Weinbach v. The Boeing Company

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMarch 30, 2020
Docket4:18-cv-00381
StatusUnknown

This text of Weinbach v. The Boeing Company (Weinbach v. The Boeing Company) 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
Weinbach v. The Boeing Company, (E.D. Mo. 2020).

Opinion

_ UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI EASTERN DIVISION LANA WEINBACH, ) ) □ Plaintiff, ) ) □ v. ) | ) No. 4:18-CV-00381-JAR COMPUTERSHARE, INC. and ) THE BOEING COMPANY, ) □ ) Defendant. ) !

MEMORANDUM & ORDER This matter is before the Court on Defendant Computershare, Inc.’s (“Computershare”) motion for summary judgment on statute of limitations (Doc. No. 90) and Defendant The Boeing □ Company’s (“Boeing”) motion for summary judgment (Doc. No. 96). For the reasons set forth i below, Computershare’s motion for summary judgment on statute of limitations will be granted, and Boeing’s motion for summary judgment will be granted in part and denied in part. Given this ! Court’s ruling, Computershare’s motion for summary judgment regarding measure of damages (Doc. No. 92) and motion for summary judgment on statute compliance (Doc. No. 94) will be denied as moot. I. Background!

1 Except as otherwise specified, these facts are taken from Computershare’s statement of | uncontroverted material facts in support of its motion for summary judgment on statute of □ limitations (Doc. No. 91-1) and Boeing’s statement of uncontroverted material facts in support of its motion for summary judgment (Doc. No. 98), to the extent they are admitted by Plaintiff (Doc. Nos. 110, 112).

In 1967 and 1996, Plaintiffs father purchased shares of McDonnell Douglas stock. □ Plaintiff co-owned these shares with her parents as joint tenants with right of survivorship. The shares were held in an account ending in -345 (“Account 345”). Plaintiffs mother died in 1977, . 3 leaving Plaintiff and her father as the remaining joint owners of Account 345. Plaintiff's father received quarterly dividend checks associated with Account 345 until August 1997, when McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing. In support of its motion, Boeing presented evidence that after the merger, all McDonnell Douglas shareholders were instructed to respond to have their shares converted to Boeing shares, □ but neither Plaintiff nor her father took the requested action. Plaintiff disputes that they did not □

take the requested action, testifying at her deposition that her father received instructions mailed a response. In any event, the McDonnell Douglas shares associated with Account 345 were not converted to Boeing stock, and Plaintiffs father did not receive quarterly dividend checks | associated with that account after the merger. He did, however, receive 1099-DIVs for dividends | associated with the 345 Account; the last 1099-DIV associated with Account 345 was received for □ tax year 2008 in January or February 2009.* The 345 Account was at all relevant times associated | with Plaintiff’s father’s social security number. The 345 Account is the account at issue in this | lawsuit. After the merger, Plaintiffs father bought additional Boeing shares, which Plaintiff co- owned, and they were held in an account ending in -377 (“Account 377”). The 377 Account was | associated with Plaintiffs social security number, and the address on record for both the 345 and |

2 Plaintiff in her declaration states that “[t]he 2008 1099-DIV dividend amount of the [345 Account] was significant, and it was my belief that the now-escheated account—which had □□□□□□ actually paid out dividends—was part of a dividend reinvestment plan.” Doc. No. 108-2 at15.

377 Accounts was 8720 West Kingsbury, University City, Missouri 63124 (“Kingsbury address”). □ The 377 Account is not at issue in this lawsuit.

Computershare is the transfer agent for Boeing, and it handles recordkeeping involving shareholders’ stock ownership on behalf of Boeing. Computershare identified Account 345 as having gone dormant. Computershare presented evidence, in the form of deposition testimony, i that in September 2007, Computershare sent a “due diligence” notice to Plaintiff at the Kingsbury address that stated “Our records indicate that certain property in your name is subject to state abandoned property law since there has not been recent activity on your account.”? (Doc. No. 91- □ 5). The notice then stated that the property would be transferred to the State of Missouri if no contact was made on the account. Computershare did not retain a copy of the letter sent to the Kingsbury address, but had a computer-generated spreadsheet purporting to show that the notice was sent on September 14, 2007. There was no response to the due diligence notice. The file for escheatment was prepared | by Computershare on March 10, 2008, and the property was transferred to a third party that delivers | escheated property to the state. The property was ultimately delivered to the State of Missouri on | November 3, 2008. Plaintiff has had other unclaimed property at the Missouri Treasurer’s Office since 2003. □ According to Treasurer’s Office records, it contacted Plaintiff by mail and telephone on multiple occasions after 2003 ‘regarding other unclaimed property, as well as the 345 Account. Also | reflected in these records is the fact that Plaintiff called the Treasurer’s Office on April 17, 2003, |

3 Computershare admits that the due diligence notice submitted in support of its motion for summary judgment is an example of what would have been sent to Plaintiff regarding Account 345, not an actual copy of the notice sent.

to inquire about unclaimed property, and, after she failed to return a claim form, the claim was dropped as inactive on May 21, 2009. (Treasurer’s Office Records, Doc. No. 100, at 29-32).

Plaintiff disputes that Computershare sent a due diligence notice, that she contacted the Treasurer’s Office in 2003, or that the Treasurer’s Office attempted to contact her regarding her □ unclaimed property. In her declaration, she maintains that her first contact with the Treasurer’s Office occurred in 2013, and she traveled to the Treasurer’s Office in Jefferson City in April 2016, to discuss making a claim for property. (Plaintiff's Decl., Doc. No. 108-2, at {fj 8-10). Plaintiff maintains in her declaration that she never received the due diligence notice, □□□□ she believes that Computershare never sent it to the Kingsbury address. It is undisputed that on June 28, 2004, University City condemned the home located at the Kingsbury address as a □□□□ hazard that was unsafe and unfit for habitation. Plaintiff and her father moved into an apartment at The Gatesworth, a senior living community, on October 4, 2004. In September 2007, at the time the due diligence notice was allegedly sent, Plaintiff was living at The Gatesworth with her ! father, but testified that from 2004 to 2008, she would retrieve and take the mail from the | Kingsbury address to The Gatesworth. Plaintiff ultimately filed a lawsuit against The Gatesworth following a clean-up of her | apartment orchestrated by its management. The trial transcript from that lawsuit reflects that on □ December 18, 2007, Plaintiff became ill and emergency medical personnel were called to The Gatesworth apartment. University City Fire Department responders also arrived at the scene, and □ they identified hazardous living conditions, including rooms that were inaccessible due to a large □ volume of papers and newspapers, a large amount of rotting food in the kitchen area, paper and ! plastic on top of the stove, and other unhealthy and unsafe conditions. The fire department notified The Gatesworth management regarding the condition of the apartment, which resulted in “a

cleanup of the apartment to make it a livable condition both sanitary and fire wise and access | wise.” (The Gatesworth Trial Transcript, Doc. No. 102-1 at 296). Plaintiff sued The Gatesworth for disposing of her personal property, and in this case, Plaintiff testified that The Gatesworth had thrown away some of her mail. Plaintiff's father died in January 2009.

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Weinbach v. The Boeing Company, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weinbach-v-the-boeing-company-moed-2020.