Wagner v. Cunningham (In re Vaughan Co., Realtors)

90 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 759, 481 B.R. 752, 2012 WL 4848964, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4811
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. New Mexico
DecidedOctober 11, 2012
DocketBankruptcy No. 11-10-10759 JA; Adversary No. 11-1227 J
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 90 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 759 (Wagner v. Cunningham (In re Vaughan Co., Realtors)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. New Mexico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wagner v. Cunningham (In re Vaughan Co., Realtors), 90 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 759, 481 B.R. 752, 2012 WL 4848964, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4811 (N.M. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROBERT H. JACOBVITZ, Bankruptcy Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendant Cunningham’s Motion to Dismiss (“Motion to Dismiss”), filed by Michelle Cunningham, by and through her attorney of record, Law Offices of Brian A. Thomas, P.C. (Brian A. Thomas). See Docket No. 9. Plaintiff, Judith A. Wagner, Chapter 11 Trustee of the bankruptcy es[755]*755tate of The Vaughan Company, Realtors (“Trustee”), opposes the Motion. See Plaintiffs Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (“Opposing Brief’) — Docket No. 12. This adversary proceeding is one of many similarly situated adversary proceedings filed by the Trustee seeking to recover transfers made by the Debtor, The Vaughan Company, Realtors (“VCR”), to investors in furtherance of an alleged Ponzi scheme. The Complaint contains nine separate counts, including claims to recover fraudulent transfers based on actual fraud and constructive fraud under 11 U.S.C. § 548 of the Bankruptcy Code and under applicable New Mexico fraudulent transfer law.

Defendant Michelle Cunningham (Ms. Cunningham), seeks to dismiss the Complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P., made applicable to adversary proceedings by Rule 7012, Fed.R.Bankr.P. for failure to state a claim, arguing that the allegations fail to meet the pleading standards enunciated by the Supreme Court in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). Ms. Cunningham also asserts that the allegations in the Complaint fail to satisfy the heightened pleading requirements under Rule 9, Fed.R.Civ.P., applicable to fraud claims.

After consideration of the Motion and the Opposing Brief in light of the Complaint, and being otherwise sufficiently informed, the Court finds that the allegations in the Complaint are sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss as to Counts 2 through 6 of the Complaint. Count 7 is deficient. The Motion does not sufficiently address Counts 1, 8, and 9. The Court will, therefore, deny the Motion as to Counts 2 through 6, grant the Motion as to Count 7, and deny the Motion, without prejudice, as to Counts 1, 8 and 9.

DISCUSSION

A. Applicable Standards for Evaluating A Motion to Dismiss Under Rule 12(b)(6)

A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is governed by Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P., made applicable to adversary proceedings by Rule 7012, Fed.R.Bankr.P. In considering a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court accepts as true all well pleaded facts and evaluates those facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Moore v. Guthrie, 438 F.3d 1036, 1039 (10th Cir.2006). The applicable standard for assessing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b), Fed.R.Civ.P. is found in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). Under Twombly, in order to survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P., the complaint must contain enough facts to state a cause of action that is “plausible on its face.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. In other words, the plaintiff must “nudge [his] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.” Id. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955). A pleading that contains only “ ‘labels and conclusions,’ ” a “ ‘formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action’ ” or “ ‘naked assertions’ devoid of ‘further factual enhancement’ ” is insufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 and 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Under this standard, “the tenet that a court must [756]*756accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions.” Id. The Court thus takes a two-step approach in evaluating a motion to dismiss: first, the Court accepts as true all well-pleaded factual allegations, disregarding legal conclusions “ ‘clothed in factual garb’ second, the Court determines whether the well-pleaded factual allegations state a plausible claim for relief. See Tronox, Inc. v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (In re Tronox, Inc.), 429 B.R. 73, 90 (Bankr.S.D.N.Y.2010) (quoting McHale v. Citibank (In re 1031 Tax Group, LLC), 420 B.R. 178, 190 (Bankr.S.D.N.Y.2009) and citing Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1951). See also, Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (stating that “Twombly illustrates the two-pronged approach.”).

The Tenth Circuit has observed that there is some disagreement among Circuit Courts as to whether the new standard enunciated by Twombly results in a minimal change, or whether the new standard, in fact, requires a significantly higher standard of pleading. Khalik v. United Air Lines, 671 F.3d 1188, 1191 (10th Cir.2012) (comparing In re Travel Agent Comm’n Antitrust Litig., 583 F.3d 896, 911 (6th Cir.2009) (finding that, to satisfy the Twombly standard, the plaintiff must plead enough specific facts “to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence”) with id. at 912 (Merritt, J., dissenting) and Tamayo v. Blagojevich, 526 F.3d 1074, 1083 (7th Cir.2008) (stating that Twombly “did not ... supplant the basic notice-pleading standard”)). The Tenth Circuit instructs that the Twombly standard is “a middle ground between heightened fact pleading, which is expressly rejected, and allowing complaints that are no more than labels and conclusions or a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action, which the Court stated will not do.” Robbins v. Oklahoma, 519 F.3d 1242, 1247 (10th Cir.2008) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). In short, within the Tenth Circuit, the notice pleading requirement under “Rule 8(a)(2) still lives.” Khalik, 671 F.3d at 1191. With these principles in mind, the Court will evaluate the sufficiency of the Complaint in light of the Motion.

B. The Allegations in the Complaint

The Complaint contains eighty-five numbered paragraphs and consists of nine separate counts. Paragraphs 1 through 47 include allegations regarding the nature of the proceeding, jurisdiction and venue, the actions of Ms.

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90 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 759, 481 B.R. 752, 2012 WL 4848964, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wagner-v-cunningham-in-re-vaughan-co-realtors-nmb-2012.