Schoenholtz v. Doniger

112 F.R.D. 110
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided August 28, 1986·No. No. 83 Civ. 2740 (IBC)·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION

IRVING BEN COOPER, District Judge.

Plaintiff brought this action alleging that defendants breached fiduciary duties to two employee retirement plans (“the Plans”) at the Rye Psychiatric Hospital Center (“the Hospital”) in Rye, New York in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq. This Court’s opinion with respect to liability in favor of plaintiff and against each defendant, written in the form of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, was filed February 14, 1986, 628 F.Supp. 1420 (S.D.N.Y.1986). Our determination on the question of damages, fully addressed at the trial on November 14, 1984, has not yet been rendered. In their instant application defendants move to reopen and supplement the record on the damages issue pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 59. Plaintiff opposes the motion.

Defendants refer to page 1431 of our Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in support of the instant application. It states in relevant part:

Insufficient material has been submitted to enable us to determine the reasonable value of damages herein, especially in light of the recent determination by the New York Court of Appeals in In the Matter of Rye Psychiatric Hospital Center, Inc., [No. 522, slip op. (N.Y., November 19, 1985)] supra [66 N.Y.2d 333, 497 N.Y.S.2d 317, 488 N.E.2d 63]. Accordingly, we follow a practice our Court has successfully employed for a long time: We direct the parties to endeavor to agree on a reasonable and proper amount of damages, then to provide us with a proposed form of judgment, including such amount agreed upon. If no agreement hereon is arrived at within 60 days from the filing date of this opinion, the parties are directed to serve and file comprehensive and meticulously prepared memoranda of law on the issue of damages, including attorneys’ fees and punitive damages.

The New York Court of Appeals filed its opinion in In the Matter of Rye Psychiatric Hospital Center, Inc., supra, on November 19, 1985, approximately one year after the trial in the instant matter and three months before our Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law were filed. That opinion resolved a long-standing dispute regarding corporate matters at no time before us.

On December 3, 1985, we received a hand-delivered letter from counsel for plaintiff, Frederick A. Nicoll, Esq., which stated, inter alia, that certain actions were taken in the wake of the determination by the New York Court of Appeals. The letter further noted that “[t]hese actions have terminated that portion of the continuing loss to the Plans which has resulted from their inability to purchase the remaining Series 1981 shares.”

[112]*112In view of the fact that plaintiff had maintained before, during and after trial that the losses claimed by the Plans were continuing, we determined that fuller explanation of the change in the claim for damages was appropriate. This was the sole basis of our statement (at page 1431 of the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law) that “the parties are directed to serve and file comprehensive and meticulously prepared memoranda of law on the issue of damages____” In short, we sought to learn from counsel the extent, if any, the claim for damages before us had been affected by the decision of the New York Court of Appeals and subsequent action taken by the Hospital and the Plans.

According to defendants, granting the instant application would afford plaintiff the opportunity to cure insufficiencies in the record and would provide defendants the opportunity to further demonstrate the harm to Plan beneficiaries of investment in Hospital securities. Defendants propose to offer the testimony of a certified public accountant and in addition a “professional fiduciary” addressed to the prudency of the investment of the Plans in Hospital securities, the appropriate valuation of those securities and the difference between the valuation and the Plans’ actual investments. (Defendants’ Memorandum of Law on the Issue of Damages and In Support of Their Motion to Reopen and Supplement the Record (“Defendants’ Memorandum”), at 44)

Plaintiff opposes the motion on the grounds that defendant misinterpreted our statement in the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law filed February 14, 1986; that the motion is untimely and would cause undue prejudice to the Plans. (Plaintiff’s Memorandum in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Reopen the Record and in Response to Their Memorandum on Damages (“Plaintiff’s Memorandum”), at 2, 5, 9-10)

Plaintiff contends that our statement on page 1430 (Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law) refers to our finding that defendants’ breaches continue to the present (Conclusion of Law K); that the trial evidence on damages only accounted for losses through March, 1984; and that the Plans do not seek damages beyond March, 1984. Accordingly, plaintiff asserts that no further evidence need be presented for our consideration.

Plaintiff notes that defendants have utterly failed to explain why the evidence defendants seek to introduce now — not recently discovered and clearly available at the time of trial — was not introduced at trial; that granting the motion of defendants would return this case to the pre-trial stage since plaintiff would be entitled to all pre-trial discovery of defendants’ proposed witnesses and all other proceedings flowing therefrom; and that the expense and burden to the Plans of granting the motion clearly outweighs any benefit to defendants.

THE LAW

Fed.R.Civ.P. 59 states in relevant part:

A new trial may be granted to all or any of the parties and on all or part of the issues ... in an action tried without a jury, for any of the reasons for which rehearings have heretofore been granted in suits in equity in the courts of the United States.

However, “[a] motion to reopen a case to take additional testimony ... while the court, in a non-jury case, has the case under advisement, is not a motion for a new trial under Rule 59.” 6A Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 59.07 (2d Ed.1986), at 59-30. Yet, as the case nears decision, “the similarity between the two motions becomes more pronounced.” Id. Accordingly, the instant motion will be addressed as a motion to reopen the record, not as a motion for a new trial.

An application seeking to reopen the record is addressed to the sound discretion of the Court. Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 331, 91 S.Ct. 795, 802, 28 L.Ed.2d 77 (1971); B.V. Bureau Wijsmuller v. United States, 702 F.2d 333, 341-42 (2d Cir.1983); Wash[113]*113ington Mobilization Committee v. Jefferson, 617 F.2d 848, 850-51 (D.C.Cir.1980).

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Schoenholtz v. Doniger, 112 F.R.D. 110 (S.D.N.Y. 1986).

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