Lead Opinion
I. INTRODUCTION
We review the latest act in the long-running drama of the Western Equities, Inc. (“Westec”) stock scandal. The characters include defendants-appellants, cross-appel-lees Business Funds, Inc. (“BFI”), a small business investment company, John Austin (“Austin”), chairman of BFI, and David Bintliff (“Bintliff”), a businessman and investor. The final character is plaintiff-ap-pellee, cross-appellant Chemetron Corporation (“Chemetron”). The defendants appeal from a judgment of $18,413,160 in actual and exemplary damages for violations of the federal and Texas securities laws entered against them based on jury answers to special interrogatories.
This court is quite familiar with the Wes-tec stock scandal.
BFI, a Maryland corporation, was a small business investment company formed prior to 1961 with Houston, Texas, as its principal place of business.
In late 1961, BFI hired James Williams (“Williams”) as a vice president to supervise some of its investments. The chairman of BFI at that time was defendant Austin. While he was not a full-time chairman, spending substantial time each week with his principal business, a mortgage-banking firm, he did meet with Williams and discuss his activities several times a week.
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions orchestrated by Williams, Geo-Space, a company in which BFI had invested and for which Williams had responsibility, grew and in 1963 began considering a merger with Westec, a company listed on the American Stock Exchange. A merger with a listed company would substantially enhance the value of BFI’s investment in Geo-Space. Williams, assisted by Ernest Hall (“Hall”) of Geo-Space, undertook to consummate the merger. They acquired a foothold in Wes-tec with a private nonmarket purchase of Westec stock in August 1963 and elected Williams to the Westec board shortly thereafter. Negotiations on a merger concluded successfully in September 1964. BFI exchanged its Geo-Space stock warrants for stock in Westec, leaving BFI in control of Westec. Williams became chairman of the new company, Hall became president, and Austin was made a director.
From September 1964 until August 1966, Williams and Hall engaged in massive and complex stock operations designed to increase the value of Westec stock. These operations took many forms. For example, (Hall repaid a debt to a business associate on the condition that the money be used to purchase Westec stock on the open market during 1964; Williams aided in the financing of this deal, although it is not clear whether BFI was the source of the funds. In another instance, defendant Austin guaranteed a loan in December 1964 from a third party to Hall that Hall used to purchase Westec stock. BFI portfolio companies and Westec subsidiaries also bought Westec shares. In addition, stock was purchased in the name of various relatives and associates of Hall and Williams. In most of these transactions, BFI money appears to have played a role.
In April 1965, Williams resigned from BFI, although his connections with it appear to have continued for a short time thereafter. His departure may have been on unfriendly terms, but this is not altogether clear. About this time, Austin also left the Westec board and BFI distributed its Westec shares to its shareholders. Despite these actions BFI may, however, have continued to influence and control Westec until December 1965.
September 1965 marked the appearance of defendant Bintliff with the acquisition by Westec of Camerina Petroleum Company, partially owned by Bintliff. Bintliff exchanged his Camerina shares for Westec shares. This transaction appears to have been unrelated to the stock price manipulation operation.
Chemetron, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Chicago, began its involvement in 1965, when Williams and Hall sought to acquire a Cheme-
The manipulative activities of Hall and Williams continued after the Chemetron transaction. They ordered Westec stock in the names of third parties, seeking loans to finance the purchases. One such loan was secured by defendant Bintliff, for which he received Westec stock as a fee. Bintliff also bought Westec stock from a third party in a sale arranged by Williams.
In August 1966, as part of the scheme, Williams and Hall placed a large stock order they could not finance. Bintliff declined to finance it. Chemetron was approached to finance it but declined and informed the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Stock Exchange, which suspended trading in Westec stock. At that time Chemetron was the largest shareholder of Westec. Shortly after the suspension of trading, Westec went into Chapter X reorganization, emerging as a reorganized company in 1969. Chemetron exchanged its Westec shares with the bankruptcy trustee in 1969, receiving shares and notes in the reorganized company.
The failure of Westec spawned an avalanche of litigation. This suit began in 1967 when Chemetron sued 57 defendants seeking recovery of its losses under many provisions of the federal and Texas securities laws. Chemetron basically alleged a plan, scheme, or conspiracy to manipulate the price of Westec stock through actual or apparent trading, thereby inducing transactions by others, leading to its injury when Westec collapsed. After lengthy discovery and settlement with or voluntary dismissal of 53 of the defendants, the case against four defendants, BFI, Austin, Bintliff, and Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Company (“Brazos Valley”), came to trial in the Southern District of Texas before a jury in 1979. The legal claims had been narrowed to violations of three statutes: (1) section 9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 781 (1976); (2) section 10(b) of the 1934 Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) (1976), and SEC Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (1981), thereunder; and (3) Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4004 (Vernon 1966), the Texas anti-fraud statute.
In response to 31 special interrogatories, the jury completely exonerated Brazos Valley and found no section 9 violation. However, the trial judge entered judgment for Chemetron under section 10(b), Rule 10b-5, and article 4004 based on the jury’s remaining responses. The three defendants were held jointly and severally liable for actual damages of $4,726,128 under federal and state law, prejudgment interest of $4,817,-276, and exemplary damages under art. 4004 of $9,452,256, less settlement of $582,-500, for a total liability of $18,413,160. All defendants moved for judgment n. o. v. or a new trial, which were denied. All now appeal to this court. Chemetron lodges a cautionary cross-appeal.
III. ISSUES ON APPEAL
A. Federal Securities Law Claims.
Chemetron alleged that appellants illegally manipulated the national securities exchange market for Westec stock and failed to disclose or made misleading statements about that scheme in violation of two
While Chemetron specifically alleged violations of subsections 9(a)(1), (2), (4), and (6), the trial judge submitted to the jury only the subsection 9(a)(2) allegation, directed at the manipulative stock scheme itself. However, all three subsections of Rule 10b-5 were submitted, permitting the jury to hold appellants liable under Rule 10b-5 for either the stock scheme (Rule 10b-5(a) and/or (c)), its misrepresentation/nondisclosure (Rule 10b — 5(b)), or both.
