Jacobsohn v. Marks

818 F. Supp. 1187, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4295, 1993 WL 113527
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 1, 1993
DocketNo. 92 C 6796
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 818 F. Supp. 1187 (Jacobsohn v. Marks) 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
Jacobsohn v. Marks, 818 F. Supp. 1187, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4295, 1993 WL 113527 (N.D. Ill. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

NORGLE, District Judge:

Before the court is plaintiff Carol Marks Jacobsohn’s (“plaintiff’) objections to Magistrate Judge Edward A. Bobrick’s February 26, 1993 Report and Recommendation (“Report,” attached as Exhibit A). For reasons outlined below, the court sustains the objections, rejects the Report, and recommits the matter to the Magistrate Judge for ruling on the remaining motions.

BACKGROUND

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B), the court referred to the Magistrate Judge the individual defendants’1 motion for summary judgment and all defendants’ motions to dismiss. After hearing the motions, the Magistrate Judge issued a nineteen-page Report recommending that the motion for summary judgment be granted as to the counts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(b), (c), on statute of limitations grounds, and that the remaining counts thus be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The facts underlying the present controversy are detailed in the Report and need not be repeated in full. In brief, it is plaintiffs position that the racketeering activities of the individual defendants caused her business interest in the original companies, with which she was involved, to be diluted by the investments in the new enterprises; these investments were accomplished through the individual defendants’ use of intracompany funds. Plaintiffs position is that she needed to become a shareholder in the newly formed theatre corporations in order to maintain her overall level of interest in the family business. The individual defendants therefore allegedly committed fraud by failing to disclose material information regarding the funds used for the investments and other [1189]*1189aspects of the transactions that would have otherwise caused plaintiff to participate in the investments. The individual defendants then obtained a superior financial position in the family business when it was sold to Loews. The individual defendants’ fiduciary duties supposedly arose from their positions as directors and officers of the M & R theatre corporations, as well as their familial relationships. Plaintiff alleges that she would have invested in the new corporations in order to maintain her previously existing interest in the business. Therefore, but for the individual defendants’ fraud, plaintiff would have possessed a greater financial interest in the business.

The Magistrate Judge determined that the RICO claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations because plaintiff discovered or reasonably should have discovered the RICO violation in 1984. Objections to the Report were filed March 15, 1993, and the issues are now ripe for consideration by this court.

DISCUSSION

The court has completely reviewed the Report and arguments of counsel de novo. 28 U.S.-C. § 636(b)(1); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b). The Court finds plaintiffs objections to have merit. The court does not adopt the recommended decision but instead denies the motion for summary judgment. On the current record, there exists a factual dispute as to whether or when a RICO injury occurred, namely the dilution of her interest in the M & R businesses, and also whether plaintiff was aware or should have been aware of that injury. Therefore, the court cannot find that her action, is barred by the statute of limitations. Nonetheless, the Magistrate Judge has had more involvement with the substantive issues of this case up to its present point and therefore the matter is recommitted to the Magistrate Judge to issue a recommendation on the remaining fully briefed motions.

RICO allows a person to bring a civil action against people who, through a “pattern of racketeering activity,” associate with or operate “enterprises.” McCool v. Strata Oil Co., 972 F.2d 1452, 1464 (7th Cir.1992) (citing .18 U.S.C. § 1962(a)-(d)). To recover, the plaintiff must establish (1) that the defendant violated the statute, which includes that the defendant participated in a pattern of racketeering, and (2) that the plaintiff sustained an injury to business or property. Id. A cause of action does not accrue until a pattern of racketeering exists and an injury has been sustained. Id. at 1465. Accordingly, the four-year statute of limitations for civil RICO claims begins to run once there is a RICO violation and the plaintiff knew or should have known that he or she was injured. Id. at 1464-65; see also In re VMS Limited Partnership Sec. Litig., 803 F.Supp. 179, 188 (N.D.Ill.1992).

Plaintiff urges the court to hold that she was injured and that she discovered the injury at the time the sale was made to Loews theatre. The court does not take the position that the sale was the point in time the injury was sustained, nor, however, does it take the position that the evidence conclusively demonstrates that the sale is the point at which plaintiff became aware of an injury. Instead, the court finds there is a genuine issue of fact on when the injury occurred and when plaintiff became aware of a RICO injury.

Under RICO, “injury” means damage to business or property. 18 U.S.C. § 1964. The Magistrate Judge believed that plaintiff was injured by not investing in the new theatre corporations and that she learned of the injury when she discovered the truth underlying the alleged omissions, Report, at 16, which was, in the Magistrate Judge’s view, at the time of the original investments. But this is too akin to knowledge of the racketeering activities of the defendants and not the damage that her business or property interests would suffer. Also, if it is true that all information was disclosed to plaintiff at the time of the investment, then there could be no fraud. But plaintiffs allegations contain more than that the individual defendants hid the funding scheme for the new corporations. Plaintiff alleges that the defendants intentionally failed to reveal six factors: (1) that the assets and credit of the original corporations were used to fund the new corporations; (2) that the formation of the new entities were corporate opportunities of the original corporations; (3) that the defendants [1190]*1190were obtaining full ownership of all of the new corporations while making minimal personal capital contributions to them; (4) the basis upon which they rested their decision to invest their own assets as well as the original corporations’ assets in the new enterprises; (5) that plaintiff could only effectively maintain her interest in the original corporations if she became a shareholder in the new corporations; and (6) that plaintiffs assets were already at risk, that her risk of loss from a small investment in the new corporations would be low, and those investments would create a potential for additional profits in return. Without vouching for the truth of these matters, the court accepts that these facts were not disclosed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
818 F. Supp. 1187, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4295, 1993 WL 113527, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jacobsohn-v-marks-ilnd-1993.