NUNALLY v. MORRIS

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedAugust 7, 2020
Docket1:19-cv-02568
StatusUnknown

This text of NUNALLY v. MORRIS (NUNALLY v. MORRIS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NUNALLY v. MORRIS, (S.D. Ind. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION

MICHAEL S. NUNALLY, ) MARLA L. NUNALLY, ) MARLA NUNALLY, LLC, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) No. 1:19-cv-02568-JRS-TAB ) CLAYTON MORRIS, ) MORRIS INVEST, LLC, ) NICOLE MECKLEY, ) LINZI DEL CONTE, ) DAVE KOEHN, ) BLUE SKY PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, ) LLC, ) PAM STRICKLAND, ) STEVE ROGERS, ) KATE FREDERICO, ) ) Defendants. )

Order on Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 20)

Invoking this Court's diversity jurisdiction, Plaintiffs Michael S. Nunally, Marla L. Nunally, and Marla Nunally, LLC ("Nunally" or "Plaintiffs") bring various com- mon-law claims against Clayton Morris, Morris Invest, LLC, Nicole Meckley, Linzi Del Conte, Dave Koehn, Blue Sky Property Management, LLC ("Blue Sky"), Pam Strickland, Steve Rogers, and Kate Frederico (collectively, "Defendants"). (Am. Compl., ECF No. 10.) Marla Nunally, LLC, an entity owned by Michael and Marla Nunally, purchased several homes in Indianapolis from Defendants. Plaintiffs pur- chased the homes as investment properties, intending to lease them and collect rent. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants failed to fulfill their obligations by not rehabilitating the properties, not marketing the properties to prospective tenants, not generating rent from the properties, and not managing the properties, leaving Plaintiffs with uninhabitable homes. Nunally brings the following claims: breach of contract, fraud,

fraud in the inducement, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, and offense against properties. All Defendants except for Steve Rogers now move to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. For the following reasons, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 20) is denied in part and granted in part.

I. Background1

Plaintiffs' Corrected First Amended Complaint ("Amended Complaint") alleges that Clayton Morris and Morris Invest are engaged in the business of recruiting real estate investors from outside the State of Indiana to purchase real estate within In- diana. (Compl., ECF No. 10 at 5.) Clayton Morris, through Morris Invest, advertises himself and Morris Invest as real estate investors and offers courses on real estate investment in order to solicit potential investors. (Id.) Through Morris Invest, Clay- ton Morris, Nicole Meckley, Linzi Del Conte, and Dave Koehn presented several prop- erties to Plaintiffs and marketed property management services as part of the pur- chase of the homes, including rehabilitation of the properties, marketing the proper- ties to prospective tenants, rent generation, and management of the properties. (Id.) Plaintiffs also allege that Blue Sky, Pam Strickland, Steve Rogers, and Kate Federico

1 Consistent with the Rule 12(b)(6) standard, Plaintiff's non-conclusory allegations are taken as true for purposes of Defendants’ motion to dismiss. recruited real estate investors and presented real estate investment opportunities to investors, including Plaintiffs. (Id.) On October 2, 2017,2 Nunally purchased the following properties in Indianapolis,

Indiana: • 2951 North Euclid Avenue • 3026 North Gale Street • 2052 Nolan Avenue • 3116 North Colorado Avenue • 441 North Rural Street • 3260 North Emerson Avenue • 3345 North Tacoma Avenue • 3025 Ethel Avenue • 3436 North Chester Avenue • 3610 East Vermont Street

(ECF Nos. 10-1–10; ECF No. 21-1–3.)3 On October 3, 2017, Nunally purchased the property located at 2953 North Euclid Avenue. (ECF No. 10-11.) Nunally alleges it purchased a property located at 3136 Station Street but clarifies in its Response Brief that this purchase was never completed. (ECF No. 24 at 3 n.4.) Additionally, Nunally listed, in the "Jurisdiction, Venue, and Parties" section of its Amended Complaint, a property located at 2406 Wheeler Avenue, but did not include this property in its

2 Although Plaintiffs allege that these properties were purchased on September 18, 2017, and some of the Purchase Agreements were signed on September 18, 2017, the HUD Closing Statements and Warranty Deeds were signed on October 2, 2017.

3 The Court may consider the Purchase Agreements, HUD Closing Statements, and Warranty Deeds attached to Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint and Defendants' Motion to Dismiss in rul- ing on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss. See Fed. R. Civ. Pr. 10(c) ("A copy of a written instru- ment that is an exhibit to a pleading is a part of the pleading for all purposes."); McCready v. eBay, Inc., 453 F.3d 882, 891 (7th Cir. 2006) ("[D]ocuments attached to a motion to dismiss are considered part of the pleadings if they are referred to in the plaintiff’s complaint and are central to his claim.") factual allegations or include a purchase agreement for this property. (Am. Compl. ¶ 22(I), ECF No. 10.) Plaintiffs allege that Defendants represented that the properties were being sold

by Defendants, that Defendants would rehabilitate the properties, that Defendants would market the properties to prospective tenants, and that Defendants would man- age the properties. (Am. Compl., ECF No. 10 at 6.) Defendants represented that the Plaintiffs were purchasing "turn-key" real estate investment properties. (Id.) These properties were never rehabilitated, nor did they generate any rental income for Plaintiffs. (Id. at 10.)

On each of the Purchase Agreements for the properties purchased by Nunally, Clayton Morris signed his name under "Seller's Signature". (ECF Nos. 10-1–10; ECF No. 21-1–3.) However, the HUD Closing Statements and Warranty Deeds list "Oceanpointe Investments" as the seller of the properties. (Id.) Natalie Bastin signed these documents as a member of Oceanpointe Investments. (Id.) The Purchase Agreements state: "The purchase price listed above includes new construction on this property. The seller agrees to rehab this property to rent ready

condition." (ECF Nos. 10-1–11 at 5; ECF No. 21-1 at 5.) The Agreement does not contain any terms referencing marketing the properties to prospective tenants, rent generation, or management of the properties.

II. Legal Standard To survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, a plaintiff must allege "enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). In considering a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss,

the court takes the complaint's factual allegations as true and draws all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. Orgone Capital III, LLC v. Daubenspeck, 912 F.3d 1039, 1044 (7th Cir. 2019). The Court need not "accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation." Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286 (1986). "[I]f a plaintiff pleads facts that show its suit [is] barred . . . , it may plead itself out of court under a Rule 12(b)(6) analysis." Orgone Capital, 912 F.3d at 1044 (quot-

ing Whirlpool Fin. Corp. v. GN Holdings, Inc., 67 F.3d 605, 608 (7th Cir. 1995)); Bogie v. Rosenberg, 705 F.3d 603, 609 (7th Cir. 2013) (quoting Hamilton v. O’Leary, 976 F.2d 341, 343 (7th Cir.

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