In response to Special Interrogatory No. 6, the jury found that Chemetron had not proven that the stock scheme “affected” the price it paid for the Westec stock, a necessary element of a section 9 claim, see section 9(e), 15 U.S.C. § 78i(e). This finding foreclosed any relief under section 9. Nevertheless, the trial court entered judgment for Chemetron on its federal law claim based on Rule 10b-5. The judgment of the trial court does not specify which of Rule 10b-5’s subsections or combination of subsections it relies on. However, since the jury found that there was a manipulative stock scheme and that the scheme was not disclosed to Chemetron, the trial court’s judgment could have been based on Rule 10b-5(a) or (c) (banning fraudulent schemes in general), on Rule 10b-5(b) (prohibiting misrepresentation/nondisclosure), or on both. Thus the very jury findings that barred section 9 relief permitted, without any inconsistency, relief under Rule 10b-5.
Appellants assail this result, claiming that this overlap in private remedies imper-missibly nullifies the express remedy and limitations of section 9. This question of whether an implied private remedy is available under Rule 10b-5 for activities covered by section 9’s express private remedy is one of first impression in this circuit.
1. Supreme Court Guidance and Circuit Precedent.
Our analysis of these questions begins with the premise that “it is an elemental canon of statutory construction that where a statute expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, a court must be chary of reading others into it.” Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis,
Looking first to the Supreme Court for direction, we find that, although it has not yet addressed the question of maintaining an implied cause of action in the face of an express cause of action, see Ernst & Ernst,
But we need not decide whether Congress expressly intended § 18(a) to provide the exclusive remedy for misstatements contained in § 17(a) reports. For where the principal express civil remedy for misstatements in reports created by Congress contemporaneously with the passage of § 17(a) is by its terms limited to purchasers and sellers of securities, we are extremely reluctant to imply a cause of action in § 17(a) that is significantly broader than the remedy that Congress chose to provide.
Id. at 574,
Under Ernst & Ernst, proof of scienter is required in a private suit under Rule 10b-5. In reaching this conclusion, the Court found it significant that sections of the 1933 Act allowing recovery for mere negligence are subject to restrictions not applicable to section 10(b),
We think these procedural limitations indicate that the judicially created private damages remedy under § 10(b) — which has no comparable restrictions — cannot be extended, consistently with the intent of Congress, to actions premised on negligent wrongdoing. Such extension would allow causes of action covered by §§ 11, 12(2), and 15 to be brought instead under § 10(b) and thereby nullify the effectiveness of the carefully drawn procedural restrictions on these express actions. We would be unwilling to bring about this result absent substantial support in the legislative history, and there is none.
Id. at 210-11,
Finally, in Blue Chip the Supreme Court considered whether stock offering offerees can maintain a Rule 10b-5 cause of action despite the fact that they were neither purchasers nor sellers of the offered shares as required by the express terms of Rule 10b-5 and section 10(b). In holding that
From these decisions, we conclude that our examination of these questions must focus on whether permitting a Rule 10b-5 action here will impermissibly broaden the section 9 remedy by nullifying its restrictions in defiance of the congressional mandate. In addressing that issue, this court in Huddleston v. Herman & MacLean,
(Nos. 81-680, 81-1076),
In Huddleston, plaintiffs sought damages for alleged materially misleading statements in a prospectus.
With these Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit cases to guide us, we turn now to the specific questions before us.
2. The Misrepresentation and Nondisclosure Remedies.
Our examination of this issue begins with a comparison of the texts of the statute and rule. Subsection 9(a)(4) contains a provision forbidding misrepresentation that is quite similar to that found in Rule 10b—5:
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of any facility of any national securities exchange, or for any member of a national securities exchange—
(4) If a dealer or broker, or other person selling or offering for sale or purchasing or offering to purchase the security, to make, regarding any security registered on a national securities exchange, for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security, any statement which was at the time and in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, false or misleading with respect to any material*1161 fact, and which he knew or had reasonable ground to believe was so false or misleading.
15 U.S.C. § 78i(a)(4) (emphasis added).
It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of the mails or of any facility of any national securities exchange,
(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading ....
17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5(b) (emphasis added). The prohibition in subsection 9(a)(4) is certainly intended to apply to misrepresentations made in the course of manipulative schemes banned by section 9. See H.R.Rep. No.1383, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 10-11 (1934), reprinted in 5 J. S. Ellenberger & E. P. Mahar, Legislative History of the Securities Act of 1983 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Item 18 (1973) (hereinafter cited as Ellenberger & Mahar); S.Rep.No.792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 12-13 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 17. Whether Rule 10b-5(b) can also be applied to misrepresentations in the course of a manipulative scheme banned by section 9 turns on the results of the Huddleston analysis.
As the Huddleston court stated:
The elements necessary to prove a Section 10(b) claim have been so often applied by the lower federal courts that they can be stated in black letter fashion. To make out a claim under Section 10(b), which is based on the common law action of deceit, the plaintiff must establish (1) a misstatement or an omission (2) of material fact (3) made with scienter15 (4) on which the plaintiff relied (5) that proximately caused his injury.
We thus perceive that the implied cause of action under Rule 10b-5(b) and the express remedy of subsection 9(a)(4) differ in at least three respects, scienter, intent to induce a purchase or sale, and causation. While Rule 10b-5 permits recklessness to fulfill its scienter requirement, see supra note 15, section 9(a)(4) and (e) and its legislative history do not permit us to loosen its scienter requirement by permitting recklessness to suffice. See S.Rep.No.792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 17 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 17; H.R.Rep. No.1383, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 20 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 18. Therefore, section 9’s scienter requirement is stricter than Rule 10b-5’s.
