Peabody v. Davis

636 F.3d 368, 51 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1462, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 7449, 2011 WL 1364427
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 2011
Docket09-3428, 09-3452, 09-3497, 10-1851, 10-2079, 10-2091
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 636 F.3d 368 (Peabody v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peabody v. Davis, 636 F.3d 368, 51 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1462, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 7449, 2011 WL 1364427 (7th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge.

In this case, the Rock Island Corporation, its subsidiary, its Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan and the plan’s trustees, Andrew Davis and Robyn Kole, all defendants, appeal from the district court’s judgment that they breached their fiduciary duty in managing the Plan. Plaintiff John F. Peabody cross-appeals from the finding that he lacked standing to recover from the Plan’s insurers. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the finding of liability, affirm the court’s finding that Peabody lacks standing to sue the insurance defendants and remand for reconsideration of damages.

I. Facts and Procedural History

A. Background

This case arises from Peabody’s employment with Rock Island Corporation (RIC), through which he became a participant in the company’s ERISA Plan. 1 RIC was a securities firm based in Chicago, and had a subsidiary, Rock Island Securities (RIS). RIC was a closely-held corporation with several dozen shareholders, and RIS, its subsidiary, was the sponsor of the corporation’s ERISA Plan. Defendants Davis and Kole were the corporation’s co-founders. They served as corporate officers of RIC and as trustees and fiduciaries of RIS’s ERISA Plan.

Peabody joined RIC in 1998 as a vice president for “strategic technology and arbitrage.” In 1999, Peabody first invested *371 in the ERISA Plan. He did so because making the investment allowed him to receive his 1999 bonus, as he desired, in cash instead of stock. Specifically, Peabody and the RIC management agreed that if he rolled over his external IRA into RIC’s Plan, he could receive a cash bonus instead of receiving RIC stock consistent with the company’s ordinary practice. Therefore, Peabody rolled over outside investments totaling $167,819, of which $166,000 was used to purchase shares of RIC stock. In return, he received a 1999 cash bonus of more than $212,000. This left Peabody’s account 98% invested in RIC stock, while the next greatest concentration in any other employee’s account was approximately 5%.

Because RIC was a closely-held corporation, there was no market to indicate the value of the company’s stock; instead, valuation of the RIC stock required an analysis of the company’s financial data. Davis and Kole issued valuation statements for the stock periodically. When Peabody initially purchased company stock in the 1999 rollover transaction, it was priced at $2,000 per share. In April of 2000, there was a ten-to-one stock split. In December of 2000, the RIC stock was valued at $757 per share by an outside financial analyst. In 2001 Peabody purchased five additional RIC shares at a value of $500 per share. A benefit statement in December of 2001 valued the stock at $625 per share. A 2004 statement valued it at $550 per share.

Peabody’s employment with RIC ended in January of 2004. When he requested his benefits under the Plan, the company responded by giving him several choices: he could redeem his 835 RIC shares immediately for $215 per share, redeem them in 2005 for $300 per share or redeem them in 2007 for $400 per share. Not satisfied with any of these options, in April of 2004, Peabody entered into a loan agreement with RIC. Specifically, RIC agreed to purchase all of his RIC stock, in consideration of RIC’s agreeing to pay Peabody $350 per share in one year. The total amount of the loan was $292,250 plus interest. This transaction was in effect the transformation of Peabody’s equity interest in RIC, provided by the stock, into a creditor’s interest, provided by the loan. When the time came for payment on the loan, RIC informed Peabody that it would be unable to pay. On March 18, 2005 Peabody formally demanded the distribution to him of his Plan benefit and was told that the loan proceeds could not be repaid. Sometime in 2005, RIC went out of business. 2

From 1997 to 2003, the Plan maintained a commercial crime policy for which insurance defendant Liberty Mutual is now responsible. 3 From February 22, 2003 to 2006, the Plan held commercial crime coverage provided by insurance defendant Hanover Insurance Company. Both these policies insured the Plan against employee dishonesty.

On August 31, 2005, Peabody filed a 27-count complaint. He alleged multiple theories of fiduciary breach against the Plan defendants, and also argued that he was entitled to recover damages from the insurance defendants. In September 2006, he notified the insurance defendants of a potential claim against them under the dishonesty bonds. In October, he named *372 them as defendants in an amended complaint.

B. Procedural History

The district court conducted a bench trial in July 2007 and in September 2009 issued a memorandum opinion holding Davis, Kole and RIS liable to Peabody. Initially, the court rejected Peabody’s argument that the defendants violated the Plan terms or breached their fiduciary duties by allowing the initial rollover transaction — Peabody had “arguably” waived any such argument by agreeing to the transaction. Along the same lines, the court held that the defendants had not violated their duty to diversify the Plan assets, reasoning that Peabody had “knowing[ly] and voluntar[ily]” waived this claim at the time of the rollover transaction. But the court held that the defendants violated their fiduciary duty of prudence by maintaining the investment in RIC stock throughout RIC’s decline, and also by failing to distribute Peabody’s Plan benefit. The court found fiduciary breaches under several additional theories not material here.

As to the loan-for-stock transaction, the district court ruled that Davis (but not Kole) had breached his fiduciary duty by offering only a loan in payment for the RIC stock and further, that this exchange constituted a “prohibited transaction” under ERISA § 406(a)(1)(B).

The district court rejected Peabody’s argument that the parent company, RIC, was liable, stating: “RIC is not a fiduciary of the Plan and all claims against it in the instant action are disregarded.”

As to the insurance defendants, the district court concluded that Peabody lacked standing to press a claim on behalf of the Plan. The court reasoned that Peabody could not sustain his claim under § 502(a)(1)(B) or § 502(a)(2) because the insurers were not proper defendants. The court rejected Peabody’s argument that he could recover in equity under § 502(a)(3) because he sought money damages, not equitable relief.

The district court struck Peabody’s expert witness on RIC stock valuation because of Peabody’s noncompliance with discovery rules. But the court nevertheless awarded damages. Although Peabody had not offered evidence of damages as to each theory of liability, the court determined that there was evidence with respect to the breach of the duty of prudence between 2001 and 2003, based on the relatively rapid decline in profitability of RIC in that period. Therefore, the court calculated damages on the basis of that breach. The court accepted that the value of Peabody’s shares was at least $500 in 2001, because this was the price at which the Plan purchased five RIC shares for Peabody’s account in 2001.

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Bluebook (online)
636 F.3d 368, 51 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1462, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 7449, 2011 WL 1364427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peabody-v-davis-ca7-2011.