The Bedtow Group II, LLC v. Martin B. Ungerleider

684 F. App'x 839
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 6, 2017
Docket16-10213 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 684 F. App'x 839 (The Bedtow Group II, LLC v. Martin B. Ungerleider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Bedtow Group II, LLC v. Martin B. Ungerleider, 684 F. App'x 839 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In this state-law case, the Bedtow Group II, LLC (“Bedtow”) appeals the district court’s dismissal of its complaint against Defendants Martin Ungerleider, Paula Ungerleider, and against Michael Landa, as trustee of William W. Landa’s irrevocable trust. This appeal arises from the sale of three already-existing life insurance policies to Bedtow on the secondary life-settlements market. Bedtow filed this civil action seeking damages and declaratory relief against Defendants. No reversible error has been shown; we affirm.

In April 2010, Bedtow entered into a purchase and sale agreement with each Defendant whereby Bedtow agreed to purchase existing life insurance policies on the lives of Martin Ungerleider, Paula Unger-leider, and William W. Landa. In May 2010—in accordance with the purchase and sale agreements—Bedtow paid Defendants the agreed-upon purchase prices in exchange for Bedtow’s becoming the owner and beneficiary of the policies. Bedtow then assumed responsibility for making all applicable premium payments to the pertinent insurance carriers to keep the policies in force.

Bedtow alleges that its decision to purchase the policies was made in reliance on representations made by Defendants about the insureds’ life expectancies. In late 2013, Bedtow—in anticipation of reselling the policies—ordered new life expectancy reports on the Ungerleiders and on William W. Landa. Bedtow says it then first discovered that Defendants had falsely represented the insureds’ life expectancies.

In February 2015, Bedtow filed this civil action against Defendants. In its complaint, Bedtow contends that Defendants— through their agents Dennis Gilbert and Michael Krupin (“Agents”)—provided false information to Bedtow for the sale of the policies. In particular, Bedtow contends *841 that the Agents misrepresented the life expectancies of the Ungerleiders and of William W. Landa and misrepresented the insurance carrier rating for the Landa policy. Bedtow asserted claims for declaratory relief, rescission of the purchase and sale agreements, unjust enrichment, fraudulent inducement, and negligent misrepresentation.

The district court granted Defendants’ motions to dismiss. The district court concluded that Bedtow’s claims for rescission, unjust enrichment, fraudulent inducement, and negligent misrepresentation were time-barred under Florida’s statute of limitations. The district court also dismissed Bedtow’s declaratory relief claims, concluding that Bedtow was precluded from voiding a contract based on its own alleged violation of Florida law. 1 The district court later denied Bedtow’s post-judgment motion for reconsideration and for leave to file an amended complaint. This appeal followed.

I.

We review de novo the district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Hill v. White, 321 F.3d 1334, 1335 (11th Cir. 2003). Dismissal of a complaint on statute-of-limitations grounds, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), is appropriate only where it is “apparent from the face of the complaint” that the claim is time-barred. La Grasta v. First Union Sec., Inc., 358 F.3d 840, 845 (11th Cir. 2004).

On appeal, Bedtow contends that the district court erred in dismissing its claims as time-barred. Under Florida law, Bed-tow’s claims for rescission, unjust enrichment, fraudulent inducement, and negligent misrepresentation had to be brought within four years of the accrual of the claim. See Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3)(a), (j), (l), (p) (establishing a four-year time limit for filing actions “founded on negligence,” actions “founded on fraud,” actions “to rescind a contract,” and all actions “not specifically provided for in these statutes”). The statute of limitations begins running “from the time the cause of action accrues.” Fla. Stat. § 95.031. Generally speaking, “[a] cause of action accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs.” Id. § 95.031(a).

Under Florida’s “delayed discovery rule,” however, the running of the statute of limitations for certain claims—including fraud-based claims—may be postponed until “the facts giving rise to the cause of action were discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence.” Fla. Stat. § 95.031(2)(a); see also Davis v. Monahan, 832 So. 2d 708, 709-10 (Fla. 2002) (Florida’s delayed discovery doctrine applies only to claims of fraud, products liability, professional and medical malpractice, and intentional torts based on abuse).

Bedtow argues that, under Florida’s “delayed discovery rule,” the four-year statute of limitations did not begin running until late 2013, when Bedtow first discovered Defendants’ alleged misrepresentations. We disagree.

Although Bedtow may have lacked some expertise in the life-settlements market, the allegations in the complaint evidence that Bedtow understood when it purchased the life insurance policies that the projected life expectancy of the insured was a “key element” to determining the fair mar *842 ket value of a life insurance policy. Bed-tow’s allegations also demonstrate that Bedtow understood—given the importance of the life expectancy projections—that the due diligence process associated with purchasing life insurance policies on the life-settlements market included necessarily obtaining life expectancy reports for the insured. This practice is demonstrated both by Bedtow’s description that “[i]n the normal course of due diligence, prospective purchasers ordered life expectancy reports” for the Ungerleiders and for William W. Landa, and by Bedtow’s own conduct in ordering life expectancy reports for the insureds in anticipation of reselling the policies.

On appeal, Bedtow does not dispute that it understood the importance of the life-expectancy projections when it purchased the policies or dispute that reasonable due diligence required obtaining life expectancy reports for the insureds. Bedtow contends, instead, that it relied on the Agents’ misrepresentations about the life expectancies of the Ungerleiders and of William W. Landa. Florida law makes clear, however, that “[i]n the civil context, a party who relies on a misrepresentation must show that it exercised some diligence in investigating the misrepresentation, unless it is shown that the fraudulent party had exclusive or superior knowledge, or prevented further investigation.” Adams v. Pre-stressed Sys. Indus., 625 So.2d 895, 897 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1993). Bedtow makes no allegation that Defendants had “exclusive or superior knowledge” or otherwise prevented Bedtow from conducting its own investigation.

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684 F. App'x 839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-bedtow-group-ii-llc-v-martin-b-ungerleider-ca11-2017.