Scalp & Blade, Inc. v. Advest, Inc.

309 A.D.2d 219, 765 N.Y.S.2d 92, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10031
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedOctober 2, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 309 A.D.2d 219 (Scalp & Blade, Inc. v. Advest, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scalp & Blade, Inc. v. Advest, Inc., 309 A.D.2d 219, 765 N.Y.S.2d 92, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10031 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Kehoe, J.

Plaintiffs commenced this action against defendants, an investment advisor/securities broker and his firm, seeking damages for defendants’ alleged mismanagement of plaintiffs’ trust fund or account, including alleged “churning” of the fund and investment of it in a manner unsuited to plaintiffs’ needs and purposes. On this appeal by plaintiffs, we address the appeal-ability and propriety of “an order in limine precluding plaintiffs from offering proof of additional profits [that] they claim their account would have earned if it had been invested in alternative securities, the performance of which they claim would have tracked the S&P 500 or other market indices.” We conclude that the order is appealable as of right and that plaintiffs are not precluded as a matter of law from recovering “market index” or other “lost profit” or “lost appreciation” damages.

I

Our recitation of the facts is based on the record now before us as well as the records underlying two prior appeals to this Court (Scalp & Blade v Advest, Inc., 300 AD2d 1068 [2002]; Scalp & Blade v Advest, Inc., 281 AD2d 882 [2001]). Plaintiff Scalp & Blade, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, administers a college scholarship program funded with the income and other [221]*221gains from a certain trust fund (fund) held in the form of an investment account. Plaintiff Scalp & Blade Scholarship Association, an unincorporated educational and charitable association comprised of the directors and officers of the corporation, oversees the proper maintenance and investment of the fund. The fund is governed by a Board of Trustees (Board). Defendant Robert J. Franger is an investment advisor and registered securities broker. At all relevant times, Franger was an officer and employee of defendant Advest, Inc. (Advest), a brokerage firm, simultaneously serving not only as investment advisor/broker to the fund’s Board, but also as a member of the Board and its investment committee. Around 1986, Franger became the “financial advisor and account representative” for plaintiffs and thereafter made investment decisions concerning the fund, including whether to purchase and sell securities for the fund. Franger allegedly carried out those responsibilities in the course of his employment with Advest, under the supervision of his superiors in the firm.

According to plaintiffs, during the initial years of Fr anger’s management of the fund, its assets were appropriately invested in a diversified mix of high-grade securities. However, plaintiffs allege that, beginning in 1995 and continuing throughout the rest of Fr anger’s tenure as plaintiffs’ financial advisor and account representative (i.e., until plaintiffs terminated that relationship in May 1998), Franger failed to diversify his investments of the fund’s assets and “engaged in an excessive number of transactions in speculative and risky investments that were completely unsuitable for Plaintiffs and their investment objectives.” Plaintiffs allege that Franger, trading as he saw fit, made numerous and frequent short-term trades resulting in financial losses and at one juncture had about 65% of the fund invested in three high-tech, small-cap stocks. Plaintiffs further allege that defendants failed to file paperwork properly earmarking the fund as a “discretionary account,” leading to a failure to subject the fund to the close scrutiny typically given to such accounts. In addition, plaintiffs allege that both the frequency of Fr anger’s reporting to plaintiffs and the level of detail provided diminished drastically beginning in 1995, with Franger thereafter concealing both the level of his trading activity and which particular securities he had purchased or sold. Plaintiffs allege that, as a consequence of defendants’ actions, the value of the fund fell from $205,000 to $106,000 between January 1996 and May 1998, a period during which more suitable and prudent investment of the fund, as mea[222]*222sured by the S&P 500 index, would have increased the fund’s value to over $400,000.

II

The second amended complaint alleges that Fr anger is liable for defalcations committed by him both as “the financial advisor and account representative for” the fund and as a member of the Board. Advest is alleged to be liable on theories of respondeat superior and failure to supervise Fr anger. The second amended complaint asserts six causes of action, including breach of Franger’s duties as trustee under EPTL 11-2.3 (a); breach of contract by both defendants; fraudulent misrepresentation by Franger; negligence on the part of Fr anger; negligence on the part of Advest; and the violation of General Business Law § 349 by both defendants. Plaintiffs seek $330,000 in compensatory damages, punitive damages, disgorgement of defendants’ gains, and counsel fees.

III

Just before the scheduled start of trial, defendants moved in limine to preclude plaintiffs “from offering proof of additional profits they claim their account would have earned if it had been invested in alternative securities, the performance of which they claim would have tracked the S&P 500 or other market indices, on the ground that any award of damages based on such proof would be contrary to the law governing plaintiffs’ claims.” While conceding the existence of federal authority supporting plaintiffs’ demand for lost appreciation damages, defendants argued that, under New York law, the only proper and nonspeculative measure of damages is the value of the capital actually lost by plaintiffs, plus interest. For that proposition, defendants cited Matter of Janes (90 NY2d 41 [1997], rearg denied 90 NY2d 885 [1997]).

Plaintiffs opposed the motion, asserting their right to seek recovery of market index damages and protesting any limitation of their recovery to the difference between the relevant beginning value of the fund ($205,000 in January 1996) and its value when defendants were removed from control over it ($106,000 in May 1998). Plaintiffs sought to distinguish Janes and instead cited Matter of Rothko (43 NY2d 305 [1977]) in support of their request for such damages.

Supreme Court ordered that “defendants’ motion for an order in limine precluding plaintiffs from offering proof of additional profits they claim their account would have earned if it [223]*223had been invested in alternative securities, the performance of which they claim would have tracked the S&P 500 or other market indices, is hereby granted, and plaintiffs are precluded from offering such evidence at trial based on” Janes. Plaintiffs appeal from that part of an order that, upon reargument, adhered to the prior order precluding them from offering proof of market index damages.

IV

We address first the issue of appealability. Defendants cite the oft-repeated propositions that “no appeal lies from an order adjudicating in advance of trial the admissibility of evidence” (Vesperman v Wormser, 283 AD2d 637, 638 [2001]; see Rondout Elec. v Dover Union Free School Dist., 304 AD2d 808, 810 [2003]; Chateau Rive Corp. v Enclave Dev. Assoc., 283 AD2d 537 [2001]; Brennan v Mabey’s Moving & Stor., 226 AD2d 938 [1996]), and that such an evidentiary ruling, “even when made * * on motion papers constitutes, at best, an advisory opinion which is neither appealable as of right nor by permission’ (Cotgreave v Public Adm’r of Imperial County,

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Bluebook (online)
309 A.D.2d 219, 765 N.Y.S.2d 92, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10031, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scalp-blade-inc-v-advest-inc-nyappdiv-2003.