Jones v. Shooshan

855 F. Supp. 2d 594, 2012 WL 681630, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26512
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedFebruary 29, 2012
DocketNo. 1:11cv1148 (LMB/JFA)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 855 F. Supp. 2d 594 (Jones v. Shooshan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. Shooshan, 855 F. Supp. 2d 594, 2012 WL 681630, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26512 (E.D. Va. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LEONIE M. BRINKEMA, District Judge.

Before the Court is defendants’ motion to dismiss, in which they argue that all of the claims in this lawsuit are either time-barred or should be dismissed for failure to state a claim. For the reasons discussed below, defendants’ motion will be granted and this civil action will be dismissed with prejudice as to all defendants except William N. Demás, against whom only the fraud and fiduciary duty counts will go forward.

I. BACKGROUND

On October 21, 2011, plaintiff Stuart A. Jones filed a ten count complaint against five individual defendants, John Shooshan, Colin W. Uckert, William N. Demas, Jon E. Hass, Sr., and Jonathan C. Kinney, and six business entities, Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc., Ashton Park Associates, LLC, Ashton Park Associates I, LLC, Ashton Park Associates II, LLC, Ashton Park Associates III, LLC, and Ashton Park Associates IV, LLC,1 for claims arising out of a business relationship between Jones and four of the defendants, Hass, Demás, Kinney, and Spaulding & Slye,2 which relationship was terminated in December 2004.3

As alleged in the complaint, plaintiff is a “brownfield redevelopment expert and brownfield developer” who was contacted in 1997 by private parties “seeking to acquire and remediate” land then owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“WMATA”). Compl. ¶ 16. In the fall of 1998, plaintiff asked defendant Hass whether he would be interested in “arrang[ing] a group of partners to bid for, acquire, remediate, and re-develop the Site from WMATA.” Id. ¶ 17. According to the complaint, in early 1999, plaintiff and defendants Hass, Demás, Kinney, and Spaulding & Slye “formed a partnership” with the intent “to ‘carry on’ the partnership for the purpose of livelihood or profit, and not merely to carry on some single transaction.” Id. ¶ 18.4 Each of the al[597]*597leged partners purportedly held a 20% interest in the partnership and was responsible for different elements of the business; plaintiff was in charge of environmental matters and was “to assist in the strategy for bidding and acquisition.” Id. ¶¶ 18, 19. Defendant Hass was responsible for financial, Demás for asset management, and Kinney for legal matters. Id. ¶ 19.

On April 27, 1999, defendant Kinney organized Ashton Park Associates, LLC and drew up papers for that entity; however, neither plaintiff nor the other partners signed the documents, and plaintiff contends that “[a]t all times, [he] viewed his business relationship with Defendants Hass, Demás, Kinney, and Spaulding & Slye to be a partnership.” Compl. ¶ 20.5 Plaintiff alleges that between 1999 and 2002, he undertook extensive environmental work on behalf of the alleged partnership, culminating in a February 20, 2003 partners meeting in which plaintiff provided the original partners a copy of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality final closure/no further action letter, which indicated that the environmental remediation of the site was complete and the site was fit to be commercially developed. Id. ¶ 24. In addition to his environmental efforts, plaintiff claims that he “assisted strategically in (a) the initial bid process, (b) the final presentation to WMATA, (c) the selection of the partnership by WMATA, and ultimately, (d) the agreement with WMATA.” Id. Plaintiff also contends that in the spring of 2003, he “endeavored to assist with the acquisition of the Shell Gas Station located on the Site,” which “became part of the assemblage that now supports the ongoing development by the Defendants.” Id. ¶ 25.

The complaint goes on to allege that on December 11, 2003, defendant Demás wrote a “capital contribution cash call private letter” to plaintiff, in which he “demand[ed]” that plaintiff make an $8,000 capital contribution by December 18, 2003.6 Compl. ¶ 26. Plaintiff contends without explanation that he “was not required to make such a contribution.” Id. Plaintiff responded by letter on December 18, 2003, stating that he “was taken by surprise by the suddenness and inexplicable urgency of ... [Defendant Demás’] ... demand,” and contended that Demás “did not have the right to terminate” plaintiffs interest in the partnership. Id. ¶ 27 (alterations in original). The complaint alleges that plaintiff continued to work on behalf of the partnership throughout 2004, but on December 17, 2004, defendant Demás wrote plaintiff a letter “purporting] to unilaterally terminate Plaintiffs interest in the partnership,” due to plaintiffs refusal to make the capital contribution requested in the December 2003 letter. Id. ¶ 28. Plaintiff alleges that Demás’ reliance on the capital contribution issue was a pretext for defendants’ true desire to “not have to compensate Plaintiff for his environmental work.” Id.

In March 2005, defendant Demás phoned plaintiff and stated:

‘We lost it.... Our deal with WMATA is dead.... The deal is not going through... .The deal is over... .WMA-TA does not want to deal with us anymore.” Compl. ¶ 29. Plaintiff characterizes Demás’ statements as “emphatic” and contends that Demás “was emotionally choked up and disturbed” during the conversation. Id. Plaintiff alleges [598]*598that, at the time of this conversation, Demás knew that the deal was “not ‘dead’... and that WMATA was still dealing with the partnership.” Id. Plaintiff contends that Demás intentionally misled him so that plaintiff would not contest his December 2004 termination from the alleged partnership. Id. ¶ 29. Plaintiff further alleges that his conversation with Demás had a “profound impact” on him, in that he reasonably relied on Demás’ statements that the deal was dead and consequently did not contest his termination or follow any activity at the site. Id. ¶ 30.

Although the complaint alleges that the deal was not “dead” at the time of the March 2005 phone call, it was not until May 2, 2011 when plaintiff learned “that (a) the deal with WMATA actually went through, (b) the Spaulding & Slye partners were paid off by the Defendants, and (c) the Defendants went forward with the original plan for re-development of the Site (presented to WMATA in 1999), which Plaintiff participated and assisted strategically with.” Compl. ¶ 33. Plaintiff also learned from Arlington County property records that WMATA had sold three parcels of land to defendants, one sale occurring on October 22, 2009 and the other two on December 16, 2010. Lastly, plaintiff discovered that defendants and Landesbank entered into a $98 million construction loan agreement on January 12, 2011 and that defendants had entered into a long-term lease and long-term loan with two other entities. Id. ¶ 34.

Plaintiff filed suit on October 21, 2011, contending that he was wrongfully terminated from the WMATA project in 2004, that the defendants committed fraud by informing him that the WMATA deal was dead knowing it was not and continuing to conceal the truth, and that they conspired to injure plaintiffs business by hiding this information. As a result, plaintiff claims he was not compensated for the work he contributed to the WMATA project and was cut out of lucrative deals and his rightful partnership interest.

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Bluebook (online)
855 F. Supp. 2d 594, 2012 WL 681630, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-shooshan-vaed-2012.