Otto v. Variable Annuity Life Insurance

107 F.R.D. 635
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided August 2, 1985·No. No. 82 C 4762·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

ASPEN, District Judge:

Plaintiffs second motion to reconsider and for leave to amend her complaint is denied.

On April 11, 1985, the Court, 611 F.Supp. 83, granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Counts I and II and dismissed the remainder of plaintiff’s amended complaint. Plaintiff filed her first motions for reconsideration and for leave to file a second amended complaint on April 19, 1985. However, plaintiff filed no proposed second amended complaint at that time. On April 26, 1985, the Court denied plaintiff’s motions.

Plaintiff filed the motion now before the Court, her second motion to reconsider and for leave to amend the complaint (along with a copy of the proposed pleading), on May 10, 1985. She also filed that day a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from the final judgment entered on April 11, 1985, and the order of April 26, 1985 — the two rulings she asks this Court to reconsider.

A.

We first note that although plaintiff claims that her motion comes under Fed.R. Civ.P. 60(b), it is properly viewed as a motion to alter or amend a judgment as al[637]*637lowed under Rule 59(e). Plaintiff essentially asks this Court to correct errors of law; this is not the type of “mistake” referred to in Rule 60(b) but falls within the scope of Rule 59(e). See, e.g., United States Labor Party v. Oremus, 619 F.2d 683, 687 (7th Cir.1980); Dove v. Codesco, 569 F.2d 807, 809 (4th Cir.1978).1

Motions under Rule 59(e) must be filed within ten days after entry of judgment, and district courts may not extend this deadline. Textile Banking Co., Inc. v. Rentschler, 657 F.2d 844, 849 (7th Cir.1981). However, plaintiff did not file her second motion to reconsider within ten days — it came twenty-nine days after the Court’s April 11 decision and fourteen days after the April 26 ruling. On this basis alone, plaintiff’s motion must be denied.

B.

Defendants also argue that plaintiff’s motion should be denied because she divested this Court of jurisdiction over the matter when she filed her notice of appeal on May 10, 1985. In general, the filing of an appeal vests jurisdiction in the court of appeals, and further proceedings in the district court cannot take place without leave of the appellate court. Asher v. Harrington, 461 F.2d 890, 895 (7th Cir.1972). In this case, the Seventh Circuit has ordered that briefing in plaintiff’s appeal shall be held in abeyance pending further order of the Court of Appeals, and that plaintiff’s counsel is to report to the Seventh Circuit as to this Court’s ruling on plaintiff’s motion to reconsider. This order might be construed as granting (though not explicitly) this Court leave to proceed further in deciding plaintiff’s motion on the merits. More likely, the Seventh Circuit’s order expresses no opinion on the question and leaves it to this Court to decide whether or not it has jurisdiction over plaintiff’s mo-' tion any longer. If the latter be the case, we agree with defendants that plaintiff’s appeal has vested jurisdiction solely in the Seventh Circuit.

Under Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(4), a notice of appeal has no effect if it is filed before disposition of a timely post-trial motion (including one under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59). However, as explained in Part A above, plaintiff’s motion was not timely — it was filed more than ten days after the entry of judgment. See 6A J. Moore, Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 59.13[3] (2d ed. 1984). Plaintiff’s notice of appeal is therefore effective and divests the Court of jurisdiction.

Moreover, the pending motion seeks reconsideration of the Court’s order denying plaintiff’s first motion to reconsider. A second motion to reconsider should not be deemed a timely Rule 59 motion, even if filed within ten days (which is not the case here). 9 J. Moore, Moore’s Federal Practice It 204.12[1] (2d ed. 1985) (“Both the text and purpose of Rule 4(a)(4) indicate that it is an original motion of the types specified that postpones appeal until after disposition of the motion and the running of the time for appeal is not further extended by a motion to reconsider an order disposing of the motion____”) (footnote omitted and emphasis in original). Because plaintiff filed an effective appeal, her second motion to reconsider must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

C.

Even if plaintiff’s motion were timely and this Court had not been divested of jurisdiction by plaintiff’s notice of appeal, the motion should be denied. Nothing in plaintiff’s motion or memoranda convinces us that our earlier rulings were in error.

Our decision that the fixed annuity in this case should not be deemed a security is not contradicted by the Seventh Circuit’s holding in Hunssinger v. Rockford Business Credits, Inc., 745 F.2d 484 (7th Cir.1984). Hunssinger involved the pur[638]*638chase of notes by a profit sharing trust, not the purchase of a fixed annuity. This distinction is significant: “note” is the first term listed in the statutory definition of security, 15 U.S.C. § 78c(a)(10), while an “annuity contract” issued by a regulated insurance company is considered to be an exempted security, 15 U.S.C. § 77c(a)(8).2 Moreover, the Seventh Circuit’s decision was based on the repeated reference to the note as an investment and on the district court’s failure to look beyond the document and consider the facts surrounding the promotion and purchase. Contrary to plaintiff’s assertion, this Court did indeed consider “what character the instrument is given in commerce by the terms of the offer, the plan of distribution, and the economic inducements held out to the prospect,” SEC v. United Benefit Life Insurance Co., 387 U.S. 202, 211, 87 S.Ct. 1557, 1562, 18 L.Ed.2d 673 (1967), in deciding that defendants’ fixed annuity was more akin to an insurance product than an investment contract.

Plaintiff’s contention concerning her ER-ISA count merits little response. She cites no authority supporting her claim that our holding necessarily affects the tax deductibility of payments for the fixed annuity, and we do not see the logic of her position.

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Otto v. Variable Annuity Life Insurance, 107 F.R.D. 635 (N.D. Ill. 1985).

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