King v. Fox

28 F. App'x 95
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 2002
DocketDocket No. 00-9424
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 28 F. App'x 95 (King v. Fox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. Fox, 28 F. App'x 95 (2d Cir. 2002).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

AFTER ARGUMENT AND UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the judgment of the District Court is VACATED and REMANDED for further proceedings.

Plaintiff Edward C. King appeals from the District Court’s summary judgment in favor of defendant Lawrence A. Fox dated March 9, 1999. Judgment was entered March 11, 1999, and this appeal followed.

From 1972 to 1975, Edward C. King was a member of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (“the Band”). King left the Band in 1975.

In 1974, King and the Band had entered into various written agreements with MCA Records, Inc. (“MCA”) which provided for the payment of royalties. By written agreement dated November 26, 1976, King retained attorney Lawrence A. Fox to pursue King’s rights to royalites from MCA stemming from his association with the Band. King and Fox had a fee arrangement whereby Fox would receive one-third of “any money recovered from the [Band and Ronnie Van Zant] ... by way of settlement, trial, judgment or other method.”

Fox represented King’s interests in connection with the pursuit of royalties from MCA, including the commencement of two lawsuits in New York, one in 1976 and one in 1982, against MCA which were respectively settled in 1978 and 1989. The terms of the settlement of the 1976 lawsuit had MCA pay King a sum of money, and required it to make payment of future royalties and provide royalty statements. One third of the settlement amount was paid to Fox’s then law firm, and the balance was remitted to King pursuant to their agreement. Thereafter, royalty payments from MCA were remitted to Fox, who deposited them into his firm’s escrow account and then remitted two-thirds thereof to King and paid the one-third balance to Fox’s firm. In the normal course, Fox sent King a cover letter with the payments, making specific reference to the retention of one-third by Fox’s firm. This practice continued uninterrupted from 1979 until 1995.1

[97]*97In the late 1970s, John K. Groon, an attorney representing King, reviewed both the settlement of the first lawsuit against MCA and the scope of the one-third fee agreement between Fox and King. After reviewing the materials that Fox had forwarded on October 18, 1978, Groon requested a statement from Fox, who replied by letter dated October 23, 1978:

The one third recovery we receive includes all royalty money [King] is entitled to resulting from his involvement with [the Band] as that was our agreement. Please ask [King] to call me if he disagrees, but you can verify out understanding with Janet [King’s then wife] who participated in several of our conversations.

On April 18, 1988, Fox sent King a letter which King had requested for the purposes of an IRS audit that he was undergoing. Fox stated:

In connection with your IRS audit, this is to confirm that we have charged you one-third of all monies received from MCA as our legal fee for services rendered to you in this matter. The amount that you have received[ ] should be precisely two-thirds of the amount of the royalty statement.

After 1990, Fox continued depositing royalty checks in his firm’s escrow account and distributing the funds to King as before. One of the questions raised by this litigation is whether Fox and King had a continuous course of representation during the period after the settlement of the second MCA lawsuit. Fox contends that they did not. He argues that he only disbursed royalty funds as he received them, and he thus acted as no more than an escrow agent. Several factors belie Fox’s assertions and, since the District Court dismissed the complaint on summary judgment, we must draw all inferences in King’s favor. First, King and Fox never signed an escrow agreement memorializing their relationship. (There was an escrow agreement with third party Abelese Clark and Osterberg, but that agreement only covered twenty percent of the settlement recovery, designated the “Escrowed Funds” by the stipulation of settlement.) Moreover, King and Fox presented themselves to MCA as if Fox continued as King’s legal representative, ready to bring suit should MCA waver in its commitment to the settlement agreement. King directed MCA to direct all contact, royalties and correspondence, to Fox. On January 22, 1990, Fox himself evinced his understanding that he would continue to act as King’s attorney in dealing with MCA even after the two suits had settled. He promised to “see this through even though I may have to begin yet another lawsuit” and talked about how MCA is “always seeking some edge”

Beginning in April 1995, King has received royalty payments relating to the Band directly from MCA, and has not remitted to Fox his one-third share thereof.

On June 4, 1997, King filed suit against Fox for taking a one-third share of King’s royalties, alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, undue influence, conversion, and violation of the New York Judiciary Law § 487. King also contended that the November 26, 1976 retainer fee agreement was void because it was unconscionable and unenforceable.

Fox moved for summary judgment on May 8, 1998. On March 11, 1999, the District Court granted that motion because it found that the statute of limitations on King’s claims had run. King timely filed this appeal.

[98]*98“We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment to determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there is a genuine issue of material fact and whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” United States v. Gordon, 78 F.3d 781, 784 (2d Cir.1996). On appeal, King raises four arguments for why the statute of limitations has not run on his claims. As we explain below, three of those arguments are without merit. Regarding the fourth ground (the continuous representation rule), we conclude that King raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the statute of limitations had run, thus precluding a grant of summary judgment.

First, King asserts that his claims are not time-barred because Fox has allegedly committed a continuing tort each time Fox took one-third of the MCA royalty payments from King. Upder the doctrine of continuing tort, a plaintiff who asserts a tort claim may rely on the final, actionable event as the conduct comprising the tort for statute of limitations accrual purposes. Shannon v. MTA Metro North R.R., 269 A.D.2d 218, 704 N.Y.S.2d 208, 209 (1st Dep’t 2000). However, in Sporn v. MCA Records, 58 N.Y.2d 482, 462 N.Y.S.2d 413, 448 N.E.2d 1324 (N.Y.1983), the New York Court of Appeals limited the doctrine of continuing tort to claims of trespass, excluding those of conversion. It illustrated the difference as follows:

If ... the defendant merely interfered with the plaintiffs property ... then the complaint will be properly construed as an action to recover for trespass. Only then would it be necessary to consider the applicability of continuing trespass concepts. If, however, the conduct ... amounts to the destruction or taking of the property, then the action is properly deemed one for conversion.

Id. at 488, 462 N.Y.S.2d 413, 448 N.E.2d 1324. Indeed, in

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

Related

Cohen v. Cohen
773 F. Supp. 2d 373 (S.D. New York, 2011)
Rusyniak v. Gensini
629 F. Supp. 2d 203 (N.D. New York, 2009)
King v. Fox
851 N.E.2d 1184 (New York Court of Appeals, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 F. App'x 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-fox-ca2-2002.