Typenex Co-Investment, LLC v. Solar Wind Energy Tower, Inc.

123 F. Supp. 3d 1017, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94127, 2015 WL 4429516
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJuly 20, 2015
Docket14 C 6846
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 123 F. Supp. 3d 1017 (Typenex Co-Investment, LLC v. Solar Wind Energy Tower, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Typenex Co-Investment, LLC v. Solar Wind Energy Tower, Inc., 123 F. Supp. 3d 1017, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94127, 2015 WL 4429516 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Gary Scott Feinerman, United States District Judge

In 2013, Solar Wind Energy Tower, Inc. (“SWET”), gave Typenex Co-Investment, LLC, a convertible note in exchange for a $500,000 loan. When SWET refused to convert the debt into equity, Typenex sued SWET and its transfer agent, Columbia Stock Transfer Company, for breach of contract. Docs. 1, 24. SWET answered and counterclaimed, alleging that Typenex hoodwinked it into the deal. Doc. 27. Typenex moved to dismiss the counterclaims, Doc. 29, and the court denied that motion as moot when SWET filed amended counterclaims, Docs. 39, 43. Typenex now moves to dismiss the amended counterclaims and to strike SWET’s eleventh affirmative defense, which alleges fraud in the inducement. Doc. 40. The motion is granted as to the contract counterclaims and denied as to the fraud counterclaims and affirmative defense.

Background

On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court must accept the counterclaims’ well-pleaded factual allegations, with all reasonable inferences drawn in SWET’s favor, but not their legal conclusions. See Smoke Shop, LLC v. United States, 761 F.3d 779, 785 (7th Cir.2014). The court must also consider “documents attached to the [counterclaims], documents that are critical to the [counterclaims] and referred to in [them], and information that is subject to proper judicial notice,” along with additional facts set forth in SWET’s brief opposing dismissal, so long as those additional facts “are consistent with the pleadings.” Phillips v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 714 F.3d 1017, 1020 (7th Cir.2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). The facts are set forth as favorably to SWET, the non-movant, as those materials allow. See Meade v. Moraine Valley Cmty. Coll., 770 F.3d 680, 682 (7th Cir.2014).

SWET is a publicly traded company registered in Nevada that develops alternative energy technologies. Doc. 39 at ¶ 7. Typ-enex is a Utah-based company whose prin[1021]*1021cipal place of business is Illinois. In early 2013, Typenex approached SWET with an offer of financing. Id. at ¶¶ 8-13. SWET was receptive but sought to clarify the deal’s timing. Id. at ¶ 14. Typenex provided a “Term Sheet,” which proposed that SWET issue Typenex a $550,000 convertible note in exchange for “[c]ash in the amount of $100,000 ... and $400,000 in 8% secured notes.” Doc. 39-1 at 1. The Term Sheet continued:

The notes issued by [Typenex] will be due 12 months from the Initial Funding Date. The Investor Notes [also called the “Secured Buyer Notes” or “Buyer Notes”] will be prepaid based on the following schedule:
• $100,000 6 months after Closing
• $100,000 8 months after Closing
• $100,000 10 months after Closing
• $100,000 12 months after Closing

Ibid, (emphasis added). The same day that Typenex provided SWET with the Term Sheet, Typenex’s agent told SWET’s CEO that Typenex would provide funding pursuant to this schedule. Doc. 39 at ¶¶ 15-16. The next day, Typenex confirmed by email that “the buyer notes are to be prepaid based on the schedule outlined in the term sheet,” adding that funding was often provided ahead of schedule. Id. at ¶ 17.'

The Term Sheet contained a space for both parties to execute the document and provided that by signing, the parties “ack-nowledg[ed] their mutual consent to the above terms and their intention to negotiate in good faith the contemplated transaction.” Doc. 39-1 at 4. At the same time, the Term Sheet stated that it was “prepared for discussion purposes only ... [,] is an indication of interest only, not an offer to sell or purchase securities, and is not binding on the parties pending execution of definitive agreements.” Ibid. Typ-enex and SWET spent the next few days discussing the Term Sheet, and executed it on April 24, 2013. Doc. 39 at ¶¶ 18-19. SWET made clear that it needed to conclude the final agreement by May 13,2013. Id. at.lffl 7071. (The counterclaims initially put the deadline at May 11, id. at ¶ 26, but the paragraphs just cited allege that funding had to be secured by May 13, and in fact SWET did not conclude the deal until the later date, id. at ¶ 32.)

Typenex then set about drafting the various documents that would comprise the final agreement.' Typenex emailed a partial set of documents to SWET on May 2, but did not include copies of the four Buyer Notes, which Typenex said it was still preparing. Id. at ¶¶ 22-23, 27. On the evening of Friday, May 10, Typenex’s counsel sent SWET a full set of documents, including the Buyer Notes, Id. at ¶ 28. Typenex’s counsel also sent “red-lines showing the changes we made to your last version,” but did not mention any other changes. Id. at ¶¶ 28, 3031; Doc. 41 at 18. On May 13, with the deadline looming, SWET executed the documents and completed the transaction. Doc. 39 at ¶32. The following day, consistent with the schedule laid out in the Term Sheet, Typenex made a $100,000 cash payment to SWET. Id. at ¶ 34.

This promising start' was not to last. SWET says that it signed the final agreement relying on the payment schedule set forth in the Term Sheet. Id. at ¶ 33. According to that schedule, after six months Typenex was to pay SWET $100,000 on the Buyer Notes. When the time came, however, Typenex paid only $50,000. Id. at ¶¶ 35-36. Two months after that, the Term Sheet said that SWET would receive another $100,000, yet Typenex again paid only $50,000. Id. at ¶¶ 39-40. Typenex ended up paying SWET only $150,000 in the year after the closing, even though the Term Sheet stated that Typenex would pay $400,000 dur[1022]*1022ing that time. Id. at ¶¶ 4546. SWET informed Typenex in December 2013 that Typenex was in breach of its funding obligations, but continued to make interest and principal payments on the convertible note; totaling $164,000. Id. at ¶¶ 37-38, 48.

' For its part, Typenex argues that it fully complied with the terms of the final agreement. It reasons as follows:

• Section 2 of each Buyer Note provides that “[ujnless prepaid, all principal and accrued interest under this Note is payable in one lump sum- on the-Buyer Note Maturity Date.” Doc. 39-4 at 1, 8,15, 22.
• The “Buyer Note Maturity Date” means “the date that is sixty (60) days following the occurrence of the Maturity Date (as defined in the Lender Note) under the Lender Note.” Ibid. “Lender Note” is another term for the “Secured Convertible Promissory Note” that SWET issued to Typenex.
• The Secured Convertible Promissory Note defines “Maturity Date” to mean “the date that is thirteen (13) months after the Initial Installment Date,” Doc. 39-3 at p. 29, § 27.27, and “Initial Installment Date” to mean “the date that is one -hundred eighty (18 0) calendar days after the later of (i) the Issuance Date, and (ii) the date the Initial Cash Purchase Price is paid to [SWET],” id. at p. 14, § 8.

Putting the clauses together, Typenex concludes that the Buyer Notes did not become payable until about twenty-one months — sixty days, plus thirteen months, plus 180 days — after Typenex’s initial $100,000 payment.

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Bluebook (online)
123 F. Supp. 3d 1017, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94127, 2015 WL 4429516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/typenex-co-investment-llc-v-solar-wind-energy-tower-inc-ilnd-2015.