Furthermore, the “intent to induce” requirement of subsection 9(a)(4) is distinct from the scienter requirement of Rule 10b-5(b). While one may intend to do a fraudulent act thereby fulfilling Rule 10b-5(b)’s scienter requirement, the intent that that act induce a purchase or sale is a distinct and more specific requirement. Thus the “intent to induce” requirement creates a higher burden of proof for the plaintiff under section 9(a)(4) than that borne under Rule 10b-5(b).
Finally, subsection 9(a)(4)’s causation standard is also tougher for a plaintiff — the plaintiff’s purchase or sale price must be “affected,” while “the causation requirement is satisfied in a Rule 10b-5 case only if the misrepresentation touches upon the reasons for the investment’s decline in value.” Huddleston,
Rule 10b-5(b) therefore requires no additional proof of facts creating a higher burden of proof when compared to subsection 9(a)(4). In fact, Rule 10b-5(b) creates a lower burden of proof than does subsection 9(a)(4)
3. The Stock Manipulation Remedies.
Because there are some differences between subsections 9(a)(1), (2), and (6), we must compare each separately to Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) to fulfill the Huddleston analysis.
a. The Elements of Rule 10b-5(a) and (c).
To violate Rule 10b-5(a) and (c), a person must (1) employ a device, scheme, or artifice to defraud or engage in a course of business that operates as a fraud (2) with scienter
b. The Elements of Subsection 9(a)(1).
To make out a violation of subsection 9(a)(1) in a private action under subsection 9(e), a plaintiff must prove the existence of (1) a wash sale or matched orders in a security
c. The Elements of Subsection 9(a)(2).
In order to show a violation of subsection 9(a)(2) in a private suit under subsection 9(e), a plaintiff must plead and prove that (1) a series of transactions in a security creating actual or apparent trading in that security or raising or depressing the price of that security,
d. The Elements of Subsection 9(a)(6).
To prove a violation of subsection 9(a)(6) in a private suit under subsection 9(e), a plaintiff is required to show (1) a series of transactions in a security
e. A Comparison of Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) and Subsections 9(a)(1), and (2), and (6).
We note several elements that make a violation of subsections 9(a)(1), (2), and (6) more difficult to prove than a violation of Rule 10b-5(a) and (c).
First, causation, as discussed previously, is much easier to prove under Rule 10b-5 than under section 9.
Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) therefore require no additional proof of facts creating a higher burden of proof when compared to subsections 9(a)(1), (2), and (6). In fact, Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) create a lower burden of proof.
4. Legislative History of the 1933 and 1934 Acts and the Proper Scope of Rule 10b-5.
Any doubts about the results reached under the Huddleston analysis are laid to rest by an analysis not undertaken in Huddle-ston, Wachovia, or Ross — the intent of Congress as revealed in the legislative history and structure of the 1933 and 1934 Acts. Reviewing that history and structure, we conclude that in the coherent and comprehensive scheme for controlling securities fraud that Congress established,
Section 9 is considered “[t]he very heart of the Act.” SEC, Report on Proposals for Amendments of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, H.R. Comm. Print, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 50 (1941). With its procedural and substantive limitations, it takes aim at several specific
That Congress was very concerned about the scope of section 9 is evidenced by its meticulous drafting, legislative history, and the massive investigation that led to it. See, e.g., S.Rep.No.1455, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 54-55 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 21 (known as the Fletcher Report); H.R.Rep.No.1383, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 10-11 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenber-ger & Mahar, Item 18. To nullify section 9 by implication would violate the “cardinal principle of construction that repeals by implication are not favored.” Silver v. New York Stock Exchange,
Not only is such clear intent of nullification absent from section 10(b)’s legislative history, but that history demonstrates the opposite — that section 10(b) was never intended to supplant or traduce the remedies and limitations of section 9 or the other express remedies of the 1933 and 1934 Acts. From its inception through various amendments and into its final "form, section 10(b) was always intended as a “catchall” provision to reach activities not covered or anticipated in other provisions of the Acts.
In House committee hearings, Thomas Corcoran, an official of the Roosevelt administration who assisted in the drafting of the Act, described the provisions of section 9(c), the forerunner of section 10(b), in these terms:
Subsection (c) says, “Thou shalt not devise any other cunning devices” .... Of course subsection (e) is a catch-all clause to prevent manipulative devices. I do not think there is any objection to that kind of a clause. The Commission should have the authority to deal with new manipulative devices.
Stock Exchange Regulation, Hearings Before the House Comm, on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 115 (1934), reprinted in 8 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 23 (emphasis added). J. M. Landis, FTC Commissioner and one of the Act’s draftsmen, substantiated this interpretation of section 10(b): “[I]t gives the general power to the Commission to prescribe rules and regulations governing any other manipulative devices.” Id. at 21, reprinted in 8 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 23 (emphasis added).
In line with the catchall purpose of section 10(b), the conference committee broadened the SEC’s rulemaking power to include protection of the public interest, as well as protection of investors. H.R.Conf. Rep.No.1838, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 32-33 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 20. The Supreme Court and this circuit have consistently interpreted section 10(b) as a catchall. See, e.g., Aaron,
From this power to enact catchall rules under section 10(b) came Rule 10b-5. Judge Ainsworth, in his thorough and scholarly opinion in Herpich, captured the precise origins and original purpose of the Rule:
The SEC adopted Rule 10b-5 in 1942 to close a “loophole in the protections against fraud administered by the Commission by prohibiting individuals or companies from buying securities if they engage in fraud in their purchase.” SEC Sec.Exch.Act Rel.No.3230 (May 21, 1942). The purpose of the rule, it seems clear, was to afford sellers of securities the same protections already afforded purchasers by the federal scheme of securities regulation. Previously, fraud on sellers, as distinct from fraud on purchasers, see Securities Act of 1933, § 17(a), 15 U.S.C. § 77q(a), was not covered by the securities acts unless committed by an over-the-counter broker or dealer. 8 SEC Ann.Rep. 10 (1943); see Securities Exchange Act of 1934, § 15(c), 15 U.S.C. § 78o(c). Viewing the rule as an “additional protection to investors,” 8 SEC Ann.Rep. 10 (1943), the Commission fashioned it to “make applicable to the purchase of securities, the same broad anti-fraud provisions which the Congress has imposed in Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, in connection with the sale of securities.” Ward La France Truck Corp., 13 S.E.C. 373, n.8 (1943). To accomplish this end the Commission . . . copied the language of section 17(a) of the Securities Act . . . and applied it “in connection with the purchase or sale of any security,” this being the reach of section 10(b). See also Birnbaum v. Newport Steel Corp., 2 Cir., 1952,193 F.2d 461 , 463 ; 3 and 6 Loss, Securities Regulation 1424-1427 (2d ed. 1961), 3617 (Supp. 2d ed. 1969).
