Kaufman v. Trump's Castle Funding

7 F.3d 357
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedOctober 14, 1993
DocketNo. 92-5350
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 7 F.3d 357 (Kaufman v. Trump's Castle Funding) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kaufman v. Trump's Castle Funding, 7 F.3d 357 (3d Cir. 1993).

Opinion

[364]*364OPINION OF THE COURT

BECKER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from orders of the district court for the District of New Jersey dismissing a number of complaints brought under various provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by a class of investors who purchased bonds to provide financing for the acquisition and completion of the Taj Mahal, a lavish easino/hotel on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The defendants are Donald J. Trump (“Trump”), Robert S. Trump, Harvey S. Freeman, the Trump Organization Inc., Trump Taj Mahal Inc., Taj Mahal Funding Inc. and Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership (the “Partnership”) 1 (collectively the “Trump defendants”) and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Inc. (“Merrill Lynch”). The complaints allege that the prospectus accompanying the issuance of the bonds contained affirmatively misleading statements and materially misleading omissions in contravention of the federal securities laws.

The district court dismissed the securities law claims under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The linchpin of the district court’s decision was what has been described as the “bespeaks caution” doctrine, according to which a court may determine that the inclusion of sufficient cautionary statements in a prospectus renders misrepresentations and omissions contained therein nonactionable. While the viability of the bespeaks caution doctrine is an issue of first impression for this court, we believe that it primarily represents new nomenclature rather than substantive change in the law. As we see it, “bespeaks caution” is essentially shorthand for the well-established principle that a statement or omission must be considered in context, so that accompanying statements may render it immaterial as a matter of law.

We believe that the bespeaks caution doctrine is both viable and applicable to the facts of this appeal. The prospectus here took considerable care to convey to potential investors the extreme risks inherent in the venture while simultaneously carefully alerting the investors to a variety of obstacles the Taj Mahal would face, all of which were relevant to a potential investor’s decision concerning purchase of the bonds. We conclude that, given these warning signals in the text of the prospectus itself, the plaintiffs cannot establish that a reasonable investor would find the alleged misstatements and omissions material to his or her decision to invest in the Taj Mahal. Hence we will affirm the district court’s orders.

Inasmuch as some plaintiffs filed their complaints in other districts, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (the “JPML”) transferred them to the district court for the District of New Jersey under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 for consolidated pre-trial proceedings (as opposed to a transfer for all purposes, such as under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) or 1406), the question arises whether the district court possessed authority to issue dispositive pre-trial orders terminating the cases so transferred. It seems to be widely accepted that § 1407 and the rules promulgated thereunder empower a transferee court to enter dispositive orders to terminate a case, but there is no reported case law so holding. We take this opportunity to confirm the power of the transferee court to enter a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In November, 1988 the Trump defendants offered to the public $675 million in first mortgage investment bonds (the “bonds”) with Merrill Lynch acting as the sole underwriter. The interest rate on the bonds was 14%, a high rate in comparison to the 9% yield offered on quality corporate bonds at the time. The Trump defendants issued the bonds to raise capital to: (1) purchase the Taj Mahal, a partially-completed casino/hotel located on the boardwalk, from Resorts International, Inc. (which had already invested substantial amounts in its construction); (2) [365]*365complete construction of the Taj Mahal; and (3) open the Taj Mahal for business.

As is well-known, the Taj Mahal was widely touted as Atlantic City’s largest and most lavish casino resort. When ultimately opened in April, 1990 it was at least twice the size of any other casino in Atlantic City. It consisted of a 42-story hotel tower that contained approximately 1,250 guest rooms and an adjacent low-rise building encompassing roughly 155,000 square feet of meeting, ballroom and convention space, a 120,000 square foot casino, and numerous restaurants, lounges and stores. The entire structure occupied approximately seventeen acres of land.

The prospectus accompanying the bonds estimated the completion cost of the Taj Mahal, including the payment of interest on the bonds for the first fifteen months of operation, at $805 million. It explained that, to obtain that amount, the Trump defendants were relying on the $675 million in bond proceeds, a $75 million capital contribution by Donald Trump, investment income derived from those sums, a contingent additional loan of $25 million from the Trump Line of Credit, and loans from other sources.

Plaintiffs ground their lawsuits in the text of the prospectus. Their strongest attack focuses on the “Management Discussion and Analysis” (“MD & A”) section of the prospectus, which stated: “The Partnership believes that funds generated from the operation of the Taj Mahal will be sufficient to cover all of its debt service (interest and principal).” See Complaint at ¶ 32. The plaintiffs’ primary contention is that this statement was materially misleading because the defendants possessed neither a genuine nor a reasonable belief in its truth. However, as the defendants emphasize, the prospectus contained numerous disclaimers and cautionary statements in conjunction with this statement. The cautionary statements stressed, among other things: the intense competition in the casino industry; the absence of an operating history for the Taj Mahal which could serve as a basis for its valuation; the unprecedented size of the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City; and the enterprise’s potential inability to repay the interest on the bonds in the event of a mortgage default and subsequent liquidation of the Taj Mahal.

