Pratt v. Kross

555 P.2d 765, 276 Or. 483, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 613
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 21, 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 555 P.2d 765 (Pratt v. Kross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pratt v. Kross, 555 P.2d 765, 276 Or. 483, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 613 (Or. 1976).

Opinions

[485]*485HOLMAN, J.

Plaintiff brought an action for fraud under ORS 59.115(l)(b) of the Oregon Securities Law. Defendant’s demurrer to the complaint, which was based upon failure to allege a cause of action, was sustained and plaintiff appealed from an order of dismissal which resulted from her failure to plead further.

Plaintiff’s action was to recover a $15,000 investment she made as a limited partner in a business operated by defendant. The court sustained the demurrer on the specific ground that an ordinary limited partnership interest is not a security under the Oregon Securities Law, and whether this ruling is correct is the principal issue upon appeal.

The partnership agreement is set out as part of plaintiff’s complaint. It provides that the parties form a limited partnership to engage in the business of operating and managing a promotional management company with defendant as a general partner and plaintiff as the limited partner. Plaintiff’s payment to defendant was variously described as "consideration,” "contribution,” and "capital contribution.” Profits and losses were to be apportioned between the parties with plaintiff’s losses limited to her contribution. Plaintiff was to be an employee of the partnership, and for her unspecified duties she was to be paid a salary of $1,200 a month. Defendant was to receive a "management fee” of $1,800 a month and was to have full charge of the management, conduct and operation of the business. The agreement provides that defendant will not be responsible for the return of plaintiff’s contribution but that any such return will be made solely from the partnership assets. The agreement does not provide when or under what circumstances such a return should be made. The agreement was for an indefinite term. As a whole, the agreement generally follows the form set out in Advising Oregon Business, Oregon State Bar CLE § 11.19 (1971).

Plaintiff alleges defendant approached plaintiff [486]*486with the proposal and, by false representations which are specifically alleged, induced plaintiff to agree to and to make her investment in the capital of the business. Six months after plaintiff paid the money she tendered the return of the agreement and demanded the return of her investment.

At the time of this transaction almost all fraud provisions of securities acts, including the uniform act and the federal act, are substantially the same. In commencing a discussion whether the transaction involved a security within the meaning of the fraud provision, it must be kept in mind that this problem is not related to a determination whether a security is required to be registered or approved administratively prior to sale. The following is a relevant statement from Coffey, The Economic Realities of a ’’Security”: Is There a More Meaningful Formula?, 18 W Res L Rev 367, 371-72 (1967):

"The considerations involved in determining whether a particular device or transaction is a security are not coextensive with the considerations used to determine whether full disclosure (by way of registration) or administrative approval should be required. This is evident because the statutes are written so that the residual but substantial protection of the anti-fraud provisions persists notwithstanding the applicability of an exemption from registration or state approval. It is improper to equate the question of whether an arrangement constitutes a security with the question of whether the registration or approval philosophies should be invoked. To do so automatically excludes from the definition of 'security’ those transactions which possess enough troublesome characteristics to require liberal anti-fraud protection but which also involve enough balancing safeguards (or few enough additional worrisome characteristics) to eliminate the need for registration and state approval. For example, it cannot be said that an arrangement is not a security just because it is offered to only a few fully informed and sophisticated buyers so as to be exempt from registration or state approval. By their structure, the securities laws clearly imply that the features of a transaction which dictate [487]*487the requirement for registration or state approval are distinct from, and in addition to, the criteria employed in deciding the prior and more basic question of security vel non.” (Footnotes omitted.)

There is no doubt that the Oregon statute is in line with this statement. A 1967 amendment1 was drafted by the Oregon State Bar Committee on Corporation and Partnership Law. The Committee’s report2 made it clear that it was the intention of the amendment that securities and transactions which were classified as exempt from registration would still be subject to the fraud provision.3

The definition of a "security,” which substantially parallels the definition in most other acts, is encompassed within ORS 59.015(13)(a):

" 'Security’ means a note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in a pension plan or profit-sharing agreement, collateral-trust certificate, preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit for a security, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such title or lease, or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a 'security,’ or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificates for, receipt for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase any of the foregoing.” (Emphasis added.)

Limited partnerships are neither specifically included nor excluded therefrom. Plaintiff contends the present transaction is an investment contract. Without holding that a limited partnership agreement is necessar[488]*488ily a security, this court has held in the past that such an agreement may be a security. In State v. Whiteaker et al, 118 Or 656, 247 P 1077 (1926), it held that instruments reciting payment for "units of interest” in a partnership not yet organized where control was to be retained by the selling partner were securities for the purpose of licensing. In State v. Simons and Blanchard, 193 Or 274, 238 P2d 247 (1951), it held that preorganization subscriptions in a limited partnership were investment contracts and securities for the purpose of registration. Apparently in response to an argument that the Act should be construed so as not to apply to a limited partnership transaction, the court said, 193 Or at 291:

"* * * The weakness of the argument lies in the fact that we are not considering the actions of a group of persons voluntarily associated together in a joint venture, but rather a sale of securities to persons indiscriminately selected and having no bond of union other than the fact that they had money and the gambling instinct. * * * ”

It further said at 193 Or 291-92:

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Bluebook (online)
555 P.2d 765, 276 Or. 483, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pratt-v-kross-or-1976.