In 1946, four years after the adoption of Rule 10b-5, came the landmark decision by Judge Kirkpatrick that there existed an implied private right of action under the Rule. Kardon v. National Gypsum Co.,
Judge Kirkpatrick confronted a novel issue again in 1948, one apposite to our case. In Rosenberg v. Globe Aircraft Corp.,
It cannot be supposed that Congress intended to abolish [the] regulations and limitations [of §§ 77k and 777] when it enacted Sec. 10 of the Act of 1934. By any reasonable rule of statutory interpre*1168 tation, it would require either an express repeal or an implication of repeal so strong as to be inescapable. The two Acts are unquestionably in pari materia and must be construed together to make a consistent whole. Looking at them as one statute it is simply not possible that Congress, having prescribed in elaborate detail procedural requirements which must be fulfilled in order to enforce civil liability attaching to a carefully defined type of violation, would have casually nullified them all in a later section. Nor can an intention to do so be deduced from the general provisions of Sec. 29 of the Act of 1934,15 U.S.C.A. § 78bb, which is, “The rights and remedies provided by this chapter shall be in addition to any and all other rights and remedies that may exist at law or in equity .. .. ” As a matter of fact “this chapter” does not provide any remedies for the violation of Sec. 10(b). Those remedies arise by the general law of torts, which attaches civil liability to the violation of a criminal statute. The point in Kardon v. National Gypsum Co., D.C.,69 F.Supp. 512 , was not that the Act itself provided a civil remedy, but that there was nothing in it to indicate that Congress intended to withhold from injured parties the right to recover damages which normally attends violations of a criminal statute. Undoubtedly “The rights and remedies provided by this chapter” referred to in Sec. 29 were intended to be the rights and remedies which the Act of 1934 did, in Sec. 9, 16 and 18, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 78i, 78p and 78r, expressly provide for violations of those sections. No other interpretation can avoid making a completely incongruous piece of legislation out of the two statutes in question.
The reasoning of Judge Kirkpatrick in Rosenberg has been applied by two recent Supreme Court opinions, Blue Chip and Piper. In Blue Chip, the Court held that to acquire standing under Rule 10b-5, private plaintiffs must be either purchasers or sellers of securities, the so-called Birnbaum rule.
In Piper, the Supreme Court was confronted with a claim that the Birnbaum rule applies to plaintiffs pursuing private remedies under Rule 10b-6.
From Piper, we conclude that a private plaintiff pursuing an implied remedy is bound by the congressional limits on the express remedy from which it is derived. From Blue Chip, we derive a similar principle: implied remedies are limited by the provisions of comparable express remedies.
Despite the legislative history of sections 9 and 10(b) that underlies the Rosenberg-Blue Chip-Piper principles limiting implied remedies, courts have permitted private plaintiffs to use rules promulgated under section 10(b) to reach section 9 activity without imposing section 9’s restrictions. See, e.g., cases cited supra note 9.
This is such a case. Section 9 encompassed this scheme. Yet relief was granted under Rule 10b-5, defying the intent of Congress as revealed in the legislative history of the Acts. From that history, “we are compelled to conclude that Congress provided precisely the remed[y] it considered appropriate.” Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clam-mers Association,
5. Conclusion
Because we have found that permitting a Rule 10b-5 remedy here would impermissi-bly nullify the section 9 remedy and is “unnecessary to ensure the fulfillment of Congress’ purposes” in enacting the 1934 Act, Santa Fe Industries,
B. Texas Securities Law Claims.
Chemetron alleged violations of article 4004, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. (Vernon 1966).
1. Errors in the Submission of Special Interrogatories and Instructions,
a. Special Interrogatories.
Appellants assert that the trial court erroneously failed to submit or submitted faulty special interrogatories on three elements of an article 4004 claim: (1) duty to disclose, (2) intent to induce action, and (3) material inducement. Further, appellants claim that it was error not to submit a separate interrogatory requesting exemplary damages as to each appellant. Chemetron initially rejoins that appellants’ failure to request or object to the special interrogatories submitted below waives a jury trial on those issues under Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(a),
We turn now to the asserted errors.
Rule 49(a) allows special verdicts at the discretion of the trial court. The trial court also has discretion over the nature and scope of the issues submitted, a discretion reviewable only for abuse. Loffland Brothers Co. v. Roberts,
(i) whether, when read as a whole and in conjunction with the general charge the interrogatories adequately presented the contested issues to the jury; (ii) whether the submission of the issues to the jury was “fair”; and (iii) whether the “ultimate questions of fact” were clearly submitted to the jury.
Dreiling v. General Electric Co.,
There is no doubt that a judge must clearly and properly instruct the jury with regard to the resolution of key issues in a given case. However, there is no basis for [appellant’s] apparent assumption that because an issue is important to the outcome of a case, the jury must be instructed to supply a specific answer informing the court how they resolved that one issue. No party is entitled to a special verdict on each of the multi-faceted, multitudinous issues essential to the resolution of a given case.
Miley v. Oppenheimer & Co.,
Guided by these holdings, we turn to the law of fraud in Texas. Each of the following elements must be established in order to permit recovery: (1) the charged party made a false material representation that consisted of either a positive untrue statement of material fact, concealment of a material fact, or nondisclosure of a material fact that the charged party had a duty to disclose; (2) the charged party knew that the material representation was false or made it recklessly without any knowledge of its truth; (3) the charged party made the false material representation with the intent that it should be acted upon by the charging party; (4) the charging party acted in reliance thereon; and (5) the charging
Appellants first assert that this was only a case of nondisclosure, and hence it was error not to submit a special interrogatory on the duty to disclose.
