Warner v. General Insurance Co. of America

690 F. Supp. 830, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6336, 1988 WL 68044
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 29, 1988
DocketNo. 87-0800C(6)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 690 F. Supp. 830 (Warner v. General Insurance Co. of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warner v. General Insurance Co. of America, 690 F. Supp. 830, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6336, 1988 WL 68044 (E.D. Mo. 1988).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GUNN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on defendant Banque Indosuez’s motions to dismiss plaintiffs’ first amended complaint and plaintiff-intervenor’s complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue, defendant Union Planters National Bank’s motions to dismiss plaintiffs’ first amended complaint and plaintiff-intervenor’s complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction, and defendant General Insurance Company of America’s motion to dismiss or to stay or to transfer.

Plaintiffs Don L. Warner and Patricia Ann Warner, both residents of the state of Missouri, bring the present action for declaratory and other relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 against various nonresident defendants in which they allege that their purchase of a limited partnership interest in defendant Eighty-Eighty Central Partners, Ltd. (“8080 Central”) violated the Missouri Blue Sky Laws and consequently that a promissory note and a guaranty bond/indemnification agreement they executed in connection with their purchase are unenforceable. As plaintiffs’ claims require this Court to construe the Missouri Blue Sky Laws, the state of Missouri was permitted to intervene as an additional party plaintiff.

Insofar as it is pertinent here the allegations giving rise to plaintiffs’ first amended complaint and plaintiff-intervenor’s complaint are as follows. Prior to June 1985, Vesteq Financial Corporation (“Vesteq”) issued a private placement memorandum in which it offered for sale limited partnership interests in 8080 Central, a California limited partnership. The purpose of the offering was to finance the construction of a seventeen-story office complex in Dallas, Texas. In June 1985, and in reliance on Vesteq’s private placement memorandum, plaintiffs purchased a limited partnership unit in 8080 Central. In so doing, they executed certain subscription documents, including a subscription agreement, a promissory note for $54,000 made payable to 8080 Central, and a limited partnership guaranty bond/indemnification agreement between plaintiffs and General Insurance Company of America (“General Insurance”).

As a result of the foregoing, General Insurance issued a bond on behalf of plaintiffs whereby it guaranteed payment of the promissory note. The promissory note was then assigned by 8080 Central to Banque Indosuez as collateral for a loan to finance the construction of the office complex. Banque Indosuez thereupon entered into a service agreement with Union Planters National Bank (“Union Planters”) in which Union Planters agreed to act as a service agent with respect to the promissory note. Banque Indosuez is a banking corporation organized under the laws of the Republic of France with its prinicpal place of business in Paris, France; Union Planters is a banking corporation organized under the laws of the United States with its principal place of business in Memphis, Tennessee.

In April 1986, Vesteq informed plaintiffs that the 8080 Central offering failed to conform to the requirements of the Missouri Blue Sky Laws and notified them of their right to rescind the transaction and to receive restitution for the consideration they previously tendered to 8080 Central. Plaintiffs elected to rescind, and Vesteq subsequently returned to them some of the subscription documents, but failed to return either the promissory note or the guaranty bond/indemnification agreement. As a consequence, Union Planters has made demands on plaintiffs to make installment payments due under the promissory note. General Insurance, who claims to have made installment. payments on the note to Banque Indosuez on behalf of plaintiffs, have likewise made demands on plaintiffs to make payments due it under the terms of the guaranty bond/indemnification agreement.1 Plaintiffs have refused [833]*833to accede to these demands and have requested the Court to declare their rights and obligations under the promissory note and guaranty bond/indemnification agreement. In addition, they have requested this Court to declare 8080 Central and certain broker-dealers and securities firms jointly and severably liable for any sums they may be required to pay on account of their investment in 8080 Central. They also seek their reasonable attorneys’ fees in prosecuting this action.

In response to plaintiffs’ first amended complaint and plaintiff-intervenor’s complaint, Banque Indosuez has filed its motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue, Union Planters has filed its motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, and General Insurance has filed its motion to dismiss or to stay or to transfer. For the following reasons, the Court grants Banque Indosuez’s and Union Planters’ motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction2 and denies General Insurance’s motion to dismiss or to stay or to transfer.

A. Banque Indosuez’s and Union Planters’ Motions to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

In passing on a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant, a federal diversity court is required to engage in a two-step inquiry: first, whether the forum state committed one of the acts enumerated in the forum state’s long-arm statute; and second, whether the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the defendant comports with the requirements of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. The Land-O-Nod Co. v. Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc., 708 F.2d 1388, 1340 (8th Cir.1983); Scullin Steel Co. v. National Ry. Utilization Corp., 676 F.2d 309, 312 (8th Cir.1982). Although the facts are viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the plaintiff bears the burden of offering some evidence upon which a prima facie showing of jurisdiction may be said to exist. Aaron Ferer & Sons v. Diversified Metals Corp., 564 F.2d 1211, 1215 (8th Cir. 1977) (citations omitted). If plaintiff makes a prima facie showing, the burden shifts to the moving party to show a lack of jurisdiction. Wines v. Lake Havasu Boat Manufacturing, Inc., 846 F.2d 40, 41-42 (8th Cir.1988) (citation omitted).

Missouri's long-arm statute provides in pertinent part as follows:

1. Any person or firm, whether or not a citizen or resident of this state, or any corporation, who in person or through an agent does any of the acts enumerated in this section, thereby submits such per-' son, firm, or corporation, and if an individual, his personal representative, to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state as to any cause of action arising from the doing of any of such acts:
(1) the transaction of any business within this state____

§ 506.500.1(1), R.S.Mo. (1986). The statute further provides that “only causes of action arising from acts enumerated in this section may be asserted against a defendant in an action in which jurisdiction over him is based upon this section.” § 506.500.3, R.S.Mo. (1986). In construing the statute, the Missouri courts have uniformly held that it is intended to extend jurisdiction over non-resident defendants to the limits allowed under the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. See, e.g., State ex rel. Metal Service Center of Georgia, Inc. v. Gaertner,

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Related

Piper v. Kassel
817 F. Supp. 802 (E.D. Missouri, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
690 F. Supp. 830, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6336, 1988 WL 68044, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warner-v-general-insurance-co-of-america-moed-1988.