Stanford Square, L.L.C. v. Nomura Asset Capital Corp.

228 F. Supp. 2d 293, 2002 WL 1676575
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJuly 23, 2002
Docket00CIV1001(VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 228 F. Supp. 2d 293 (Stanford Square, L.L.C. v. Nomura Asset Capital Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stanford Square, L.L.C. v. Nomura Asset Capital Corp., 228 F. Supp. 2d 293, 2002 WL 1676575 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).

Opinion

CORRECTED DECISION

MARRERO, District Judge.

Plaintiff Stanford Square, LLC (hereinafter “Stanford”), brought this action, invoking the Court’s diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332, against defendant Nomura Asset Capital Corporation (now known and appearing before the Court as Capital Company of America) (hereinafter “Capital”). Stanford’s complaint alleges breach of contract and related claims. Capital responded with a counterclaim and now moves for summary judgment, pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to dismiss Stanford Square’s claims and to seek damages on its counterclaim. For the reasons discussed below, Capital’s motion is granted in part and denied in part.

I. BACKGROUND

The dispute that is the subject of the motion before the Court arose out of an agreement between the parties by which Capital was obliged to make a loan to Stanford, subject to specified preconditions. For reasons described below, however, the loan was never funded. Stanford filed the instant suit, charging in its first claim that Capital committed anticipatory breach of contract and of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In turn, Capital asserts that Stanford never fulfilled the conditions precedent under the loan agreement, and thus, that Capital’s obligation to fund never came due. In its second claim, Stanford demands the refund of certain transaction fees it paid. In response, Capital’s counterclaim demands the payment of costs and losses it incurred, discounted by the fees Stanford paid.

The lumbering history of the parties’ dispute began in September 1997, when Stanford and Capital entered into a $15,750,000 mortgage loan commitment agreement (hereinafter the “Agreement”). (Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint and Jury Demand (hereinafter “Compl.”) ¶ 5 and Ex. A). The Agreement required Stanford to satisfy several conditions precedent, including the delivery of leases, *296 environmental reports, engineering reports, a credit history, and payment of non-refundable fees. (Comply 5).

Pursuant to the Agreement, Stanford paid Capital a non-refundable commitment fee of $157,500. (Amended Answer and Counterclaim (hereinafter “Answer”) ¶ 6; Agreement, at 1, 6). In addition, on September 29, 1997, Stanford exercised an “early interest rate lock” option, paying a deposit of $236,250 in exchange for a fixed interest rate effective through the term of the Agreement. (Compl.Ht 21-24). Stanford also paid a $6,500 application fee and $15,000 deposit for third party reports. (Pettinato Affidavit dated April 11, 2001 (hereinafter “Pettinato Aff.”) at ¶ 33). The parties agree that the sum of $257,750 is the refundable amount paid by Stanford for purposes of the Early Rate Lock calculations. (Pettinato Aff. at ¶ 33; Memorandum of Law of Defendant the Capital Company of America LLC (Successor to Nomura Asset Capital Corporation) in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment (hereinafter “Def.’s Memo”), at 24; Memorandum of Law of Plaintiff Stanford Square, LLC in Support of its Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (hereinafter “Pl.’s Memo”), at 5).

In connection with the early interest rate lock, Capital was obligated to “enter into hedging transactions by selling U.S. Treasury Securities of a maturity approximating the maturity of the proposed loans, or by such other method as [Capital] may choose in its sole discretion.” . (Compl. ¶ 23; Agreement, at 21). If the loan did not close, the Agreement provided that the interest rate lock deposit would be refunded, less any losses from the hedging transactions and fees and expenses incurred by Capital in connection with the loan. (Comply 24).

In the situation of a fixed interest rate commitment, a hedging transaction is used to offset the financial risk that interest rates will change. For Capital, once it hedged its rate-lock commitment it would have two aggregate entries in its books: one consisting of loans and rate-locked commitments, including the Stanford interest-rate-locked commitment; the other of aggregate hedged positions. The entries’ values move in opposite directions as interest rates rise and fall, thereby offsetting one another and minimizing financial risk. (Reider Affidavit dated April 13, 2001 (hereinafter “Reider Aff.”) at ¶¶ 8-10).

In response to Stanford’s exercise of its early interest rate lock option, Capital confirmed on September 30, 1997 that the fixed interest rate would be 7.82 percent. In order to determine what transactions would be necessary to accomplish the hedge, Capital calculated the financial effect a change in interest rate would have on its portfolio. Capital expressed the financial effect as the dollar loss in the value of the portfolio, which now included the Stanford loan, that would result from an increase in market interest rates of one basis point (hereinafter the “DV”). In this case, Capital used a DV that was commercially available through Bloomberg financial services. (Answer ¶ 25; Reider Aff. at ¶ 13). Capital then needed to identify the transactions that would yield an approximately equal dollar gain based on the same interest rate movement.

To hedge the Stanford loan, as a fixed interest loan, Capital sold U.S. Treasury Securities maturing in August 2002 having a face amount of $10,000,000 and U.S. Treasury Securities maturing in August 2007 having a face amount of $7,000,000. Capital recorded these sales in its handwritten trading log and computer system. (Reider Aff. at ¶ 13-15).

Stanford alleges, without support or elaboration, that Capital’s “words and conduct indicating it did not intend to fund the *297 loan constituted an anticipatory breach of contract.” (Comply 16). Stanford further claims that Capital “continuously and repeatedly raised new conditions not provided in the Commitment Agreement”, making satisfaction of the conditions precedent impossible and thereby breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. (ComplA 17).

Under the Agreement, Stanford was to perform certain conditions before the loan would be funded. In particular, Capital points out that Stanford never provided certain leases, an express condition of Capital’s obligation to fund the loan. (Declaration of Simon Block at ¶ 4 and Ex. 2 (hereinafter “Rounds Dep.”) at 26; Petti-nato Aff. at ¶ 6; Agreement, at 19). In addition, Stanford was to provide Capital with a first mortgage on the property to secure the loan. (Agreement, at 10). This condition was not satisfied because Stanford never arranged for the release or subordination of a Deed of Trust, recorded against the property in 1985. Capital was further troubled by its discovery that Rounds, a general partner of Stanford Square, had a multi-million dollar judgment outstanding against him and had insufficient funds to satisfy the judgment. (Rounds Dep. at 79-80).

To address these issues, on July 29, 1998, Stanford and Capital executed a Revised Commitment Extension and Modification Agreement that retroactively extended the Agreement from April 15 through August 31, 1998.

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Bluebook (online)
228 F. Supp. 2d 293, 2002 WL 1676575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stanford-square-llc-v-nomura-asset-capital-corp-nysd-2002.