Seiffer v. Topsy's International, Inc.

64 F.R.D. 714, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1328, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7852
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJune 27, 1974
DocketCiv. A. No. KC-3455
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 64 F.R.D. 714 (Seiffer v. Topsy's International, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seiffer v. Topsy's International, Inc., 64 F.R.D. 714, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1328, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7852 (D. Kan. 1974).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

O’CONNOR, District Judge.

Plaintiffs filed their original complaint alleging certain securities act violations, both federal and state, on November 11, 1971. Since that time, plaintiffs have filed several amended complaints, additional parties defendant have been added, cross-claims and third-party complaints have been filed, and extensive discovery has been conducted. All of this is by way of prefacing the issue we reach here: whether or not the plaintiffs should be allowed to maintain this action as a class action pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The court has already denied a motion for an order declaring this action not a class action. (Memorandum and Order of October 2, 1972, p. 8.) Our ruling was conditioned upon (1) a showing that plaintiffs’ discovery of the alleged fraud is consistent with the requisite diligence; and (2) assuming such a showing is made, that plaintiffs amend their complaint to define clearly and with particularity the class of plaintiffs they seek to represent. We believe that the amendments to plaintiffs’ complaint have satisfied the second condition; hence, we now turn to consider the due diligence issue.

Plaintiffs essentially allege that defendants participated in a scheme to defraud the class they seek to represent in violation of § 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)] and of § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. § 78j(b)] and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder (17 C.F.R § 240.10b-5). We have already determined that the statute of limitations in this private suit for damages under Rule 10b-5 is the Kansas statute of limitations for fraud, K.S.A. 60-513(3), which provides for a two-year period from the date of discovery of the fraud. (Memorandum and Order of October 2, 1972, p. 7.) But the federal tolling doctrine applies in the determination of when plaintiffs, in the exercise of due diligence should have discovered the alleged fraud. Esplin v. Hirschi, 402 F.2d 94 (10th Cir. 1968); deHaas v. Empire Petroleum Company, 435 F.2d 1223 (10th Cir. 1970). It requires no restatement of the alleged facts of this case and of the relationship of the parties for this court to determine that this is an issue for the trier of fact. Seldom is it possible for such an issue to be determined summarily. Dzenits v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 494 F.2d 168 (10th Cir. 1974). The court is therefore satisfied that the conditions previously imposed have been met insofar as is possible at this time. Our [717]*717ruling in this regard is applicable to defendant Touche, Ross & Company even though it was not joined as a defendant until October 17, 1973, when plaintiffs’ third amended complaint was filed.

In addition to the conditions imposed by the court, Rule 23 establishes several prerequisites for the maintenance of a class action. Firstly, the alleged class of defrauded purchasers must be so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable. Here the number of persons who purchased Topsy’s securities, both common stock and debentures, in the February 4, 1969, offering alone, while difficult to determine with any degree of certainty, may well exceed 1,000. Thus the court believes that this first prerequisite has been satisfied.

Secondly, there must be questions of law or fact common to the class. Inasmuch as the alleged scheme to defraud was designed to inflate the price of Topsy’s securities, all of the class members who purchased those securities during the relevant period of time would presumably have been affected, albeit in varying degrees. We will consider later in this memorandum whether the common issues relating to the alleged fraud predominate over individual ones. For now, we conclude that there are common questions of law and fact.

Thirdly, the claims or defenses of the representative parties must be typical of the claims or defenses of the class. This requirement appears to duplicate other provisions of the rule, i. e., the common questions and representative party provisions. 3B Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 23.06-2. In view of our rulings on these other provisions, we hold that the claims of the plaintiffs are typical of those of the class of purchasers who have allegedly been defrauded by defendants’ scheme.

Finally, the representative parties must fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. Plaintiffs seek to represent a class of purchasers of the common stock of defendant Topsy’s International from September 28, 1968, to March 10, 1970, and purchasers of the debentures of Topsy’s from February 4, 1969 (when they were first offered), to March 10, 1970. These dates roughly coincide with when Topsy’s shareholders would have received letters from the company’s management announcing the acquisition of SaxonS Sandwich Shoppes, Inc., in September 1968, and announcing the losses from the repurchase of SaxonS units in March 1970. It was during this period of time that defendants are alleged to have maintained an inflated price for Topsy’s securities through a fraudulent scheme whereby defendants’ public statements painted an overly optimistic picture of the SaxonS operation, when in truth there was no reasonable basis for making such statements. Since the named plaintiffs purchased stock and debentures during this period, we see no reason why they cannot fairly and adequately protect the interests of all those who purchased in that span of time. Even though defendants contend these plaintiffs' purchases were not exactly coextensive with the proposed class, we are of the opinion that there is no inconsistency with the interests of other members of the class who purchased at other times during the relevant period which would prevent the named plaintiffs from representing the whole class. Defendants also specifically challenge the willingness and ability of certain of the named plaintiffs to represent the class, and, further, the ability of the plaintiffs’ attorneys to represent the class because of an alleged conflict of interest with a third party defendant. We do not believe these matters of sufficient import to deny certification of the class. We hold that plaintiffs have met all the prerequisites of Rule 23(a).

In addition to the prerequisites of subdivision (a) of Rule 23, plaintiffs must satisfy one of the sections of subdivision (b). Plaintiffs contend that this action falls within (b)(3):

“the court finds that the questions of law or fact common to the members of the class predominate over any [718]*718questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy.

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Bluebook (online)
64 F.R.D. 714, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1328, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seiffer-v-topsys-international-inc-ksd-1974.