SRM Global Master Fund Ltd. Partnership v. Bear Stearns Companies

829 F.3d 173, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12965, 2016 WL 3769735
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJuly 14, 2016
DocketDocket No. 14-507-cv
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 829 F.3d 173 (SRM Global Master Fund Ltd. Partnership v. Bear Stearns Companies) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SRM Global Master Fund Ltd. Partnership v. Bear Stearns Companies, 829 F.3d 173, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12965, 2016 WL 3769735 (2d Cir. 2016).

Opinion

LOHIER, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from the collapse of Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (with its successor, defendant Bear Stearns Companies L.L.C., “Bear”) and the lawsuit filed by SRM Global Master Fund Limited Partnership (“SRM”), a registered private investment fund, against Bear, Bear’s officers, and Bear’s auditor, defendant De-loitte & Touche L.L.P. (“Deloitte”). The principal question presented is whether the class action tolling rule set forth in American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538, 94 S.Ct. 756, 38 L.Ed.2d 713 (1974), applies to 28 U.S.C. § 1658(b)(2), the five-year statute of repose that limits the time in which plaintiffs may bring claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and SEC Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, see Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. 633, 650, 130 S.Ct. 1784, 176 L.Ed.2d 582 (2010). We hold that American Pipe tolling does not apply to § 1658(b)(2). As we explain below, we also conclude that SRM failed adequately to allege that it relied on any misrepresentations in making investment decisions, an element of its common law fraud claims.

BACKGROUND

SRM’s complaint alleges the following facts, which we assume to be true and construe in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Cruz v. FXDirectDealer, LLC, 720 F.3d 115, 118 (2d Cir. 2013).

In the years prior to Bear’s collapse in 2008, Bear and its officers made material misstatements and omissions that overstated the value of Bear’s assets, the adequacy of Bear’s capital reserves and liquidity, and the quality of Bear’s risk management and valuation procedures. Deloitte falsely certified that the Form 10-Ks that Bear filed for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 presented fairly, in all material respects, the information set forth therein.

In 2007 and 2008 SRM purchased Bear common stock and entered into swap agreements based on the value of Bear common stock. Two specific allegations in the complaint relate to SRM’s decision to purchase or sell stock, or enter into or unwind the swap agreements, in rebanee on the defendants’ misrepresentations. First, SRM abeges that it read and relied on the misrepresentations in Bear’s 2006 Form 10-K “in its analysis of Bear and in deciding whether it should purchase Bear securities.” Joint App’x 31. Second, SRM alleges that it read and relied on Deloitte’s misrepresentations in Bear’s 2006 and 2007 Form 10-Ks “in its analysis of Bear and in deciding whether it should liquidate, retain or increase its investment in Bear.” Joint App’x 101. SRM also asserts “holder claims,” alleging that it retained its Bear stock and decided not to unwind the swap agreements in reliance on the defendants’ misrepresentations.

[176]*176After Bear collapsed, the defendants were sued in a series of putative class actions that were eventually consolidated and settled. At its request, SRM was excluded from the settlement class. It instead filed this complaint in April 2013, asserting that the defendants had made material misrepresentations in violation of SEC Rule 10b-5 and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and had also committed common law fraud under New York law.1

Relying on § 1658(b)(2), the defendants moved to dismiss SRM’s complaint as time-barred. SRM responded that the statute of repose in § 1658(b)(2) was tolled by the filing of a putative class action complaint against Bear and the individual defendants in March 2008.2 The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Sweet, J.), rejected SRM’s argument based on our decision in Police & Fire Retirement System of City of Detroit v. IndyMac MBS, Inc., 721 F.3d 95 (2d Cir. 2013). The District Court held that American Pipe tolling does not apply to § 1658(b)(2), and that SRM’s Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 claims were therefore time-barred. It dismissed SRM’s Section 20(a) claims for failure to state a primary violation of Section 10(b). And it also dismissed SRM’s common law fraud claims, holding that New York law does not recognize holder fraud claims and that SRM failed adequately to plead reliance.

This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

A. SRM’s Federal Claims

Under the tolling rule set forth in American Pipe, “the commencement of a class action suspends the applicable statute of limitations as to all asserted members of the class who would have been parties had the suit been permitted to continue as a class action.” 414 U.S. at 554, 94 S.Ct. 756. Section 1658(b)(2), however, is not a statute of limitations. It is a statute of repose, which “is not a limitation of a plaintiffs remedy, but rather defines the right involved in terms of the time allowed to bring suit.” P. Stolz Family P’ship L.P. v. Daum, 355 F.3d 92, 102, 104 (2d Cir. 2004) (identifying § 1658(b)(2) as a statute of repose); see Merck & Co., 559 U.S. at 650, 130 S.Ct. 1784 (same).

In IndyMac, we held that American Pipe tolling does not apply to the statute of repose in Section 13 of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. § 77m, which limits the time in which plaintiffs may bring actions under Sections 11 and 12(a) of that Act. IndyMac, 721 F.3d at 112. Noting that Section 13 is a statute of repose, we explained that if viewed as a form of equitable tolling American Pipe tolling does not apply to Section 13 because “a statute of repose is subject only to legislatively created exceptions, and not to equitable tolling.” Id. at 106, 109 (quotation marks omitted). Nor could it apply, we concluded, if American Pipe tolling is legal in nature and based on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. “[S]tatutes of repose create a substantive right in those protected to be free from liability after a legislatively-determined period of time.” Id. at 106 (quotation marks omitted). “Permitting a plaintiff to file a complaint ... after the repose period set forth in Section 13 of the Securities Act has run would therefore necessarily enlarge or modify a substan[177]*177tive right and violate the Rules Enabling Act [28 U.S.C. § 2072(b) ],” which “forbids interpreting Rule 23 to ‘abridge, enlarge or modify any substantive right.’ ” Id. at 109 (quoting Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 2561, 180 L.Ed.2d 374 (2011)).

For the reasons we provided in IndyMac, we hold that American Pipe tolling does not apply to § 1658(b)(2)’s five-year statute of repose.

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829 F.3d 173, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12965, 2016 WL 3769735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/srm-global-master-fund-ltd-partnership-v-bear-stearns-companies-ca2-2016.