Chemetron cites several Texas cases in which nonfiduciary relationships have been held to create a duty to disclose, see, e.g., Campbell v. Booth,
Thus, silence alone by the defendants in this case does not create liability. Premising liability on the jury’s affirmative answer to Special Interrogatory No. 20 was error without a jury finding that a confidential relationship existed.
The jury instructions on Texas law did not cure the failure to submit a special interrogatory that addressed some factual predicate of a duty to disclose. They simply stated that liability is created for “an omission or concealment of material fact by a person with a duty to disclose.” There was no explanation of the duty, when it arises, how it is discharged, and so forth. The jury could not reasonably have made the required threshold finding of a factual basis for a duty to disclose before answering Special Interrogatory No. 20. It was not instructed to do so, nor was Special Interrogatory No. 20 cast in such form as to require one. Therefore, either a special interrogatory concerning the basis of the defendants’ duty to disclose to Chemetron should have been submitted to the jury, or Special Interrogatory No. 20 should have addressed it, since it was a material issue. We need not and do not express any opinion on whether the defendants had such a duty here. We hold only that such an issue should have been submitted to the jury. On remand, if liability under Texas law is submitted to the jury based solely or in part on nondisclosure, Chemetron must prove the existence of a confidential relationship under the law of Texas as we interpreted it in Southwest E & T Suppliers.
Appellants also challenge the failure of the trial court to submit a special interrogatory on their intent to induce action by Chemetron. Chemetron argues that this element is established by taking the instructions and interrogatories as a whole. Hence it would have been needlessly redundant to submit a special interrogatory on this issue. In so arguing, Chemetron claims that this element is necessarily part of the alleged manipulative scheme directed at the investing public at large, which included Chemetron.
While Special Interrogatory No. 1 covered the issue of intent to induce action by the public at large,
Appellants’ third attack on the special interrogatories complains of the burden of proof placed on them in Special Interrogatory No. 25 on material inducement, which stated in full:
DEFENDANTS’ BURDEN SPECIAL INTERROGATORY NO. 25
Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that Chemetron’s decision to purchase Westec securities in January, 1966 would have been the same decision if all transactions comprising the scheme, plan or conspiracy to manipulate had been disclosed to Chemetron prior to the purchase?
The jury answered “no.”
Our review of this issue requires some explanation of the instructions and special
Under Erie, burden of proof is a substantive issue governed by state law in a diversity case such as this. See 9 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure §§ 2405 and 2409 (1971). Under Texas law the burden of proof for every element in an action for fraud is on the plaintiff. Brooks v. Parr,
This court cannot assume that the jury realized that the burden of proof in Special Interrogatory No. 25 was erroneous and therefore ignored it. The trial court had established a clear written pattern for the jury to follow when deliberating, and it is reasonable to believe that they did so despite what their verbal instructions had been. See Cann v. Ford Motor Co.,
However, it is clear from the record evidence of a massive manipulative scheme that the jury would have answered a special interrogatory stating the correct burden of proof the same way. Given the scale of this scheme, no reasonable corporate investor would have behaved as Chemetron did if it knew about the scheme, and no reasonable juror could have reached a different conclusion. Therefore, the improper placement of the burden of proof here is not reversible error. See Sheppard Federal Credit Union
Appellants’ final complaint about the special interrogatories is the failure to submit one that required the jury to apportion exemplary damages among them.
The purposes of exemplary damages are the punishment of an intentional act by a defendant and the deterrence of future misbehavior. See Pace v. McEwen,
In Special Interrogatory No. 26, the jury applied article 4004’s willfulness or knowledge requirement to each defendant:
*1175 If you have found that a scheme or plan to manipulate the stock of Western Equities existed in answer to Special Interrogatory No. 1, or if you have found that a conspiracy existed in answer to Special Interrogatory No. 7, and if you have found that the existence of that plan, scheme or conspiracy was a material fact which was not disclosed to Cheme-tron in answer to Special Interrogatories 20 and 22, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that any of the defendants willfully concealed the existence of such material fact or knowingly took advantage of said activity?
Answer by naming said defendants, if any.
All persons making the false representations or promises and all persons deriving the benefit of said fraud, shall be jointly and severally liable in actual damages, and in addition thereto, all persons wilfully making such false representations or promises or knowingly taking the advantage of said fraud shall be liable in exemplary damages to the person defrauded in such amount as shall be assessed by the jury, not to exceed double the amount of the actual damages suffered.
(emphasis added).
There is ample support in the case law for this interpretation of the statute. Texas courts have long followed several criteria for the evaluation of exemplary damage awards made by a jury in its discretion. The first, that exemplary damages be reasonably proportional to actual damages, see Southwestern Investment Co. v. Neeley,
the nature of the wrong, the character of the conduct involved, the degree of culpability of the wrongdoer, the situation and sensibilities of the parties concerned, and the extent to which such conduct offends a public sense of justice and propriety.
Schutz v. Morris,
In a case like this with several conspirators (and many other conspirators not before the court) who may have had varying degrees of intent or knowledge, who participated in the scheme in different ways over a long period of time, and who performed in
Our conclusion is buttressed by the line of Texas cases that have either upheld separate consideration of exemplary damages for each defendant in a multi-defendant case or supported the principle of separate consideration. In Schütz, the court said:
Where two or more wrongdoers together take part in the wrong, it is entirely possible that one may be prompted by malice, while the other is not. Or it may be that though both be guilty, the culpability of one is much greater than that of the other, thus warranting a greater penalty.
Chemetron cites Crisp v. Southwest Bancshares Leasing Co.,
Statutory interpretation, Texas case law, and our evaluation of the facts in this case indicate that separate consideration of the amount of exemplary damages for each defendant is required.
b. Jury Instructions.
