Steen v. Murray

955 F. Supp. 2d 1030, 2013 WL 3288409, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91341
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedJune 28, 2013
DocketCase No. 8:13CV43
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 955 F. Supp. 2d 1030 (Steen v. Murray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Steen v. Murray, 955 F. Supp. 2d 1030, 2013 WL 3288409, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91341 (D. Neb. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LAURIE SMITH CAMP, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Filing No. 41) filed by Defendants Robert Murray (“Murray”), Ryan Boe (“Boe”), and Lamson, Dugan & Murray, LLP (“Lamson Dugan”) (collectively “Defendants”). Also before the Court is the Mo[1032]*1032tion to Retransfer Case or Retain Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) (Filing No. 47), filed by the Plaintiffs Richard “Bud” Steen and Lloydene Steen (collectively “Plaintiffs” or the “Steens”). The parties have submitted briefs (Filing Nos. 42, 46, 48, 49, 50, and 51) in support of their respective positions. For the reasons stated below, Plaintiffs’ Motion to Retransfer will be denied, and Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings will be granted.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In 2008, the Defendants represented the Plaintiffs to help them avoid foreclosure on their Iowa farmland. (Filing No. 32 ¶ 10; Filing No. 33 ¶ 5; see also Filing No. 1 at CM/ECF p. 5.) Plaintiffs allege that, at the time of the representation, neither Murray nor Boe was licensed to practice law in Iowa. (Filing No. 32 ¶ 2.) In connection with their representation of the Plaintiffs, Defendants Murray and Boe drafted a Real Estate Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) between Plaintiffs and AGR-Keast. (Filing No. 33 ¶ 6; see also Filing No. 1 at CM/ECF pp. 5-9.1) Boe also drafted an Option to Lease/Purchase Real Estate (“Option”). (Filing No. 25-3 at CM/ECF pp. 27-29.) The Plaintiffs allege that at the time the Purchase Agreement and Option were drafted, Defendants also represented AGR-Keast, the purchaser. (Filing No. 32 ¶ 15.)

Plaintiffs allege that Defendants committed legal malpractice in drafting the Purchase Agreement and Option. (See generally Filing No. 32.) Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that they retained Defendants to “draft a first option to purchase or right of first refusal” but Defendants “instead drafted an unrestricted option in favor of the purchaser of [Plaintiffs’] other property.” (Id. ¶¶ 10-14.) Plaintiffs further allege that they did not know Defendants were also representing the purchaser; that Defendants “included language to favor that purchaser;” and that Defendants “failed to disclose to Plaintiffs their divided loyalties.” (Id. ¶¶ 15-21.) Plaintiffs allege that they discovered Defendants’ malpractice in October 2008. (Id. ¶ 20.) Based on these allegations, Plaintiffs assert that Defendants failed to exercise appropriate care, breached the parties’ contract, and breached ethical duties. (Id. at ¶ 18, 24, 26.) Plaintiffs further allege that because the Option was incorrectly drafted, they incurred significant litigation expenses. (Id. at ¶ 17.)

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs filed this action on July 20, 2012, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa (Filing No. 1.) On October 4, 2012, Defendants moved to transfer the case to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), due to improper venue. (Filing No. 25.) Plaintiffs resisted the Motion to Transfer, arguing that a substantial part of the events giving rise to Plaintiffs’ claims occurred the Southern District of Iowa and, therefore, venue was proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). The Southern District of Iowa granted the Motion, concluding that venue in Iowa was improper. That court reasoned that under controlling precedent in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, it was required to focus on the location of the De[1033]*1033fendants’ alleged wrongful activities. (Filing No. 34 at 5 (citing Woodke v. Dahm, 70 F.3d 983, 985-86 (8th Cir.1995).)) The court determined that each of Defendants’ alleged wrongful acts or omissions took place in Nebraska, and Plaintiffs failed to meet their burden of establishing venue in Iowa. (Id. at 9.)

DISCUSSION

I. Motion to Retransfer

A. Standard

The Court first considers the Plaintiffs’ Motion to Retransfer. Plaintiffs argue that the Court should retransfer the case because venue was proper in Iowa. In the alternative, Plaintiffs request that the Court consider the transfer as one under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) for the convenience of the parties, rather than § 1406(a) for improper venue.

Motions to retransfer are not readily granted, and are only appropriate where the ruling of the transferor court is clearly erroneous and would result in manifest injustice. Jenkins Brick Co. v. Bremer, 321 F.3d 1366, 1370 (11th Cir.2003); 15 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure, Jurisdiction and Effect of Transfer, Juris. § 3846 (3d ed.). Such motions are governed by the doctrine of the law-of-the-case. “As most commonly defined, the doctrine [of the law-of-the-case] posits that when a court decides upon a rule of law, that decision should continue to govern the same issues in subsequent stages in the same case.” Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 815-16, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988) (quoting Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605, 618, 103 S.Ct. 1382, 75 L.Ed.2d 318 (1983)). “The law-of-the-case doctrine applies as much to decisions from coordinate courts as it does to the court’s own decisions, including transfer decisions.” Id. The Supreme Court has stated that the doctrine applies “with even greater force to transfer decisions than to decisions of substantive law; transferee courts that feel entirely free to revisit transfer decisions of a coordinate court threaten to send litigants into a vicious circle of litigation.” Id. (citations omitted); see also Chrysler Credit Corp. v. Country Chrysler, Inc., 928 F.2d 1509, 1516 (10th Cir.1991) (stating that “traditional principles of law .of the case counsel against the transferee court reevaluating the rulings of the transferor court, including its transfer order.”); Moses v. Business Card Exp. Inc., 929 F.2d 1131, 1137 (6th Cir.1991) (explaining that law-of-the-case doctrine applies to transfer decisions to prevent litigants from being forced into “jurisdictional ping-pong.”).

B. Analysis

The decision issued by the Southern District of Iowa was not clearly erroneous. The Southern District of Iowa relied on the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Woodke v. Dahm, 70 F.3d 983 (8th Cir. 1995). In Woodke, the Eighth Circuit interpreted the phrase “events or omissions giving rise to the claim,” within § 1391(b)(2), to indicate that “Congress meant to require courts to focus on relevant activities of the defendant, not of the plaintiff.” Id. at 985.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
955 F. Supp. 2d 1030, 2013 WL 3288409, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steen-v-murray-ned-2013.