Lutz v. Boas

176 A.2d 853, 40 Del. Ch. 130, 1961 Del. Ch. LEXIS 71
Court of Chancery of Delaware·Decided November 10, 1961·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

Seitz, Chancellor:

This is my decision based on developments subsequent to my opinion of May 25, 1961 in Lutz v. Boas, 39 Del.Ch. 585, 171 A.2d 381. It will be necessary to read that opinion in order to understand the present one. I held Model liable for its profits on Funds’ brokerage commissions because it violated the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C.A. § 80a-1 et seq. The amount of such liability has since been ascertained to be $841,335.47. I also held, under general equitable principles, that Model had a liability in connection with the management fees paid by Funds to Associates. However, I concluded that it was not equitable to require Model to repay all the profits on its brokerage commissions to Funds and in addition pay the total of the improperly paid management fees. I concluded that as to the management fees ($1,129,451.49) Model should only pay the difference between the amount of the profits and the total management fees.

As I stated in my prior opinion, “My approach will, in effect, result in Funds having received back all payments improperly made to Associates and having obtained investment advice and brokerage service for the standard brokerage charges, or less. This would seem to do equity under the facts.” I went on to hold the non-affiliated directors, inter alla, jointly and severally liable with the other appearing defendants for all the management fees.

Before the entry of judgment on the court’s opinion, the attorney for the one appearing non-affiliated director (“Dr. Rice”) filed a peti-[133]*133tian seeking a determination with respect to his rights of indemnification and contribution from Model. While this and other open matters were being processed, the court was advised that Model had, subject to court approval, agreed to settle all of its liability to Funds for a payment of $950,000. Model and Funds have also agreed that to the extent possible, the settlement money should first be applied to Model’s individual liability for profits and the balance applied against its joint liability for management fees. Counsel for the nonaffiliated director claims that if the settlement is approved and the action dismissed as to Model, it will prejudice Dr. Rice unless his rights as against Model are also determined or preserved. The parties have now agreed that the pleadings are in a stage which makes it appropriate to declare the rights of Funds against the defendants and also the rights as between the defendants, Dr. Rice and Model. I shall proceed to do so.

Dr. Rice contends that the court in effect has found him and Model jointly and severally liable for a sum representing the total management fees of $1,129,451.49. He then argues that Model actually profited to the extent of $841,335.47, on the basis of the brokerage business. He concludes that as between himself and Model the principle of indemnification should apply with respect to the profit figure with the consequence that he should receive that sum from Model to cover that amount of his total liability to Funds. As to the balance of his liability Dr. Rice says the principle of contribution should govern as between him and Model. Funds and Model claim that this is not a proper case for the application of indemnification principles. Funds says there can be contribution only as to the joint liability while Model says there can be none at all under what it claims is the controlling New York law.

It is obvious that the basic difficulty here arises from the court’s treatment in its prior opinion of Model’s liability to Funds for the profits and management fees. The court’s approach made Model solely liable for the brokerage profits and jointly liable with Dr. Rice for the management fees in excess of such profits. However, it made Dr. Rice responsible for all the management fees. ■ The court’s equitable approach with respect to Model’s liability resulted [134]*134in limiting its aggregate liability for these items to a sum equal to the management fees. In contrast, Funds has claimed and still claims that the liability of the nonaffiliated director should be for the total amount of the management fees without any credit for the brokerage profits item, and thus Dr. Rice would be entitled to contribution from Model only to the extent of one-half of Model’s liability for management fees.

Assuming no settlement between Funds and Model, the judgment in favor of Funds and against Dr. Rice will have to include the full amount of the management fees. On the same assumption, the judgment against Model will come to the same amount. The problem arises because the court first considered Model’s liability with respect to the violation of the Investment Company Act and then treated its liability with respect to the management fees. It is clear that this was a fortuitous approach because the court could well have first considered the Model liability for management fees. Had it done so it would have found Model jointly liable with Dr. Rice for the total management fees. Had it then considered Model’s individual liability for violation of the Investment Company Act it would have found a violation but presumably adopted the same equitable approach concerning its aggregate liability. Thus, the court must decide whether, as Funds contends, it intended to permit Funds to recover the total profits from Model and in addition recover the total management fees from Dr. Rice with a joint liability in Model to the extent of the difference between its profits and the total management fees.

Funds claims that unless the court treats the item of liability for brokerage profits as being Model’s individual liability and thus does not permit Dr. Rice to have a “credit” to that extent, it will not implement its decision with respect to the violation of the Act. The court cannot agree. Assuming no settlement, the acceptance of Funds’ argument would, theoretically at least, permit the recovery by Funds of the total management fees plus the brokerage profits. I determined in the prior opinion that Model’s total liability in both categories should not exceed, in effect, the total liability for management fees. Thus, to permit the approach suggested by Funds would [135]*135result in Funds receiving back Model’s profits arising from a violation of the Act and also recovering the total management fees. However, this would then go beyond what I deem equitable because it would mean that Funds was provided with investment advice free and brokerage services for substantially less than the standard brokerage charges. This would seem to be an excessive liability to impose even against these wrongdoers.

I conclude that Funds’ recovery from the parties, insofar as the management fees and brokerage profits are concerned, was intended to be limited to a sum equivalent to the management fees, they being greater than the brokerage profits. This is important because it must next be decided whether Dr. Rice is entitled to indemnification from Model with respect to the brokerage profits and whether he is entitled to contribution on all or only a portion of the management fee liability.

Turning first to Dr. Rice’s claim that he is entitled to indemnification to the extent of Model’s profits on brokerage business, it is difficult to see how that doctrine can apply because it assumes a liability for the sum involved on the part of the person seeking to be indemnified. There has been no claim or finding that Dr. Rice is liable for any of the brokerage profits for which Model was held responsible.

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Lutz v. Boas, 176 A.2d 853, 40 Del. Ch. 130, 1961 Del. Ch. LEXIS 71 (Del. Ct. App. 1961).

176 A.2d 853 (Lutz v. Boas) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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Lutz v. Boas
176 A.2d 853 (Court of Chancery of Delaware, 1961)