Sun First National Bank of Orlando v. Miller

77 F.R.D. 430, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20281
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 9, 1978
DocketNo. 75 Civ. 6517
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 77 F.R.D. 430 (Sun First National Bank of Orlando v. Miller) 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
Sun First National Bank of Orlando v. Miller, 77 F.R.D. 430, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20281 (S.D.N.Y. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERT L. CARTER, District Judge. Facts

This litigation arises out of a “repurchase agreement” entered into by Sun National Bank of Orlando (“Sun”) and Financial Corporation (“Financial”) on July 7, 1975, for which Shorterm International, Inc. (“STI”) acted as the broker1 for both Sun and Financial. The terms of the transaction obligated Financial to repurchase from Sun Bank on July 8, 1975, Treasury bills which had served as the collateral for the transaction at an aggregate purchase price of $40,-028,861.11. This transaction represented (1) an extension of a July 3, 1975 agreement which had involved a repurchase arrangement of approximately $30,000,000; and (2) a supplementary arrangement whereby Sun purchased an additional $10,000,000 in Treasury bills at par value, subject to Financial’s obligation to repurchase.

Financial defaulted on its obligations under the July 7th repurchase agreement and allegedly caused Sun to suffer a loss of $2,604,000.00 when Sun sold the Treasury bills on the open market. The essence of Sun’s complaint is that at the time of both the July 3rd and the July 7th repurchase transactions, the defendants “knew or should have known” that the severe financial difficulties that Financial had been suffering for some time would prevent Financial from honoring its repurchase commitment to Sun, and that the defendants failed to apprise Sun of that risk. Sun asserts numerous federal and state causes of action including an action based upon Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. § 78j) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder (17 C.F.R. 240.10b-5).2 Plaintiff also seeks to recover damages for STI’s failure to register as a broker under the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. § 78o), and failure to register Financial’s repurchase obligations pursuant to the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. §§ lie, 111).

Initially, the plaintiff sued Financial, Eldon and Gladys Miller (the owners and directors of Financial), STI, Harry Nappi (President of STI), and William Allen (STI’s broker who allegedly solicited Sun Bank’s participation in the repurchase transaction). After some discovery had occurred, however, plaintiff was permitted to amend its complaint to include the corporate defendants Shortloan International, Ltd. (“SLI”), Short Loan & Mortgage Company, Ltd. (“SLM”), and London Security & Trustee Company, Ltd. (“LS”), as well as the indi[433]*433vidual defendants Robert Franklin Laidlaw, Terrence Jackets, Norman Harrison Woolley, Norman Edward Woolley, and Ian Burrell Haig Woolley.3 All of the additional defendants are located in England. Plaintiff admits that these English defendants themselves had no dealings with Sun, but justifies their status as parties defendant because of their responsibility for the wrongful actions of STI “not only by reason of their own actions and inactions, but also because they dominated and controlled [STI] as their alter ego and agent and are to be deemed ‘controlling persons’ of [STI]” within the meanings of Section 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.4 The English defendants now move to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b), F.R.Civ.P., for lack of in personam jurisdiction.

Parties

The individual English defendants in this action were all members of STI’s Board of Directors. They also were and continue to be directors and/or officers of one or more of the English defendant corporations— SLI, SLM and LS. Moreover, N. H. Woolley, N. E. Woolley, and Ian Woolley are major shareholders of STI’s ultimate parent, LS.

The newly added corporate defendants in this action are, in fact, a column of related companies all dealing in various types of financial transactions. At the head of the column sits LS, an English holding company which has been characterized by plaintiff as the coordinator of the corporate group5 and. by defendants as being virtually inactive. Next in line is SLM, the 99% owned subsidiary of LS. SLM deals exclusively in sterling transactions on the European money markets. SLM, in turn, owns 99% of the outstanding shares of SLI. SLI is a money broker for Euro-currency transactions and the direct parent and 100% owner of STI— the alleged primary perpetrator of the securities violations here at issue.

STI was created in 1973 as an outgrowth of an exploratory mission to the United States by N. E. Woolley and Terrence Jackets, on behalf of SLI, to seek a permanent arrangement with an American money broker as a means of expanding SLI’s business in Euro-currency transactions. While in the United States, Jackets and Woolley met with Harry Nappi, an employee of an American brokerage firm, who suggested the formation of an American corporation to deal primarily in federal fund transactions. That suggestion was approved by SLI’s board of directors and in the latter part of February, 1973, Robert Laidlaw and Jackets flew to New York to complete the arrangements for the creation of STI. Sometime after engaging in the actions which form the basis for the present litigation, STI discontinued operations and is now defunct. While in existence, STI dealt in federal fund, repurchase, and Euro-currency transactions.

Discussion

The case at bar raises numerous questions as to the extent to which a court can exercise in personam jurisdiction over foreign defendants via the provisions of the federal securities laws — § 22 of the 1933 Act, 15 U.S.C. § 77v, and § 27 of the 1934 Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78aa. The jurisdictional reach of these statutes has been held to extend to the full limits of the due process clause. Leasco Data Processing Equipment Corp. v. Maxwell, 468 F.2d 1326, 1339^0 (2d Cir. 1972); Bersch v. Drexel Firestone, Inc., 389 F.Supp. 446, 459 (S.D.N.Y.1974), aff’d in relevant part, 519 F.2d 974 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1018, 96 S.Ct. 453, 46 L.Ed.2d 389 (1975). Consequently the in[434]*434quiry here is whether the assertion of jurisdiction over the English individual and corporate defendants in this action would violate due process.6

In Leasco Data Processing Equipment Corp. v. Maxwell, supra, Judge Friendly provided the framework for analyzing the extent to which a court can constitutionally assert jurisdiction over a defendant under the federal securities laws. Judge Friendly stated that “it is ‘essential in each case that there be some act by which the defendant purposefully avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State, thus invoking the benefits and protections of its laws.’ ” 468 F.2d at 1340, quoting Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). In giving form to this principle, Leasco

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
77 F.R.D. 430, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sun-first-national-bank-of-orlando-v-miller-nysd-1978.