moses.com Securities, Inc. v. Comprehensive Software Systems, Inc. William W. Simpson Southwest Securities, Inc. David Glatstein David Zeleniak

406 F.3d 1052, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8217, 2005 WL 1109520
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 2005
Docket04-2054
StatusPublished
Cited by252 cases

This text of 406 F.3d 1052 (moses.com Securities, Inc. v. Comprehensive Software Systems, Inc. William W. Simpson Southwest Securities, Inc. David Glatstein David Zeleniak) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
moses.com Securities, Inc. v. Comprehensive Software Systems, Inc. William W. Simpson Southwest Securities, Inc. David Glatstein David Zeleniak, 406 F.3d 1052, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8217, 2005 WL 1109520 (8th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Moses.com (Moses) appeals' from the district court’s 1 order denying a new trial and its judgment in favor of defendant Comprehensive Software Systems, Inc. (CSS), claiming that it was prejudiced by the exclusion of evidence at trial. Moses also appeals from the district court’s dismissal of Moses’s claims against defendants Southwest Securities, Inc. (Southwest), and David Glatstein and its refusal to grant Moses leave to file a third amended complaint. We affirm.

I.

Moses planned to initiate a new business model as an online stock brokerage firm that would charge a monthly subscription fee to customers instead of a fee for each transaction. It began searching for a software company that could provide software with automated front- and back-office capabilities for stock trades that would comply with Securities and Exchange Commission and National Association of Security Dealers regulations. It began to work with CSS in 1999, and hired IMIS, Mas-tech, Inc., a technology consulting firm, to test and evaluate the CSS software system in light of Moses’s needs. Mastech tested *1058 the system in May 1999 and produced for Moses a report — called a “gap analysis”— that highlighted the system’s strengths and limitations, noting that several aspects of the back-office capabilities were still under development. After Mastech finished its testing, Moses and CSS executives met on June 2, 1999, to discuss goals and a potential time frame for the installation and initiation of the CSS system at Moses’s facilities. The parties disagree over whether they agreed upon a particular time frame at the June 2 meeting.

Although Moses and CSS did not sign a formal contract, they negotiated a letter of intent to work together in establishing an appropriate software system for Moses’s needs. Moses sought investors and initiated a costly marketing strategy that included advertising during the 2000 Super Bowl. Moses executives became dissatisfied with CSS’s work, frustrated by the slow progress in providing the capabilities and functionality in the system that Moses expected. Moses claimed that CSS had represented that the system was already complete and functional at the June 2 meeting, and it expected a faster conversion.

Moses subsequently concluded that the CSS system did not work and asked CSS to leave its premises in February 2000. It filed suit in Missouri state court, raising state tort claims for fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and negligence. CSS removed the case to federal court and moved to compel arbitration. The district court denied CSS’s motion to compel arbitration, a ruling that we affirmed on appeal. Moses.com v. Comprehensive Software Systems, Inc., 263 F.3d 783 (8th Cir.2001). Moses filed an amended complaint, adding several claims and additional defendants, including Southwest and Glatstein. After the district court found that Moses’s allegations of conspiracy were too indefinite to resolve various motions to dismiss that had been raised, D. Ct. Order of Oct. 8, 2002, Moses filed a second amended complaint. When Southwest and Glatstein again filed a motion to dismiss, the district court dismissed the claims against them without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. D. Ct. Order of Feb. 6, 2003. Moses moved to file a third amended complaint, adding-more defendants and repleading the claims against Southwest and Glatstein. The district court denied leave to file the amended complaint. The remaining parties continued with discovery, during which the district court consistently denied Moses’s discovery requests, which were designed to reveal the status and functionality of CSS software at Southwest and Scottsdale Securities, Inc. (Scottsdale), two companies that had also hired CSS to provide software for securities transactions.

The claims against CSS ultimately proceeded to a jury trial. During trial, the district court prohibited any discussion of Southwest and its relationship with CSS or its experience with CSS software. The district court submitted all the claims to the jury except the promissory estoppel claim. The jury returned a verdict for CSS on each of Moses’s claims and also awarded $33,000 to CSS on its counterclaim seeking damages for unpaid work in quantum meruit. Moses filed a motion for a new trial — claiming prejudice in light of all the excluded evidence — which the district court denied.

II.

As stated earlier, Moses appeals from the judgment in favor of CSS and from the denial of its motion for a new trial, alleging numerous errors that it claims resulted in prejudice. “A trial court must determine whether an eviden-tiary ruling was so prejudicial as to re *1059 quire a new trial which would be likely to produce a different result.” O’Dell v. Hercules, Inc., 904 F.2d 1194, 1200 (8th Cir.1990). We review a district court’s denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion, giving great deference to the district court’s ruling. Children’s Broad. Corp. v. Walt Disney Co., 357 F.3d 860, 867 (8th Cir.2004).

A party objecting to evidentiary rulings must specifically identify the alleged erroneous ruling and the improperly excluded evidence. Watson v. O’Neill, 365 F.3d 609, 614-15 (8th Cir.2004). We accord substantial deference to the district court’s evidentiary rulings made at trial, and will reverse only if they amount to “a clear and prejudicial abuse of discretion.” Lovett ex rel. Lovett v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 201 F.3d 1074, 1081 (8th Cir.2000). Offers of proof are important to establish the purported relevance of the excluded evidence. See Watson, 365 F.3d at 616.

A.

Moses first argues that the district court improperly excluded during trial much of its evidence relating to CSS’s misrepresentations. Having granted CSS’s “motion in limine to exclude reference, argument, and discussion of the installations and/or conversions that CSS was involved with at or about the similar time frames” at Southwest and Scottsdale, the district court heard and rejected numerous offers of proof by Moses as the trial proceeded, finding that such evidence was irrelevant and would serve only to distract the jury from the key issues. Moses asserts that several pieces of excluded evidence would have provided substantial support for its claims of intentional misrepresentation and concealment.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
406 F.3d 1052, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8217, 2005 WL 1109520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosescom-securities-inc-v-comprehensive-software-systems-inc-william-ca8-2005.