After learning that the Trump defendants planned to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and establish a reorganization plan, various bondholders filed separate complaints in the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York and the District of New Jersey. The complaints each alleged that the prospectus accompanying the issuance of the bonds contained material misrepresentations and material omissions in violation of the 1933 and 1934 Acts. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, the JPML subsequently transferred the complaints for consolidated pre-trial proceedings to the District of New Jersey. See MDL Docket No. 864 (In re Donald J. Trump Sec. Litig.).

The consolidated complaints pleaded four counts.

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In Re Donald J. Trump Casino Securities Litigation--Taj Mahal Litigation. Sidney L. Kaufman, Suing Individually and on Behalf of a Class of Persons Similarly Situated Jerome Schwartz, Suing Individually and on Behalf of a Class of Persons Similarly Situated Peter Stuyvesant, Ltd., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated Susan Cagan Eric Cagan David E. Dougherty Jean Curzio Alexander L. Charnis Dorothy Arkell Fred Glossner Herman Krangel Robert Kloss Helen Kloss Fairmount Financial Corp. Joanne Gollomp Dino Del Zotto v. Trump's Castle Funding Trump's Castle Associates Limited Partnership, a New Jersey Limited Partnership Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership, a New Jersey Limited Partnership Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump John O'DOnnell Nathan Katz Tim Maland Francisco Tejeda Julian Menarguez Harvey I. Freeman Paul Henderson Patrick C. McKoy Edward M. Tracy Michael S. Vautrin Jeffrey A. Ross John P. Belisle Timothy G. Rose Lori Taylor C. "Bucky" Willard the Trump Organization, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Sidney L. Kaufman, Suing Individually and on Behalf of a Class of Persons Similarly Situated v. Trump's Castle Funding Trump's Castle Associates Limited Partnership, a New Jersey Limited Partnership Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership, a New Jersey Limited Partnership Donald J. Trump. Jerome Schwartz, Suing Individually and on Behalf of a Class of Persons Similarly Situated v. Trump's Castle Funding, Inc. (A New Jersey Corporation) Trump's Castle Associates Limited Partnership (A New Jersey Limited Partnership) Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. (A New Jersey Corporation) Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership (A New Jersey Limited Partnership) Donald J. Trump. Peter Stuyvesant, Ltd., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated v. Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump John O'DOnnell Trump Plaza Funding, Inc. Nathan Katz Tim Maland Trump Plaza Associates Francisco Tejeda Julian Menarguez Harvey I. Freeman Paul Henderson Patrick C. McKoy Edward M. Tracy Michael S. Vautrin Jeffrey A. Ross John P. Belisle Timothy G. Rose Trump's Castle Funding, Inc. Lori Taylor Trump's Castle Associates Limited Partnership. Susan Cagan Eric Cagan David E. Dougherty Jean Curzio v. Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump Harvey I. Freeman C. "Bucky" Willard Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership the Trump Organization, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Incorporated Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Alexander L. Charnis Dorothy Arkell v. Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump Harvey I. Freeman C. "Bucky" Willard Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership the Trump Organization, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Fairmont Financial Corp. Joanne Gollomp, on Behalf of Themselves and All Others Similarly Situated v. Donald J. Trump Harvey S. Freeman Robert S. Trump the Trump Organization, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership. Robert Kloss Helen Kloss v. Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump Harvey I. Freeman C. "Bucky" Willard Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership the Trump Organization, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Fred Glossner Herman Krangel v. Donald J. Trump Harvey S. Freeman Robert S. Trump the Trump Organization, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Associates Limited Partnership. Dino Del Zotto v. Donald J. Trump Robert S. Trump Harvey I. Freeman C. "Bucky" Willard Trump Taj Mahal Funding, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal Associates the Trump Organization, Inc. Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Joanne Gollomp, Susan Cagan, Eric Cagan, David E. Dougherty, Jean Curzio, Robert and Helen Kloss, Fred Glossner, Herman Krangel, Sidney Kaufman, Jerome Schwartz, Dino Del Zotto, Alexander L. Charnis and Dorothy Arkell, on Behalf of Themselves and All Others Similarly Situated
7 F.3d 357 (Third Circuit, 1993)

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7 F.3d 357, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kaufman-v-trumps-castle-funding-ca3-1993.