Leiber v. Arboretum Joint Venture, LLC

702 S.E.2d 805, 208 N.C. App. 336, 73 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 2286
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 7, 2010
DocketCOA09-1284
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 702 S.E.2d 805 (Leiber v. Arboretum Joint Venture, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leiber v. Arboretum Joint Venture, LLC, 702 S.E.2d 805, 208 N.C. App. 336, 73 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 2286 (N.C. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

BEASLEY, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals from an order granting the AAC Defendants’ motion for summary judgment. For the reasons stated herein, we conclude that the trial court did indeed erroneously grant the AAC Defendants’ motion for summary judgment and we reverse.

Plaintiff, Hilmar. Leiber, is a German national who at times relevant to this action, resided in Germany. While living in Germany Plaintiff met fellow German national, Wolfram Count von Spreti. During their initial meeting, Plaintiff learned that Spreti had successfully invested money in several United States-based companies. Shortly thereafter, Spreti invited Plaintiff to begin making investments in the “AAC Defendants, a collection of entities that was *339 founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, beginning in the late [1980’s]. The AAC Defendants primarily develop commercial real estate. 1

Plaintiff began his investment relationship with Spreti by transferring $210,000 from a Swiss Bank to Southlake, an AAC Defendant. However, Plaintiff failed to research the AAC Defendants and utilized Spreti as his sole source of information. Following the initial investment in Southlake, Plaintiff made several investments in AAC Defendants Arbor and Gastonia. “Arbor and Gastonia were both partnerships that held limited partnerships interests in other AAC entities. Spreti was the general partner of both Arbor and Gastonia.” Throughout the course of the entire investment relationship, Plaintiff invested approximately $445,000 in the AAC Defendants.

Following apparent instruction from Spreti, all distribution checks, and documentation were sent directly to Spreti in Germany. Between 1990 and 2003 Spreti received approximately $315,000 in distribution checks and approximately $78,000 in tax refunds intended for Plaintiff. Of the amounts distributed by the AAC Defendants to Spreti, Plaintiff only received approximately $75,000. Despite being aware that distribution checks were being sent directly to Spreti, Plaintiff never objected- to Spreti’s receipt of the distribution checks and tax refunds.

“In July 2000, the AAC entities created the AAC Retail Fund. It was created to consolidate the AAC entities’ interests in several commercial properties into one entity to facilitate an increased borrowing limit.” Southlake was one of the AAC Defendants that contributed to the AAC Retail Fund in 2002. Plaintiff, along with other investors in Southlake, were given the opportunity to either roll their investment into the newly formed Retail Fund or sell their Southlake interest to the AAC Retail Fund. Plaintiff’s election form was mailed to Spreti. After receiving the election form, Spreti opted to sell Leiber’s interest in Southlake to the AAC Retail Fund and allegedly forged Plaintiff’s signature on the document.

Thereafter, “the AAC Retail Fund issued a Wachovia Bank check . . . payable to [Plaintiff] in the amount of $151,274” for the purchase *340 of Plaintiff’s interest in Southlake. Plaintiff alleges that Spreti forged his indorsement on the check, cashed it at a German bank, and retained the proceeds. When Spreti cashed the Wachovia check, the German bank transferred the Wachovia Bank check to American Express Bank for collection. American Express Bank presented the Wachovia Check to Wachovia for payment, and Wachovia paid in full.

In January 2001, AAC Defendants Arbor and Gastonia contributed to the AAC Retail Fund. In 2003, Plaintiff was given the option to sell his interest in Arbor and Gastonia to the AAC Retail Fund or roll them into the ACC Retail Fund. Again, forging Plaintiff’s signatures on the election forms, Spreti opted to sell Plaintiff’s interests in Arbor and Gastonia. After receiving the signed documents, the AAC Retail Fund “issued a Bank of America check . . . payable to Leiber in the amount of $254,858.” Plaintiff again alleges that Spreti forged his indorsement on the check and retained the proceeds from the sale of the Arbor and Gastonia interests. To obtain the funds from the sale, “Spreti negotiated the [Bank of America Check] at Oberbank, AG. Oberbank transferred the [Bank of America Check] to Wachovia for collection. Thereafter, Wachovia presented the check to [Bank of America] for payment, and [Bank of America] paid in full.”

In November 2004, Spreti committed suicide prior to meeting scheduled with Plaintiff to discuss his investments in the AAC Defendants. Plaintiff alleges that he did not learn about Spreti’s actions until after his suicide. On 19 October 2005, Plaintiff filed suit against Wachovia, Bank of America, and the AAC Defendants. In an amended Complaint Plaintiff alleged causes of action for unjust enrichment, breach of contract, reinstate/winding up of partnerships, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, conversion, and unfair and deceptive trade practices against the AAC Defendants. In his claims against AAC Defendants, Plaintiff argued that disbursement payments from the AAC Defendants should not have been delivered to Spreti because he was not Plaintiff’s authorized agent. Against Wachovia and Bank of America, Plaintiff alleged causes of action for conversion, arguing that Spreti was acting as an authorized agent when receiving the bank checks. Additionally, by cross-claim, Bank of America filed suit against Wachovia Bank alleging that Wachovia breached the warranty of presentment by enforcing a check that bore a “forged or unauthorized payee indorsement.”

On 29 February 2008, AAC Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment arguing, in pertinent part, that “the undisputed evidence *341 in this case establishes that Spreti was [Plaintiffs] agent, and had the authority to sign the redemption agreement in question and to receive the checks on [Plaintiff’s] behalf to buy out his interest in the AAC Defendants.” Bank of America and Wachovia filed summary judgment motions, arguing that Spreti was not Plaintiff’s agent and could therefore not be held liable for statutory conversion of the bank checks because Plaintiff never received “delivery” of the checks as required for a statutory conversion claim.

On 8 July 2009, the trial court granted the AAC Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, denied Wachovia’s and Bank of America’s motions for summary judgment against Plaintiff and granted Bank of America’s motion for summary judgment on the cross-claim. In its opinion and order the trial court found that “as a matter of law . . . Spreti was [Plaintiff’s] agent for purposes of receipt of the Redemption Checks.” However, in a footnote within the opinion and order, the trial court observed that “[Plaintiff] has straddled the fence on the question of Spreti’s agency. Accordingly, he could not and did not move for summary judgment with respect to his claims against the Banks. Those claims remain for trial.”

On 21 July 2009, Plaintiff filed a motion seeking to modify the order to “include a certification of no just reason for delay pursuant to Rule 54(b) in order to make the order explicitly appealable.” On 5 August 2009, Plaintiff filed notice of his intent to appeal the trial court’s opinion and order. The day after Plaintiff filed his notice of appeal, the trial court entered a Rule 54(b) certification. On 13 August 2009, Bank of America and Wachovia filed notice of cross-appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
702 S.E.2d 805, 208 N.C. App. 336, 73 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 2286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leiber-v-arboretum-joint-venture-llc-ncctapp-2010.