The defendants claim that they were prejudiced because the jury was not correctly instructed, in Jury Instruction No. 32,
“[T]he test is not whether the charge was faultless in every particular but whether the jury was misled in any way and whether it had understanding of the issues and its duty to determine those issues.” Our jurisprudence mandates that we consider the charge as a whole, viewing it in the light of the allegations of the complaint, the evidence, and the arguments of counsel.
Smith v. Borg-Warner Corp.,
Looking at the contested instruction, we see the following: (1) the jury was never informed of the purposes of exemplary damages (deterrence and punishment of extraordinary misconduct); (2) the jury was correctly cautioned several times that an award was discretionary; and (3) it was properly told what criteria article 4004 required (intent or knowledge) for exemplary damages. In the arguments of Cheme-tron’s counsel we find instances where counsel informed the jury of the nature of punitive damages. Next, we have the “entitled to” language of Special Interrogatory No. 31, which may be misleading on the purposes of exemplary damages but is not reversible error in and of itself. See supra note 69. Finally, Chemetron sought punitive damages in its complaint and, we note without intimating any view on the sufficiency of this evidence, did present evidence in support of its claim.
Against this backdrop, the defendants point to Texas and federal standard jury instructions on exemplary damages as proof of the trial court’s error.
Although it is a close question, we hold that these instructions and the language of Special Interrogatory No. 31 are not erroneous under Smith — they did not mislead the jury or create misunderstanding of the issues. The special interrogatory and the instructions made clear to the jury that an award of exemplary damages was discretionary. The special interrogatory and instructions did not erroneously tell the jury
While so holding, we reiterate that the, issue is close and that a trial judge must be extremely careful to keep exemplary damages within their proper sphere to prevent a jury from assessing them for invalid or speculative reasons. See Lee v. Southern Home Sites Corp.,
2. Article 4004 and Texas Common Law of Civil Conspiracy.
The defendants challenge their liability as conspirators for violating article 4004. Since we have already found reversible error in the Texas judgment, it is necessary to discuss only one of these challenges, that of Bintliff. Bintliff claims that even if he joined the alleged conspiracy, he joined it well after Chemetron’s purchase of Westec stock, and therefore he cannot as a matter of law be held liable for any fraud in connection with that purchase under article 4004. We address this claim to resolve it and to clarify Texas law should this case be retried on the remand that we order.
The elements necessary for liability under article 4004 have already been outlined. See supra p. 1171. Bintliff correctly asserts that since he was not involved in the Chemetron transaction, his conduct does not fulfill those elements, particularly the requirement of having fraudulently induced Chemetron, not the public at large, to purchase Westec shares. See supra p. 1173; Oilwell Division, United States Steel,
Texas recognizes the ancient common-law doctrine that civil conspiracy consists of “ ‘a combination by two or more persons to accomplish an unlawful purpose or to accomplish a lawful purpose by unlawful means.’ ” Fenslage v. Dawkins,
In this case, Chemetron alleged and offered proof that the continuing conspiracy Bintliff joined had both an unlawful purpose — market manipulation — and was pursued via unlawful means, including inducing the public to buy or sell Westec stock in violation of article 4004. None of the conspirators had specific sellers or buyers in mind when the conspiracy began or as it progressed. As each transaction occurred, however, the conspirators could meet the criteria for violating article 4004 by defrauding that particular buyer or seller. This case deals with only one fraudulent act in this broad conspiracy and with only one member of the public defrauded, Cheme-tron.
This principle also covers late-joining conspirators such as Bintliff. See, e.g., State v. Standard Oil Co.,
Bintliff satisfies the conditions imposed by section 19. He joined the conspiracy after its inception but before its consummation. “A conspiracy, especially one which contemplates a continuity of purpose and a continued performance of acts, is presumed to continue until there has been an affirmative showing that it has terminated . . . . ” United States v. Etheridge,
Civil conspiracy principles do not require that Bintliff have intended to defraud a specific party, only that he knowingly have joined the conspiracy intending to defraud its general targets. See, e.g., Schlumberger,
“A ‘conspiracy to defraud’ on the part of two or more persons means a common purpose, supported by a concerted action to defraud, that each has the intent to do it, and that it is common to each of them, and that each has the understanding that the other has that purpose.”
If a jury accepts Chemetron’s proof that Bintliff knowingly agreed to participate in the alleged conspiracy to defraud the public and the jury also finds that one of his coconspirators violated article 4004 by defrauding Chemetron, Bintliff must be held liable to Chemetron under a long-established rule in Texas: “[A person] having once entered the conspiracy, however late, becomes in law a party to every act previous or subsequently done by any of the others in pursuance of it.” Standard Oil Co.,
Bintliff raises a final argument on this issue that we must address. He claims that while he may be liable for actual damages under article 4004 and Texas conspiracy law based on the acts of his coconspirators, he cannot be held liable for exemplary damages based on their acts.
Earlier in this opinion, we held that the wording of article 4004 and Texas case law require individual assessment of exemplary damages under article 4004. See supra at p. 1177. While civil conspiracy law can be used to render Bintliff liable for actual damages under article 4004, we agree with him that punitive damages can only be assessed against him based on his conduct. The purpose of punishment and
This is not to say that, as a matter of law, Bintliff cannot be liable for punitive damages here since he joined the conspiracy late. Article 4004 permits exemplary damages against persons who “knowingly tak[e] . . . advantage” of fraud. Thus, if Cheme-tron can prove that Bintliff knowingly took advantage of the defrauding of Chemetron, he can be held liable for exemplary damages.
C. Other Issues on Appeal.
We address three other allegations in order to guide the trial court if there is a new trial on remand.
