Nickel v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

290 F.3d 1134
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 19, 2002
DocketNo. 01-15452
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 290 F.3d 1134 (Nickel v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nickel v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n, 290 F.3d 1134 (9th Cir. 2002).

Opinions

OPINION

NOONAN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents a single issue: the appropriate remedy under California law for breach of trust by a professional trustee, a profit-making bank. Holding that the appropriate remedy is a proportionate share of the profits the bank made with the misappropriated trust funds, we reverse the judgment of the district court.

FACTS

Security Pacific National Bank (SP) was the trustee for 2,500 or more trusts (the parties are not more precise), for which its compensation was set by contract and could only be increased by consent or by order of the probate court. Nine times between 1975 and 1990 SP raised its fees without consent or court order. On April 22, 1992, the Bank of America (the B of A) acquired SP by merger and discovered its illegal practice. The B of A, however, was unable to correct that practice until 1994. It then refunded $24 million of overcharges to the trusts together with $17.8 million interest for the period of the overcharges. The B of A calculated the interest at the legal rate of 7% for 1975-1981 and 10% for 1981-1994. The B of A did not compound the interest.

PROCEEDINGS

On August 5, 1994, Carol F. Nickel brought a class action in the San Francisco superior court against the B of A alleging state causes of action. The B of A removed the case to the federal district court. Nickel then amended her complaint to allege not only the state causes of action but violations of RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962.

The district court noted that the B of A did not dispute that overcharges had been made or their amount. The question before the court was whether, under California law, the bank had provided the proper remedy. That question the court found to be equitable. Addressing the third cause of action, which claimed the interest should have been compounded, the court, on August 18, 1995, granted summary judgment to the bank on this issue. Based on reports of the California Law Revision Commission in 1986 and 1990, and on 11 Witkin Summary of California Law, “Trusts,” § 151 (9th ed.1990), the court held that Cal. Probate Code 16441 meant simple interest. The case proceeded to trial before the court on the plaintiffs claims for disgorgement and restitution of lost benefits. Both sides offered witnesses and extensive exhibits.

On April 25,1997, the district court gave its opinion. See Nickel v. Bank of America, 991 F.Supp. 1175 (1997). It observed that all of the plaintiffs’ claims were based on the California Probate Code, which, in relevant part, reads as follows:

(a) if the trustee commits a breach of trust, the trustee is chargeable with any of the following that is appropriate under the circumstances:
[1137]*1137(1) Any loss or depreciation in value of the trust estate resulting from the breach of trust, with interest.
(2) Any profit made by the trustee through the breach of trust, with interest.
(3) Any profit that would have accrued to the trust estate if the loss of profit is the result of the breach of trust.

Cal. Prob.Code § 16440(a).

The court held that determination of the profits “that would have accrued” to the 2,500 trusts was a matter of speculation, too difficult to prove because of the small size of many of the trusts, the variety of their terms and investment policies, and their different dates of termination. See Nickel, 991 F.Supp. at 1183-84. The court held that any profit made by the B of A was also speculative, incapable of proof because the over-charges could not be traced into any particular loans or investments made by the bank. Id. at 1182-83. Therefore both (a)(2) and (a)(3) were held not to be appropriate remedies, “because,” as the court put it succinctly, “of the absence of causation required by these two subsections.” Id. at 1184. The court concluded that (a)(1) was therefore the appropriate remedy — return of the overcharges with interest. As the court had already ruled, “interest” meant “simple interest.”

The parties then entered a stipulation and agreement governing all claims, except that Nickel reserved the right to appeal all of the court’s rulings on damages. On December 22, 2000, the court approved the stipulation and settlement. This appeal by Nickel followed.1

ANALYSIS

Simple or Compound Interest. Prior to 1986, long-standing California law permitted a court to award compound interest in some cases of breach of fiduciary duty. E.g., In re Lux’s Estate, 100 Cal. 609, 616, 35 P. 345 (1893). Civil Code § 2262 gave the rule a statutory basis. California was in accord with the American Law Institute, Restatement (Second) of Torts § 207(d) (1959). The California Law Revision Commission in 1986 proposed to reject this rule and replace it “with a uniform rule,” setting the rate of interest at 10%, “the same as the rate applicable in money judgments.” 18 California Law Revision Commission Reports (CLRCR) 560 (1986). Accordingly, in 1987, Civil Code § 2262 was repealed, and § 16441 of the Probate Code was amended to read:

§ 16441. (a) If the trustee is liable for interest pursuant to section 16440, the trustee is hable for the following amounts.
(1) The amount of interest that accrues at the legal rate on judgments in effect during the period when the judgment accrued.
(2) The amount of interest actually received.

Under Cal. Civ.Proc.Code 685.010(a), the legal rate on judgments is calculated with simple interest. See Big Bear Properties, Inc. v. E.M. Gherman, 95 Cal.App.3d 908, 913, 157 Cal.Rptr. 443 (1979); see also Hess v. Ford Motor Co., 27 Cal.4th 516, 530-33, 117 Cal.Rptr.2d 220, 41 P.3d 46 (2002) (interpreting similar language). The language of the statute indicating that interest under § 16441(a) is simple interest is buttressed by the legislative history. In 1990, the Probate Code was re-enacted in its entirety, at which time the entire Law Revision Commission explicitly stated that interest under § 16441(a) was simple and not compounded. See 20 CLRCR 1939 (1990). Accordingly, the district [1138]*1138court was correct in holding that the interest awarded must be simple interest.

Disgorgement. The elementary-rule of restitution is that if you take my money and make money with it, your profit belongs to me. See American Law Institute, Restatement of Restitution § 1 (1937). The district court obscured this rule in two ways. First, the court relied on Probate Code § 16004, which reads:

(c) A transaction between the beneficiary which occurs during the existence of the trust or while the trustee’s influence with the beneficiary remains and by which the trustee obtains an advantage from the beneficiary is presumed to be a violation of the trustee’s fiduciary duties. This presumption is a - presumption affecting the burden of proof.

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