Thomas E. Howard, Jr., Janice K. Howard and Howard Investments, LLC v. The Frost National Bank and TD Ameritrade, Inc.

458 S.W.3d 849, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 313
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 24, 2015
DocketED101669
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 458 S.W.3d 849 (Thomas E. Howard, Jr., Janice K. Howard and Howard Investments, LLC v. The Frost National Bank and TD Ameritrade, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas E. Howard, Jr., Janice K. Howard and Howard Investments, LLC v. The Frost National Bank and TD Ameritrade, Inc., 458 S.W.3d 849, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 313 (Mo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

ROBERT M. CLAYTON III, Judge

Thomas E. Howard, Jr., Janice K. Howard, and Howard Investments, LLC (collectively “Appellants”) appeal the trial court’s grant of a motion to dismiss Appellants’ amended petition for failure to state a claim in favor of TD Ameritrade, Inc. (“Respondent”). Appellants’ amended petition alleged claims for negligence, wrongful garnishment, and wrongful disclosure arising out of Respondent’s disclosure of Appellants’ account information and freezing of Appellants’ accounts. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I. BACKGROUND

Thomas Howard and Janice Howard are a married couple, and they are the sole members and joint owners of Howard Investments, LLC, a Missouri LLC. The Howards are also the owners of certain brokerage accounts maintained by Respondent.

In a prior lawsuit, the Frost National Bank (“Frost Bank”) obtained a judgment against Thomas Howard individually, 1 but *852 not against Janice Howard or Howard Investments, LLC. Subsequently, on May 31, 2013, Frost Bank filed a garnishment action to collect the judgment, naming Respondent as the garnishee. In the garnishment, Frost Bank gave the following instructions to Respondent: “ATTACH ALL ACCOUNTS OF DEBTOR, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ACCOUNT NO. 789-045389” (emphasis in original). The garnishment listed Thomas Howard as the debtor. In the garnishment, Frost Bank also instructed Respondent to freeze any accounts associated with the debtor.

In response to the garnishment action, Respondent filed an interrogatory answer with the garnishment court that identified four separate accounts. The four accounts identified by Respondent disclosed the account name, account number, and the account “liquidation value” (the cash balance presently in the account). Simultaneously, Respondent also froze the four accounts as instructed by Frost Bank, thereby cutting off Appellants’ use and access to the accounts.

Of the four accounts that were identified and frozen by Respondent, one was owned by Thomas Howard individually, one by Thomas Howard and Janice Howard jointly, one by Howard Investments, LLC, and one by Thomas Howard and Janice Howard in their capacity as joint owners of Howard Investments, LLC (the three accounts not owned by Thomas Howard individually will be collectively referred to as “the three accounts”). Respondent froze the three accounts for approximately ten days. The value of the three accounts at the time of freezing was in excess of $3 million.

Appellants notified Frost Bank and Respondent that they considered the freezing of the three accounts and their disclosure to the trial court in the garnishment action improper, because Frost Bank’s judgment was only against Thomas Howard individually. Soon thereafter, Appellants filed a petition against Frost Bank and Respondent, alleging claims for negligence, wrongful garnishment, and wrongful disclosure. Appellants settled their claims against Frost Bank, which is no longer a party to this action. On May 15, 2014, the trial court granted Respondent’s motion to dismiss Appellants’ amended petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

Appellants present three points on appeal. For points one, two, and three, Appellants assert that the amended petition adequately stated claims for negligence, wrongful garnishment, and wrongful disclosure, respectively.

A. Standard of review

We review a trial court’s grant of a motion to dismiss de novo. Lynch v. Lynch, 260 S.W.3d 834, 836 (Mo. banc 2008). The facts contained in the petition are treated as true and they are construed liberally in favor of the plaintiffs. Id. The petition states a claim if it sets forth any set of facts that, if proven, would entitle the plaintiffs to relief. Id. “Missouri is a fact-pleading state.” Whipple v. Allen, 324 S.W.3d 447, 449 (Mo.App.E.D.2010). Accordingly, though a “petition need not plead evidentiary or operative facts showing an entitlement to the relief sought, it must plead ultimate facts demonstrating such an entitlement.” Id. (quotations *853 omitted). We disregard conclusions not supported by facts in the context of assessing a motion to dismiss. Id. at 449-50.

B. Negligence

In their first point on appeal, Appellants assert that the trial court erred in dismissing their negligence count, because the amended petition pleaded all the essential elements of a negligence claim. We agree.

To state a claim for negligence, a plaintiff must allege, (1) the existence of a duty to conform to a certain standard of conduct to protect others against unreasonable risks; (2) breach of the duty; (B) proximate causation; and (4) actual damages. Hoover’s Dairy, Inc. v. Mid-America Dairymen, Inc./Special Products, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 426, 431 (Mo. banc 1985).

On appeal, as in its motion to dismiss, Respondent only asserts that Appellants did not adequately plead actual damages. This argument must fail. The amended petition included multiple allegations of damages proximately caused by Respondent’s disclosure and freezing of Appellants’ accounts. Specifically, the amended petition alleged that, (1) Appellants’ private financial information was disclosed to the public; (2) when Appellants repeatedly attempted to use their accounts, they were barred from accessing over $3 million in assets specifically held for investment purposes for a period of ten days, and as a result were prohibited from making any investment trades during that time; and (3) Respondent disclosed that Appellants had assets in excess of $3 million to Appellants’ opponent in the underlying lawsuit, Frost Bank, at a time when Appellants and Frost Bank were negotiating a settlement and the disclosure affected the settlement value of that case.

Appellants need not quantify the exact amount of their damages in their amended petition in order to survive a motion to dismiss. In fact, Missouri Supreme Court Rule 55.19 (2014) specifically prevents a petition based on an alleged tort 2 from including a dollar amount in the demand. Appellants pleaded that the freezing of the accounts prevented them from making stock trades they attempted to make. The specific nature of these trades and any financial loss caused by the inability to make them must be investigated in the discovery portion of the lawsuit. This is also true of the disclosure’s effect on the settlement value of the underlying lawsuit; discovery is required to determine the extent of the damages. In each instance, the allegation of harm, along with the other elements of the cause of action which are not contested, is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. We treat the facts alleged in the petition as true and construe them liberally in favor of the plaintiffs. Lynch,

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

Related

Wills v. Stiles
W.D. Missouri, 2023
Stone v. J&M Securities, LLC
E.D. Missouri, 2021
Mackey v. Belden, Inc.
E.D. Missouri, 2021
Noe v. Chastain
W.D. Missouri, 2019
Payne v. Fiesta Corp.
543 S.W.3d 109 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2018)
Doe v. United States
210 F. Supp. 3d 1169 (W.D. Missouri, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
458 S.W.3d 849, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-e-howard-jr-janice-k-howard-and-howard-investments-llc-v-the-moctapp-2015.