The remaining Defendant-Appellee is a nonprofit corporation that serves as an advocate for the GPS industry. In the Complaint, Harbinger alleged, inter alia, that Manufacturer Defendants deliberately designed their GPS receivers to experience “overload interference” from out-of-band receptions (“OOBR”) that would render the receivers ineffective and that defendants fraudulently concealed and misrepresented this fact even though they were aware that LightSquared’s plan to develop its new wireless network would cause such OOBR interference. The district court below dismissed the Complaint in its entirety under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and 9(b).

[656]*656We review the district court’s dismissal of the Complaint for failure to state a claim de novo. Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 152 (2d Cir.2002). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a complaint must plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “Any complaint alleging securities fraud must satisfy the heightened pleading requirements of the [Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4(b),] and Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b) by stating with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud.” ECA & Local 134 IBEW Joint Pension Tr. of Chi. v. JP Morgan Chase Co., 553 F.3d 187, 196 (2d Cir.2009).

A. Fraud

The district court held that Harbinger lacked standing to sue under § 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b-5 (“Rule 10b — 5”), 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, because the connection between defendants’ omissions and Harbinger’s investment was “too remote to sustain an action.” LightSquared Inc. v. Deere & Co., Nos. 13 Civ. 8157(RMB), 13 Civ. 5543(RMB), 2015 WL 585655, at *18 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 5, 2015) (quoting In re NYSE Specialists Sec. Litig., 503 F.3d 89, 102 (2d Cir.2007)). Harbinger argues that because “[defendants’ omissions directly concerned LightSquared,” there is a direct causal link between the fraud and the investment. Appellants’ Br. 44. There is no relevant difference between Harbinger and the plaintiffs in Nortel Networks. See Ontario Pub. Serv. Emps. Union Pension Tr. Fund v. Nortel Networks Corp., 369 F.3d 27, 29-34 (2d Cir.2004). Harbinger purchased LightSquared’s stock based on LightSquared’s “optimistic projections”. about the feasibility of its plan given defendants’ alleged failure to disclose their receivers’ design issues for their own business reasons. See id. at 29. Accordingly, just as in Nortel Networks, the connection between defendants’ omissions about the shortcomings of its receivers and Harbinger’s purchase of LightSquared’s stock was “too remote to sustain an action” under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. In re NYSE Specialists Sec. Litig., 503 F.3d at 102. Harbinger therefore lacks statutory standing to pursue its federal securities fraud claim here.

Moreover, Harbinger has failed to adequately plead fraud. Under both federal and New York law, an omission is actionable only if the defendant had a duty to disclose. See SEC v. DiBella, 587 F.3d 553, 563 (2d Cir.2009) (“Under section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, an omission is actionable under the securities laws only when the buyer is subject to a duty to disclose the omitted facts.” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. v. Scialpi, 94 A.D.3d 1067, 1067, 944 N.Y.S.2d 160 (2d Dep’t 2012) (“Where the fraud claim at issue is based on an omission or concealment of a material fact, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant had a duty to disclose material information and failed to do so.”).

“New York recognizes a duty by a party to a business transaction to speak in three situations: first, where the party has made a partial or ambiguous statement, on the theory that once a party has undertaken to mention a relevant fact to the other party it cannot givé only half of the truth; second, when the parties stand in a fiduciary or confidential relationship with each other; and third, ‘where one party possesses superior knowledge, not readily available to the other, and knows that the other is acting on the basis of mistaken knowl[657]*657edge.’” Brass v. Am. Film Techs., Inc., 987 F.2d 142, 150 (2d Cir.1993) (citations omitted) (quoting Aaron Ferer & Sons Ltd. v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 731 F.2d 112, 123 (2d Cir.1984)). Similarly, under Rule 10b-5, a duty to disclose “may arise when there is ‘a corporate insider trad[ing] on confidential information,’ a ‘statute or regulation requiring disclosure,’ or a corporate statement that would otherwise be ‘inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading.’ ” Stratte-McClure v. Morgan Stanley, 776 F.3d 94, 101 (2d Cir.2015) (alteration in original) (quoting Glazer v. Formica Corp., 964 F.2d 149, 157 (2d Cir.1992)).

As the district court pointed out, “Harbinger fails to allege that it had any relationship with Defendants, let alone a ‘special relationship of trust or confidence.’” LightSquared, 2015 WL 585655, at *19. The Complaint does not allege that Harbinger engaged in commercial dealings with defendants, or that defendants had a fiduciary relationship with Harbinger, or that defendants made a partial or ambiguous statement that required additional disclosure to avoid misleading Harbinger.

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632 F. App'x 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harbinger-capital-partners-llc-v-deere-co-ca2-2015.