Hedged Investment Partners, L.P. v. Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A.

578 N.W.2d 765, 35 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 608, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 526, 1998 WL 233755
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMay 12, 1998
DocketC3-97-2060
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 578 N.W.2d 765 (Hedged Investment Partners, L.P. v. Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hedged Investment Partners, L.P. v. Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A., 578 N.W.2d 765, 35 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 608, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 526, 1998 WL 233755 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

LANSING, Judge.

On cross-motions for summary judgment in a dispute involving a series of wire transfers, the district court granted summary judgment for Hedged Investment Partners and its general managing partner, Blue Rock Investment Advisors. The district court de *768 nied Norwest’s summary judgment motions. Norwest appeals, and we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS

Hedged Investment Partners (HIP) is a Minnesota limited partnership formed to make investments in minimum amounts of $100,000 on behalf of third parties. In September 1993 HIP and Norwest Bank executed an “Agency Agreement” in which Norwest agreed to perform certain wire transfer services and also to perform duties designated as “trustee” services.

At the time, HIP had two general partners, Blue Rock Advisors, Inc., a Minnesota corporation, and P. Michael Trautner. Blue Rock served as HIP’s Managing General Partner. Trautner served as HIP’s Consulting General Partner and as president, director, and 50-percent owner of Blue Rock. In this capacity, Trautner signed the Agency Agreement on behalf of Blue Rock.

The Agency Agreement imposed obligations on both HIP and Norwest. HIP’s Managing General Partner, Blue Rock, agreed to:

Provide Norwest with a list of HIP’s current General and Limited Partners and a list of HIP’s current Investment Ad-visors.
When Blue Rock added Investment Advis-ors, it would provide Norwest with (a) copy of the new advisor’s private placement memorandum or investment advisory agreement, (b) wire instructions for the advisor’s designated bank, and (c) verification from the new advisor that HIP’s account at Norwest is the only fund transfer destination for withdrawals.
Execute all money transfers (deposits and withdrawals) for HIP through its account at Norwest.
Use “Form B” to the Agency Agreement to direct Norwest to transfer HIP’s funds to the Investment Advisors and to Blue Rock.

Under the Agreement, Norwest assumed two types of duties — the duty to provide wire transfer services and the duty to provide certain substantive fiduciary duties. In a section entitled “Initial Structure,” Norwest agreed to provide the following procedures:

Retain on file a copy of the Limited Partners’ signatures provided by Blue Rock and use it to verify Limited Partner communications.
Retain on file a letter agreement from each Investment Advisor certifying that all withdrawals of HIP’s assets would only be transferred to Norwest.
Retain on file the copies of the private placement memoranda or managed account agreements between HIP and its Investment Advisors provided by Blue Rock.

In another section, entitled “Allocations to additional Investment Advisors,” Norwest agreed to check each new investment advis- or’s wire instructions by calling the'advisor at the location provided by the placement memorandum or advisory agreement. In the final section of the Agreement, labeled “The Trustee,” Norwest also agreed to examine all exhibits and documents received under the Agreement to determine whether they conformed to the Agreement’s requirements.

The sequence of the sections in the Agency Agreement is difficult to follow, suggesting deletions or adaptations from a more complete contract. The record indicates that the Agency Agreement was adapted from an earlier agreement between Norwest and another limited partnership in which Trautner and Fullerton were the general partners. A major investor in that limited partnership fashioned the controls that were incorporated into the agreement to protect the flow of money out of the partnership. We find nothing in the record to suggest that a limited partner in HIP or in Blue Rock requested or knew of the control procedures in the Agency Agreement. HIP paid Norwest an annual fee of $4,000 to perform the Agency Agreement functions.

Neither party fully performed its obligations. HIP failed to provide Norwest with a copy of its Limited Partnership Agreement, a list of HIP’s current limited partners and general partners, the signatures of HIP’s limited partners, or a list of HIP’s current investment advisors. As HIP added investment advisors, HIP did not provide Norwest *769 with copies of placement memoranda, investment advisory agreements, and other required documents.

Norwest also failed to meet its obligations. The employees who routinely transferred funds were not aware of the required procedures or any other terms of the Agency Agreement. Upon receipt of a direction to transfer funds, the employees looked to see if Trautner or Robert Fullerton, another Blue Rock officer and director, had signed it. The employees then determined whether HIP’s account had sufficient funds and made the transfer. In October 1994, the Norwest employee who made the wire transfers from June 1994 to August 1995 performed an internal yearly review encompassing the Agency Agreement. Although he concluded that all funds “had been invested in accordance with the documents,” he later testified that he never reviewed any documents to determine Norwest’s compliance.

While the agreement was in force, Nor-west made 26 transfers totaling more than $5 million to bank accounts of seven entities, none of which were properly authorized under the Agency Agreement. This litigation is limited to 19 wire transfers totaling $449,-000 to Truck Alignment Corporation of America (TACA), authorized by Trautner from June 1994 to August 1995. 1

After discovering the TACA transfers, Fullerton demanded and received Trautner’s resignation from HIP and Blue Rock on August 29, 1995. HIP sued TACA to recover the transferred funds but had obtained no recovery as of January 6,1998. After TACA defaulted, HIP sued Norwest for breach of contract and breach of its contractual fiduciary duty. HIP alleged that Norwest was liable for the default due to its failure to follow the Agency Agreement’s wire transfer procedures. Norwest denied liability and asserted a third-party complaint against Blue Rock.

Norwest appeals the entry of summary judgment in favor of HIP’s breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims - and challenges the entry of summary judgment dismissing its claims against Blue Rock. Norwest also appeals the district court’s amended judgment awarding damages to Blue Rock.

ISSUES

I. Does Article 4A exclude a common law action for breach of fiduciary duties provided in the contract between Norwest and HIP?
II. Did the district court err in ruling that waiver and modification were unavailable as contract defenses or in failing to consider other common law contract defenses?
III. Did the district court err in finding that the agreement between Norwest and HIP was a security procedure and analyzing the allocation of liability to determine whether it was “verified” under Minn.Stat. § 336.4A-202(b) rather than “authorized” under Minn.Stat. § 336.4A-202(a)?
IV.

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578 N.W.2d 765, 35 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 608, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 526, 1998 WL 233755, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hedged-investment-partners-lp-v-norwest-bank-minnesota-na-minnctapp-1998.