Strazzulla v. Riverside Banking Co.

175 So. 3d 879, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 13071, 2015 WL 5125454
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 2, 2015
DocketNo. 4D14-768
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 175 So. 3d 879 (Strazzulla v. Riverside Banking Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strazzulla v. Riverside Banking Co., 175 So. 3d 879, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 13071, 2015 WL 5125454 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

HAIMES, DAVID A, Associate Judge.

Appellants Frank Strazzulla, et al. (“Shareholders”), appeal the trial court’s order dismissing their amended complaint with prejudice and granting final summary judgment. The Shareholders’ amended complaint alleged claims of negligent and fraudulent misrepresentation by directors of the Corporation. The sole issue on appeal is whether the Shareholders can bring a direct action in their individual capacity for these claims or whether they are required to bring a derivative action in the name of the corporation. The trial court found that Shareholders lacked standing because they should have filed the complaint as a- derivative action. Because the amended complaint alleges both a direct harm and a special injury, Appellants have standing to bring a direct action. Therefore, we reverse the trial court’s order.

I. BACKGROUND

In October 2012, Shareholders filed an amended complaint against Riverside Banking Company (“Corporation”) and against two of its directors,' Martha Sneed and James Russakis (“Directors”). Share[882]*882holders collectively owned approximately 11,000 shares of stock in the Corporation. The Corporation’s assets were contained almost entirely in a subsidiary, Riverside National Bank (“Bank”).

According to the amended complaint, in the mid-2000s, the Bank began purchasing large amounts of high risk asset-backed securities, including Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO’s). In 2007, the collapse of Bear Stearns hedge funds grabbed national headlines due to losses related to these types of high risk investments. In March 2008, the Corporation held a shareholders’ meeting. After the meeting adjourned, Shareholders approached the two Directors and asked them what types of assets the Bank was holding and whether the Bank owned asset-backed securities similar to those that caused the downfall of Bear Stearns. The Directors, both members of the Bank’s Investment Committee, assured Shareholders that the Bank’s holdings consisted almost entirely of safe investments such as municipal bonds, treasuries, and corporate bonds and further denied the Bank’s ownership of any high risk asset-backed securities. The only persons within earshot of this conversation were Appellant Shareholders and another shareholder, who is not a party to this action.

At the time the Directors made these assurances to Shareholders, the Corporation had a buyback program where Shareholders could redeem their shares. The buyback program had a prevailing rate of $550 per share, meaning Shareholders’ 11,-000 shares could have been sold for approximately $6 million dollars. The amended complaint alleges that because of these assurances by the Directors, Shareholders chose not to redeem their shares in the Corporation’s buyback program. The Bank’s investments, which did include risky CDO’s, subsequently declined and lost substantially all of their value, and the Bank eventually collapsed. As a result of the Bank’s failure, Shareholders’ stock in the Corporation became essentially worthless. Shareholders filed the present action alleging claims of negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent misrepresentation against the Directors and a claim of vicarious liability against the Corporation for the Directors’ actions.

The Corporation moved to dismiss Shareholders’ amended complaint and for summary judgment, asserting that the amended complaint was improperly filed as a direct action instead of a derivative action. The trial court agreed. In reaching its decision, the trial court stated it “cannot agree that the allegations [in the amended complaint] state a claim of direct injury founded on fraud,” and it found that Shareholders’ injury “emanates from the gross mismanagement of the Bank’s investments, not fraud,” making their injury common to all other shareholders. The trial court further found that “every shareholder of the Bank suffered the same alleged injury from the same wrong; the plaintiffs’ loss is not distinct and cannot be separated from the injury suffered by the Bank and all other stockholders.” The trial court then concluded that Shareholders lacked standing because their suit should have been filed as a derivative action. This appeal follows.

II. DISCUSSION

The present case raises the murky question under Florida law as to when individual shareholders can bring a lawsuit in their individual capacity, as a direct action, as opposed to a derivative action on behalf of the corporation. “A direct or individual action is a suit by a stockholder to enforce a right of action existing in the stockholder.” Salit v. Ru-den, McClosky, Smith, Schuster & Russell, [883]*883P.A., 742 So.2d 381, 388 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (citing Fort Pierce Corp. v. Ivey, 671 So.2d 206, 207 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)). “A derivative suit is an action in which a stockholder seeks to enforce a corporate right or to prevent or remedy a wrong to the corporation, where the corporation, because it is controlled by the wrongdoers or for other reasons, fails and refuses to take appropriate action for its own protection.” Id. (citing Fort Pierce Corp., 671 So.2d at 207). . However, resolving the question whether an action should be brought as a direct or derivative action is not so clear.

A. Dinuro Investments, LLC v. Camacho

Recently, in Dinuro Investments, LLC v. Camacho, 141 So.3d 731 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014), the court conducted a detailed survey of the law in this area in both Florida and throughout the country. The court noted that three tests routinely have been applied to resolve the direct versus derivative claim question.

1.Direct Harm Test

The first test is the direct harm test. Under this test, the court examines “whether the harm from the alleged wrongdoing flows first to the company and only damages the shareholders or members due to the loss in value of their respective ownership interest in the company, or whether the harm flows ‘directly1 to the shareholder or member in a way that is not secondary to the company’s loss.” Id. at 735 (citations omitted). Under the direct harm approach, the examining court “looks at the injury alleged by the individual shareholder and determines whether that injury flows from some damage to the company itself.” Id. at 736. The examining court then must “compare the individual’s harm to the company’s harm, [and] a shareholder can only bring a direct suit if the damages are unrelated to the damages sustained by the company and if the company would have no right to recover in its own action.” Id. (citations omitted). The Dinuro court noted that “[t]his approach likely provides the greatest simplicity in application, as the courts need only look to whether the alleged wrongful conduct devalued the company as a whole or was directed specifically towards the individual plaintiff.” Id.

2.Special Injury Test

The second test is the special injury test. Under this test, the examining court must “compare the individual plaintiffs alleged injury to those injuries suffered by the other members or shareholders of the company and then determine whether the plaintiffs injury is separate and distinct from other members or shareholders.” Id. (citations omitted). This approach “require[s] a plaintiff to demonstrate that he has sustained a loss that is substantially different from those losses sustained by other shareholders or members before he can maintain an individual or direct suit.” Id. at 737.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 So. 3d 879, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 13071, 2015 WL 5125454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strazzulla-v-riverside-banking-co-fladistctapp-2015.