1. The In Pari Delicto Instruction.
Appellants claim that it was error to deny them an in pari delicto instruction as to Chemetron. The grant of this defense is within the discretion of the district court, Wolfson v. Baker,
One important circumstance is the effect of the dispute on the investing public. If the fraud is worked only between the parties to the lawsuit, the public is not affected. If, however, as here, the fraud affected the public, use of in pari delicto is disfavored because it will hinder bringing of securities fraud cases. See id. at 602-03;
[E]ven in a case where the fault of plaintiff and defendant were relatively equal, simultaneous and mutual, the court might still reject the defense if it appeared that the defendant’s unlawful activities were of a sort likely to have a substantial impact on the investing public, and the primary legal responsibility for and ability to control that impact is with defendant.
Id. In the Woolf opinion on petition for rehearing, the court likened this equal-simultaneous criterion to the “vital” cooperation of coconspirators required to accomplish the conspiratorial scheme.
Given these standards, the evidence does not persuade us that, even if Chemetron was a party to the conspiracy, it was a “vital” party. The trial court could well have concluded that the “primary legal responsibility” for the conspiracy lay with the defendants. Therefore, he did not abuse his discretion in denying this defense.
2. Use of the Zero-Value Theory in Measuring Damages.
In Special Interrogatory Nos. 27 and 30, addressing federal and Texas law, respectively, the jury found that had there been disclosure of the manipulative scheme prior to Chemetron’s receipt of Westec stock on January 14, 1966, “the real and actual value” of that stock would have been zero. Defendants appeal the use of the zero-value theory in Chemetron’s presentation of its
The briefs are directed almost exclusively to the validity of the zero-value theory and related points under federal law. We need not decide any federal law questions since we have held that Chemetron has no federal cause of action for this fraud. Therefore our analysis of this theory and the other points on appeal is performed according to Texas law to guide a trial on remand.
We first consider an issue other than the theory itself. Defendants allege that Chemetron’s expert who advanced the zero-value theory improperly incorporated post-purchase events in his damage assessment. The text of article 4004 expressly describes what evidence is relevant to a damage calculation:
All persons guilty of such fraud shall be liable to the person defrauded for all actual damages suffered, the rule of damages being the difference between the value of the property as represented or as it would have been worth had the promise been fulfilled, and the actual value of the property in the condition it is delivered at the time of the contract.
(emphasis added).
It is clear from article 4004 that any events occurring after January 14, 1966, may not be considered in assessing actual damages. Thus, the experts on damages and the jury may not consider, for instance, manipulative transactions after that date, the revelation of the scheme to the SEC, the cessation of trading in Westec stock, or the bankruptcy of Westec. Other considerations, such as an assumption that prepur-chase transactions were illegal, may be used if they meet the standard tests for the admission of evidence, adequate foundation and the like. We leave these issues to the discretion of the trial judge on remand.
As to the zero-value theory, Chemetron contends that “actual value” in article 4004 refers only to the market value of the Westec stock, and the market value of Westec stock would have been zero had the scheme been disclosed. Appellants argue that even if the Westec stock had no market value, it had an intrinsic value representing the assets, tangible and intangible, of Westec, and that article 4004 includes this intrinsic value in the term “actual value.”
The resolution of this debate requires an initial inquiry into the nature of damages under article 4004. The seminal case on common law damages for fraud in Texas, George v. Hesse,
In assessing damages in stock fraud cases under either article 4004 or the common law, Texas courts have employed the standard of value used by the damaged party. Thus, if a damaged party used the market value in striking its bargain, that became the standard. See, e.g., Chandler v. Butler,
Based on these principles of Texas law, the use of the zero-value theory here was erroneous. The parties established a trading value different from and below the market value of Westec stock on the date of the transaction. There is no evidence that Chemetron contemplated the higher market price as a benefit of its bargain. Cheme-tron was making an investment in Westec, which is why it used the company’s assets in establishing a price for the transaction. Unless Chemetron expected to benefit from the market price, it is speculative and conjectural to award damages based on it.
Even if Chemetron did anticipate the market price as a benefit of the bargain, the damages here would still be speculative or conjectural. The zero-value theory posits that during the panic after the disclosure of a scheme the stock will have no value. Such a panic period is an unpredictable phenomenon — its duration, effect on stock prices, and so forth are highly speculative and conjectural. See Beecher v. Able,
Therefore, on remand, the zero-value market theory may not be used. Indeed, no theory that uses market value to set damages can be used, since market value played no role in the striking of the bargain. Chemetron must prove that the value it placed on the Westec stock (which ignored market value) was reduced by the fraud. The difference between the amount Cheme-tron paid (representing the value it placed on the Westec stock) and this reduced value, if any, represents the damages “actually suffered” and recoverable by Chemetron.
3. The Admission of Williams’ Securities Fraud Conviction.
Defendants argue that the probative value of admitting Williams’ securities fraud conviction into evidence was outweighed by its prejudicial effect. The conviction came into evidence in a short, two-question colloquy at the conclusion of Williams’ lengthy, complicated testimony on the scheme and was also mentioned in closing argument.
In assessing the relevance and prejudice of this evidence in a civil case under Fed.R. Evid. 403,
Having passed the relevancy threshold, we must now consider whether the trial judge abused his discretion when he decided that the “danger of unfair prejudice” posed by the conviction did not “substantially outweigh” its probative value. “The task for the court in its ascertainment of probative value and unfair prejudice under rule 403 calls for a commonsense assessment of all the circumstances surrounding the extrinsic offense.” Id. at 914. We find this advice on the meaning of “unfair prejudice” in the Notes of the Advisory Committee on the federal evidence rules:
“Unfair prejudice” within its context means an undue tendency to suggest decision on an improper basis, commonly, though not necessarily, an emotional one.... In reaching a decision whether to exclude on grounds of unfair prejudice, consideration should be given to the probable effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of a limiting instruction. See Rule 106 [now 105] and Advisory Committee’s Note thereunder. The availability of other means of proof may also be an appropriate factor.
28 U.S.C.A. Fed. Rule of Evidence 403 at 102-03 (1975).
The defendants could have requested, but apparently did not, a limiting instruction that is their right under Rule 105.
