Independent Trust Corp. v. Fidelity Nat. Title Ins. Co. of New York

577 F. Supp. 2d 1023, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75002, 2008 WL 4006783
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 26, 2008
Docket05 C 5749
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 577 F. Supp. 2d 1023 (Independent Trust Corp. v. Fidelity Nat. Title Ins. Co. of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Independent Trust Corp. v. Fidelity Nat. Title Ins. Co. of New York, 577 F. Supp. 2d 1023, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75002, 2008 WL 4006783 (N.D. Ill. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

REBECCA R. PALLMEYER, District Judge.

In the 1990s, Jack Hargrove and Laurence Capriotti used a web of companies they controlled to steal tens of millions of dollars from real estate escrowees and other trust beneficiaries. This lawsuit is one of many that arose in the aftermath of their crimes. The Plaintiff, Independent Trust Corporation (“InTrust”), a provider of long-term trust services, was controlled by Hargrove and Capriotti at the time of their theft; it lost more than $68 *1026 million of its customers’ money due to their actions, and is now in receivership. The Defendant, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company of New York (“Fidelity”), was the reinsurer for numerous real estate escrow accounts that were depleted by Hargrove and Capriotti; in this capacity, Fidelity was liable to compensate the escrowees’ insurer after the scheme came to light. In 2000, the Illinois Department of Financial Institutions (“DFI”), which regulates title insurance companies, appointed Fidelity to serve as trustee over the remaining escrow funds, with the sole duty of distributing the remaining money to pay outstanding claims. By doing so, Fidelity also reduced its own liability to the escrowees’ insurer.

InTrust filed suit against Fidelity in this court, claiming that Fidelity engaged in fraudulent transfers when it acquired various collateral from Hargrove in 2000 without giving him adequate consideration in return. InTrust subsequently amended its complaint to include allegations that InTrust obtained its trusteeship over the escrow funds by means of misrepresentations and misleading omissions. InTrust currently claims that Fidelity’s actions make it liable to InTrust for: (1) breach of fiduciary duty, (2) common law fraud, (3) fraudulent concealment, (4) Illinois Consumer Fraud Act violations, (5) Illinois Title Insurance Act violations, (6) fraudulent transfers, and (7) unjust enrichment. 1 Fidelity has now moved for summary judgment on the common law and statutory fraud claims, on the fraudulent transfer claims, and on the unjust enrichment claim. Both parties have also filed motions to strike portions of the other side’s Local Rule 56.1 filings. For the reasons stated below, the motion for summary judgment is granted, and the motions to strike are stricken as moot.

BACKGROUND

The following facts are drawn from the parties’ Local Rule 56.1 submissions and from the attached exhibits. The facts are recounted in the light most favorable to InTrust.

I. The Hargrove and Capriotti Fraud

From 1990 through 2000, Jack Hargrove and Laurence Capriotti stole at least $98 million from the beneficiaries of escrow accounts. (LR 56.1 ¶ 30.) Much of this money was stolen from real estate escrow-ees, who had placed their money in trust with a family of companies controlled by Hargrove and Capriotti; two of these companies were Intercounty Title Company of Illinois (“Old Intercounty”) and Intercounty Title Company (“New Intercounty”). (LR 56.1 ¶¶ 6, 10, 20, 28-30; LR 56.1 Resp. ¶¶ 20, 28; LR 56.1 Add’l Resp. ¶ 4.) Hargrove and Capriotti concealed their activities by commingling the escrowees’ funds in large combined accounts, and by “lapping” the funds-that is, by paying out money owed to earlier escrowees with funds obtained from later escrowees. (LR 56.1 ¶ 31.)

Not surprisingly, the theft of escrowee funds at times left the escrow account underfunded, and the trust accounts were sometimes drawn down into negative balances in order to permit payment of sums owed to escrowees. (See LR 56.1 ¶ 32.) In order to keep their scheme from coming to light, Hargrove and Capriotti caused InTrust, which they also controlled, to *1027 transfer tens of millions of dollars into the Intercounty escrow accounts. (LR 56.1 ¶¶ 12-13, 33.) Most of that money was taken from individual retirement trusts that were being managed by Intrust as trustee. (See LR 56.1 Add’l ¶ 1.)

The money taken from InTrust was transferred into three different bank accounts. The first account (“the First La-Salle Account”) was maintained by Old Intercounty at LaSalle National Bank, under account number 2132728. (LR 56.1 ¶ 8; LR 56.1 Add’l ¶ 5.) InTrust deposited a net amount of more than $41 million into this account, and it never recovered that money. (LR 56.1 ¶ 14.) Old Intercounty ceased doing in business in January 1996, but InTrust contends that the First La-Salle Account remained active until 1999. (LR 56.1 ¶¶ 16-17; LR 56.1 Add’l ¶7.)

According to Fidelity, the -second account (“the Second LaSalle Account”) was opened by New Intercounty 2 in 1995 at LaSalle National Bank, under account number 5800017427. (LR 56.1 Add’l Resp. ¶ 5.) Fidelity maintains that no escrow funds were transferred from the First La-Salle Account into the Second LaSalle Account; InTrust disputes this, contending that someone transferred $100 million from the first account to the second between 1995 and 1997. (LR 56.1 ¶ 26; LR 56.1 Resp. ¶ 26.) After the Second La-Salle Account ran down into negative balances in early April 1999, Capriotti and Hargrove caused InTrust to transfer $9.2 million into it, in order to conceal the shortfall. (LR 56.1 ¶¶ 32-33.) InTrust does not contend that any of its funds were transferred into accounts controlled by Hargrove, Capriotti, Old Intercounty, or New Intercounty after April 1999. The Second LaSalle Account was closed on approximately September 30,1999. (LR 56.1 ¶ 36.)

The third escrow account was located at Harris Bank with account number 300-615-2. (LR 56.1 Add’l ¶ 8.) According to Fidelity, the Harris Account was opened in the fall of 1999. 3 (LR 56.1 Add’l Resp. ¶ 8.) InTrust contends that, before closing the Second LaSalle Account, “Old Inter-county and/or ITI” transferred all of the funds remaining in that account — over $20 million — into the Harris Account; Fidelity disputes this, complaining that InTrust has failed to adduce proper evidence of such a transfer. (LR 56.1 Add’l ¶8; LR 56.1 Add’l Resp. ¶ 8.) Regardless, it is undisputed that the Harris account was depleted and ran a negative balance from January 3, 2000 through January 13, 2000. (LR 56.1 Resp. ¶¶ 37-38.) Fidelity contends that InTrust did not make any deposits into the account from January 14, 2000 through April 26, 2000, and InTrust does not dispute this. (LR 56.1 ¶ 39; LR 56.1 Resp. ¶ 39..)

On April 14, 2000, the Illinois Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate took control of InTrust and placed it in receivership. (Ans. to 2d Am. Compl. ¶ 12.) The Commissioner appointed Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (“the Receiver”) for the purpose of liquidating InTrust and satisfying its debts. (Id. ¶ 13.) In total, between 1990 and 2000, InTrust deposited a net amount in excess of $68 million (including accrued interest) into escrow accounts controlled by Old Inter county and New Inter county. *1028

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577 F. Supp. 2d 1023, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75002, 2008 WL 4006783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/independent-trust-corp-v-fidelity-nat-title-ins-co-of-new-york-ilnd-2008.