Sandwich Chef of Texas, Inc. v. Reliance National Indemnity Insurance

202 F.R.D. 212, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17898, 2001 WL 945841
District Court, S.D. Texas·Decided August 8, 2001·No. No. CIV A H-98-1484·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

ORDER

HITTNER, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is the Motion to Sever Reliance’s Permissive Counterclaim filed by Plaintiff Sandwich Chef of Texas d/b/a Wall Street Deli (Document #417). Having considered the motion, submissions and applicable law, the Court determines that the motion should be granted.

Plaintiff Sandwich Chef of Texas d/b/a Wall Street Deli (“Wall Street”) filed suit against Defendant Reliance National Indemnity Insurance Company (“Reliance”) and other insurance companies, asserting that Defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968 (“RICO”). Wall Street seeks to recover RICO damages for itself and a proposed class of employers who purchased retrospectively rated workers’ compensation insurance in one or more of forty-four states and the District of Columbia.

On December 14, 2000, Defendant Reliance filed a counterclaim for breach of contract against Wall Street, alleging that Wall Street failed to pay workers’ compensation premiums as well as automobile and general liability insurance premiums. Wall Street subsequently filed a class action counterclaim to Reliance’s counterclaim, asserting claims for breach of contract and fraud based upon Reliance’s automobile and general liability insurance counterclaim.

Wall Street contemporaneously filed the instant motion to sever pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 21. Wall Street asks the Court to sever Reliance’s counterclaim (based on automobile and general liability insurance premiums) together with Wall Street’s class action counterclaim, as demonstrated below:

Pleading Claim Based Upon
Wall Street’s Original RICO Workers’ Compensation (scheme to defraud) Class Action Claim
Reliance’s Counterclaim Breach of Contract Workers’ Compensation (premiums)
4 Breach of Contract Automobile & General Liability Insurance (premiums)
Wall Street’s Class 4 Breach of Contract & Automobile & General Liability Insurance (deductibles) Action Counterclaim Fraud
* Claims that Wall Street seeks to sever in the instant motion.

The parties dispute whether Reliance’s counterclaim concerning alleged nonpayment of automobile and general liability insurance premiums is a compulsory counterclaim.1 Compulsory counterclaims are claims against an opposing party that arise out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the opposing party’s claim. FED. R. CIV. P. 13(a). In determining whether a claim is a compulsory counterclaim, courts should ask: (1) whether the issues of fact and law raised by the claim and c e: o o tl p t< n t< si 1: a: counterclaim are largely the same, (2) whether res judicata would bar a subsequent suit on defendant’s claim absent the compulsory counterclaim rule, (3) whether substantially the same evidence will support or refute plaintiffs claim as well as defendant’s counterclaim, and (4) whether there is any logical relationship between the claim and the counterclaim. E.g., Tank Insulation Int’l v. In-sultherm, Inc., 104 F.3d 83, 85-86 (5th Cir. 1997). If any question is answered in the affirmative, the counterclaim is compulsory. [215]*215Id. at 86. The Fifth Circuit follows the “logical relationship” inquiry, giving consideration to “whether the claim and counterclaim share an ‘aggregate of operative facts.’” E.g., New York Life Ins. Co. v. Deshotel, 142 F.3d 873, 882 (5th Cir.1998) (citing McDaniel v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 987 F.2d 298, 304 (5th Cir.1993)).

The Fifth Circuit employs a liberal test for determining whether counterclaims are compulsory, predicated on the policy that related disputes between parties should be settled in a single lawsuit. E.g., Plant v. Blazer Fin. Servs., Inc. of Georgia, 598 F.2d 1357, 1361 (5th Cir.1979); see also 6 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller and Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1410, p. 50 (2d ed.1990). However, “even the most liberal construction of the provision cannot operate to make a counterclaim that arises out of an entirely different or independent transaction or occurrence compulsory under Rule 13(a).” Wright Et Al. at § 1410, p. 51-52.

Wall Street argues in its motion to sever that “[ajlthough Reliance’s counterclaim concerning Wall Street’s alleged nonpayment of deductible automobile and general liability insurance premiums relates to insurance, it goes far beyond the narrow issue of fraudulent workers’ compensation billings alleged in Wall Street’s complaint. Simply put, the claims are not offshoots of the same controversy.” In response, Reliance contends that the pricing for Wall Street’s automobile, workers’ compensation, and general liability insurance was negotiated and sold in one transaction; thus, its counterclaim based on this single transaction constitutes a compulsory counterclaim.

In this ease, the transaction that is the subject matter of Wall Street’s RICO claim is different from the transaction relating to Reliance’s counterclaim for automobile and general liability insurance premiums. The transaction that forms the basis of Wall Street’s original claim is an alleged scheme by Defendants to defraud workers’ compensation policyholders. In contrast, Reliance’s counterclaim is based upon a transaction between Wall Street and Reliance involving the negotiation and pricing of Wall Street’s insurance policies. Although the Supreme Court has stated that the term “transaction” is a word of flexible meaning, e.g., Moore v. New York Cotton Exchange, 270 U.S. 593, 46 S.Ct. 367, 70 L.Ed. 750 (1926), in this case the transaction at the core of Wall Street’s RICO claim is unrelated to the transaction concerning Reliance’s breach of contract counterclaim.2

The Court also notes that Wall Street’s original claim and Reliance’s counterclaim do not arise from the same aggregate of operative facts. First, there are significant factual distinctions between the workers’ compensation policies, which form the basis of Wall Street’s RICO claim, and the automobile and general liability insurance policies, which form the basis of Reliance’s counterclaim.3 Second, Wall Street’s original claim is based on an entirely different legal theory than Reliance’s counterclaim — i.e., RICO versus breach of contract. Third, the negotiation of insurance premiums is not at issue in Wall Street’s RICO claim. Wall Street’s original claim is based upon the Defendants’ alleged inflation of residual market subsidies that were fixed by filed rates, not upon Defendants’ negotiation of the insurance policies and resulting premium payments.

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Sandwich Chef of Texas, Inc. v. Reliance National Indemnity Insurance, 202 F.R.D. 212, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17898, 2001 WL 945841 (S.D. Tex. 2001).

202 F.R.D. 212 (Sandwich Chef of Texas, Inc. v. Reliance National Indemnity Insurance) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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