Moodie-Yannotti v. Swan (In Re Swan)

156 B.R. 618, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1099, 24 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 838
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedJuly 14, 1993
Docket19-40550
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 156 B.R. 618 (Moodie-Yannotti v. Swan (In Re Swan)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moodie-Yannotti v. Swan (In Re Swan), 156 B.R. 618, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1099, 24 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 838 (Minn. 1993).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, IN PART

GREGORY F. KISHEL, Bankruptcy Judge.

This adversary proceeding came on before the Court on January 19, 1993, for hearing on the Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. The Plaintiff appeared by her attorney, William R. Skolnick. The Defendant appeared by his attorneys, Jeffrey S. Ronbeck and Gary A. Flatten. Upon the moving and responsive documents, the pre- and post-hearing briefs of counsel, and the argument made at the hearing, the Court makes the following order.

This motion presents an unusual variant of the application of collateral estoppel in dischargeability proceedings. In 1990, the Plaintiff sued the Defendant and one Richard W. Greeman in the Minnesota State District Court for the Fourth Judicial District, Hennepin County. The gravamen of her complaint was that the named defendants had caused financial injury to her by inducing her to invest approximately $450,-000.00 in the American Jewelry Guild (“the AJG”), a “multi-level marketing organization,” in April 1987 and thereafter. As against the Defendant, the complaint sounded in common-law fraud and under the Minnesota state securities laws. As against Greeman, the complaint sounded under the same theories, plus negligence (legal, malpractice.) 1

On January 13, 1992, the parties commenced trial before a jury, Judge Bruce *620 Hartigan of the state District Court presiding. The trial lasted almost ten days. In submitting the case to the jury, Judge Har-tigan instructed it that the Plaintiff had to prove her ease on all three counts by a fair preponderance of the evidence. On January 23, 1992, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the Plaintiff on all three counts. It awarded her damages of $500,000.00 against both defendants on the common-law fraud count; $330,000.00 against Gree-man on the legal malpractice count; and a total of $500,000.00 against both defendants on the securities count, apportioned between the two of them in specific awards.

Judge Hartigan had submitted the case to the jury on a special verdict form. In rendering its verdict, the jury answered all of the interrogatories on the form favorably to the Plaintiff. Specifically, it found that:

1. On or before April 23, 1987, the Defendant had made a false representation of a past or present material fact to her;
2. The Defendant and Greeman had acted jointly or in concert to conspire with each other in making material false representations to her;
3. The Plaintiff had acted in reliance on the false representations made by both defendants, or they had made the representations under circumstances where she was justified in relying upon them;
4. The sum of $500,000.00 would fairly compensate the Plaintiff for damages that were a direct result of the false representations;
5. Both defendants had made “an untrue statement” of a material fact in connection with the Plaintiffs purchase of stock in the AJG in transactions that took place on April 23, 1987; and
6. The sum of $500,000.00 would adequately compensate the Plaintiff for damages directly caused by the statements) made in connection with the sale of the securities, of which $170,-000.00 was apportioned to the Defendant.

On February 3, 1993, Judge Hartigan entered Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and an Order for Judgment based on the jury’s verdict. In pertinent part, he noted in the findings and conclusions that Greeman and the Defendant had

... acted jointly, in concert, to conspire to engage in and did commit fraud and misrepresentation against ...

the Plaintiff. Both of the defendants made timely post-trial motions. Entry of judgment was stayed pursuant to Minnesota statute and rule, and then pursuant to an order entered on February 21, 1993. Via an order entered on March 19, 1992, Judge Hartigan denied the defendants’ motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict; granted their motions for new trial on the common-law fraud count of the Plaintiff’s complaint; and denied their motions for new trial as to the other two counts. Via an amended order entered on April 2, 1992, he modified the order for judgment to comport with these rulings. As part of these modifications, he vacated those terms of the original order for judgment that had granted judgment on the common-law fraud count. He also amended the order’s terms that had granted judgment on the other two counts.

Judge Hartigan had entered a memorandum in connection with the March 19, 1992 order, which he specifically incorporated into the amended order of April 2,1992. In it, he held that the evidence justified the jury’s findings as to all of the elements of common-law fraud, as well as those of a violation of the Minnesota securities laws. Since there was competent evidence of record that reasonably tended to sustain the verdict, then, he denied the defendants’ motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Apparently the defendants’ chief argument in their motions for a new trial went to the quantum of proof required of the Plaintiff. The memorandum contains a lengthy and thoughtful discussion of the extant decisions of the Minnesota appellate courts on the issue of the plaintiff’s burden *621 of proof in a fraud action under Minnesota common law. Judge Eartigan noted that recent decisions of the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Minnesota Court of Appeals had alternated between requiring proof by clear and convincing evidence, and proof by a preponderance of the evidence. He then noted that the Minnesota Supreme Court had never affirmatively overruled past decisions applying the lesser burden, but that its last pronouncement on the issue, Weise v. Red Owl Stores, Inc., 286 Minn. 199, 175 N.W.2d 184 (1970), had imposed the heightened standard of proof. Feeling compelled to apply the last ruling by the highest state court, particularly in light of later opinions by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, he concluded that his jury instruction was erroneous to such a degree that a new trial on the fraud count was mandated. Noting that the lesser burden of proof unquestionably applied to the seeurities-law count, he denied the motion as to that part of the verdict and order for judgment.

On April 29, 1992, the clerk of the Hen-nepin County District Court finally entered a money judgment against the Defendant and Greeman, which conformed to the jury’s verdict on the securities-law and malpractice counts. The judgment itself eon-tamed a proviso that incorporated Judge Hartigan’s March 19, 1992 memorandum.

Before a second trial on the fraud count could be convened, however, the Defendant filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 7 in this Court on May 20, 1992. This, of course, interposed the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(1) against any further action by the Plaintiff against the Defendant. 2

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 B.R. 618, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1099, 24 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 838, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moodie-yannotti-v-swan-in-re-swan-mnb-1993.