Johnston v. Cigna Corp.

916 P.2d 643, 20 Brief Times Rptr. 255, 1996 Colo. App. LEXIS 64, 1996 WL 97830
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 7, 1996
Docket93CA1664
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 916 P.2d 643 (Johnston v. Cigna Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnston v. Cigna Corp., 916 P.2d 643, 20 Brief Times Rptr. 255, 1996 Colo. App. LEXIS 64, 1996 WL 97830 (Colo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge METZGER.

Plaintiffs, Larry D. Johnston, Lawrence G. Lyon, and H. Rodgers Company, appeal the partial summary judgment entered in favor of defendants, CIGNA Corporation, CIGNA Individual Financial Services Company, CIG-NA Securities, Inc., CIGNA Financial Partners, Inc., CIGNA Holdings, Inc., and M. Doak Jacoway. The trial court concluded that plaintiffs’ claims of common law breach of fiduciary duty and negligence were time-barred by the statute of limitations. We reverse and remand with directions.

Plaintiffs Johnston and Lyon are owners of a computer systems marketing company. They are college graduates with business degrees in marketing and have other investments in real estate and partnerships. Plaintiff H. Rodgers Company is a partnership created by Johnston and Lyon through which they made investments, including those at issue here.

Since the late 1970s, defendant Jacoway, an employee and agent of CIGNA, provided plaintiffs with insurance consultation, insurance policies, advice for profit sharing and pension plans, estate planning, and preparation of wills and trusts. In addition, he developed financial plans for plaintiffs. Plaintiffs’ financial objectives as stated in the plans included expectations of a relatively conservative eight percent rate of return on their investments. The plans also provided that only one percent of plaintiffs’ assets should be allocated to “risky investments.”

During the 1980s, at Jacoway’s suggestion, plaintiffs invested in four separate real estate limited partnerships, for approximately $850,000. Two of the investments were purchased in 1983 and the other two in 1987. Jacoway told plaintiffs that the investments were “good,” had long-term economic benefits, and were suitable for their investment objectives.

Before investing in the partnerships, Jaco-way gave plaintiffs Private Placement Memo-randa (PPM) and Subscription Agreements describing each investment. The documents warned that the offerings involved “a high degree of risk” and were “suitable only for persons of substantial financial means who have no need for liquidity in their investments.”

However, according to plaintiffs, Jacoway told them that the PPMs and Subscription Agreements consisted predominately of disclaimers that “had to be put in there” to “satisfy the regulations” and that he would tell them orally everything they needed to know.

Plaintiffs also assert that Jacoway told them that the investments had CIGNA’s “Good Housekeeping seal of approval” and that CIGNA, the general partner in the partnerships, was a $30 billion company that had a reputation to protect. Therefore, he said, [645]*645CIGNA would take an active role in monitoring the partnerships and that it would “stand behind” the investments and rectify any problems that might arise with them because it did not want to allow investments taken to individual clients to “give CIGNA a black eye.”

After the sales and well into 1989, plaintiffs recalled, Jacoway and CIGNA executives told them and/or their accountant that CIGNA would “stand behind” the investments and would solve any problems with them. However, all the investments resulted in significant losses. In August 1989, the plaintiffs were told by the president of CIG-NA Securities, Inc., that CIGNA would not indemnify them for losses incurred in the investments.

Plaintiffs assert that they lost approximately $1 million on the four investments and, as a result, they initiated this action.

Plaintiffs alleged that defendants had “held themselves out as financial planners and investment advisers ... encouraged and built a relationship of trust and confidence between themselves and plaintiffs which resulted in plaintiffs’ purchase of the limited partnership interests ... owed plaintiffs the fiduciary duty to exercise a reasonable degree of skill and to conform to the legal and ethical standards which govern investment advisers and financial fiduciaries,” and breached those duties. Plaintiffs also alleged that defendants had “failed to employ that degree of care, skill, knowledge and judgment on behalf of plaintiffs ordinarily possessed by members of the financial planning and investment advisor professions and were negligent in recommending the purchases of the limited partnership interests to plaintiffs.”

Defendants’ answer to the breach of fiduciary duty claim admitted that defendants had provided planning services to plaintiffs; however, it went on to state that plaintiffs “were expressly informed, understood and acknowledged that Jacoway and CIGNA Securities, Inc., were acting in the capacity of broker-dealer, and not in the capacity of investment advisor, in offering limited partnership investments to plaintiffs.”

Because the action had been filed initially in federal court, upon its refiling in the state district court, that court determined the filing date to be January 1990, pursuant to the repose statute, § 13-80-111, C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6A). Defendants moved for summary judgment arguing that, because plaintiffs should be “charged with constructive knowledge of the risk disclosures in the offering materials” given to them when they made the investments, plaintiffs’ causes of action were barred by the applicable statutes of limitations.

To the extent pertinent here, the trial court granted the motion and entered summary judgment in favor of defendants and dismissed with prejudice plaintiffs’ claims for breach of fiduciary duty as to the 1983 investments and the negligence claims as to both the 1983 and 1987 investments. That partial summary judgment is the basis of this appeal.

I.

Summary judgment is proper under C.R.C.P. 56(c) when the pleadings, affidavits, depositions, or admissions establish that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The moving party bears the burden of establishing that no genuine issue of fact exists. Continental Air Lines v. Keenan, 731 P.2d 708 (Colo.1987).

In assessing the sufficiency of the evidence for purposes of determining a motion for summary judgment, all inferences from factual averments must be made in favor of the non-moving party. CenCor, Inc. v. Tolman, 868 P.2d 396 (Colo.1994).

When ruling on a motion for summary judgment:

[i]t is often the case that although the basic facts are not in dispute, the parties in good faith may nevertheless disagree about the inferences to be drawn from these facts, what the intention of the parties was as shown by the facts, or whether an estoppel or a waiver of certain rights admitted to exist should be drawn from such facts.

Colorado Springs v. Mountain View Electric Ass’n, —— P.2d -, - (ColoApp. No. [646]*64694CA0914, December 21, 1995). Under such circumstances, the case is not one to be decided by the trial court on a motion for summary judgment. Colorado Springs v. Mountain View Electric Ass’n, supra; see also 10A C. Wright, A. Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2730.1 at 276 (1983).

With respect to plaintiffs’ first claim for relief alleging breach of fiduciary duty as to the 1983 investments, the applicable limitation provision is § 13-80-114, C.R.S. (repealed and reenacted by Colo. Sess. Laws 1986, ch.

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

Related

Tew v. MCML Limited
E.D. Kentucky, 2024
Gary Waddoups v. Nationwide Life Insurance Company
Court of Appeals of Washington, 2016
Fiscus v. Liberty Mortgage Corp.
2014 COA 79 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2014)
Johnston v. Cigna Corp.
916 P.2d 643 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
916 P.2d 643, 20 Brief Times Rptr. 255, 1996 Colo. App. LEXIS 64, 1996 WL 97830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-cigna-corp-coloctapp-1996.