The Notes also mention consideration of other means of proof. One aspect of such consideration must be whether Williams’ conviction is redundant of other less prejudicial evidence. Rozier is instructive on this issue. In Rozier the issue was defendants’ negligence in manufacturing the car in which plaintiff’s decedent was killed when it ignited after being hit from behind by another ear. The trial court admitted into evidence the guilty plea on charges of manslaughter of the driver of the other car. On appeal, this court held this to be an abuse of discretion. The court noted that the criminal conviction had limited probative value since it duplicated already ample evidence of the obvious cause of the auto accident in that case. See
This case is quite different from Rozier. While the cause of the accident was obvious in Rozier, here the legality of the alleged scheme was strongly disputed between the parties. The relevance of this conviction is not at all attenuated. In Rozier there was a danger that the two forms of causation, the obvious cause of the accident and the disputed proximate (legal) cause of the death, would be confused. The conviction was not at all relevant to the dispute over proximate cause. Here, however, Williams’
Undue prejudice could also have resulted had the conviction been repeatedly emphasized to the jury or had Chemetron introduced the conviction of other conspirators. See United States v. Fleetwood,
IV. CROSS-APPEAL ISSUES
Chemetron lodges a cautionary cross-appeal on several issues. This appeal is triggered since we have reversed the judgment under section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5.
A. Denial of Directed Verdict and J. N. O.
V. on Special Interrogatory No. 6.
In Special Interrogatory No. 6 the jury found that the price paid by Chemetron for its Westec stock was not “affected by” the fraudulent scheme. Therefore, the defendants could not be liable under section 9. See § 9(e), 15 U.S.C. § 78i(e). Chemetron appeals the denial of a directed verdict or judgment withstanding the verdict on this issue and advances an interpretation of “affected by” in support.
The gist of Chemetron’s interpretation is that every price of a stock being manipulated is a false price until the manipulation is revealed and the market reacts. Therefore, all transactions, whether on or off the market, during a manipulation and before its relevation are at false prices, and all are “affected by” the manipulation as a matter of law. In support of this far-reaching interpretation, Chemetron cites no case law, only general passages from the legislative history of the 1934 Act on the importance of open and honest securities markets.
This interpretation of section 9(e) would obviate its causation requirement. Given Congress’ numerous careful substantive and procedural restrictions on a section 9(e) private cause of action, we cannot countenance an interpretation of 9(e) that works at cross-purposes to Congress’ intent by effectively reading section 9(e)’s causation requirement out of the statute. At a minimum, “affected by” plainly must mean that the manipulated price influenced or was responsible for the purchaser’s or seller’s price.
Under this minimum definition, the jury verdict was amply supported by the evidence. W. W. Whitnell, an officer of Chemetron, testified at trial that he was “the person primarily in charge of determining what would be a fair price for the [Westec] stock.” He served as the “leading negotiator for Chemetron in connection with the Chemetron/Westec deal.” In deposition testimony that he reaffirmed at trial, Whitnell said that the negotiators struck a bargain for the nonmarket transaction in October 1964. This bargain was approved
Thus, just as in Crane, Rosenberg, and Kerrigan, it is clear that the allegedly manipulated market price of the Westec shares in no way influenced or was responsible for the nonmarket price Chemetron paid for its Westec stock. Chemetron did not base its price on the market price or even use it as a factor. Therefore, it paid no “improper premium” for the Westec stock it purchased. While Chemetron was apparently aware of the market price, it was completely ignored or totally discounted in its Wes-tec negotiations. Mere awareness of the allegedly manipulated market price will not suffice under section 9(e).
B. Collateral Estoppel.
Chemetron argued in its proposed pretrial order that Bintliff be collaterally estopped from relitigating certain factual issues adjudicated adversely to him in Cosmos Bank v. Bintliff, Civ. Action No. 67-H-590 (S.D.Tex.1975). The trial court denied Chemetron’s proposal, and it appeals.
It is necessary to detail the facts at some length in order to analyze this question correctly. Cosmos Bank was one of the many cases arising out of the Westec collapse. The instant case, Cosmos Bank, and many others were consolidated for the purposes of pretrial proceedings in 1970. Cosmos Bank came to trial before Judge Han-nay without a jury from December 17,1974, until February 12, 1975. On May 1, 1975, the trial judge filed and entered a lengthy “Memorandum and Order” detailing his findings of fact and conclusion of law. Based on those findings and conclusion, judgment for over $700,000 in damages and interest was to be awarded to the plaintiff. Plaintiff filed a motion for judgment on May 9, and on May 16 Bintliff filed his motion in opposition to entry of judgment.
On May 29, Bintliff’s counsel wrote the United States District Clerk, saying that Bintliff and Cosmos Bank would settle only if the trial judge would sign an order preventing use as offensive collateral estoppel of the findings and conclusions.
As a preliminary issue we must decide which offensive collateral estoppel rules, Texas or federal, to apply. Because this case was brought in federal court based on federal question and pendent jurisdiction and the estoppel claim is based on a prior case in federal court, we will apply federal rules. See Stovall v. Price Waterhouse Co.,
The Supreme Court’s landmark case of Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore,
Id. at 331,
The first step in the application of this rule is to determine whether Chemetron could have joined the Cosmos Bank suit. We find that that was not possible. As the Westec cases were filed in Houston or transferred from New York, nearly all of them were placed on Judge Hannay’s docket. See Wyndham Associates v. Bintliff,
The second step in our analysis is possible unfairness to defendant Bintliff. The Court in Parklane gave several examples of possible unfairness to the defendant that should block the use of offensive collateral estoppel. The first was that if the defendant was sued in the first action “for small or nominal damages, he may have little incentive to defend vigorously, particularly if future suits are not foreseeable.”
Another unfair situation is where “the judgment relied upon as the basis for estop-pel is itself inconsistent with one or more previous judgments in favor of the defendant.” Id. (footnote omitted). There is no such inconsistency here because there are no previous judgments.
“Still another situation where it might be unfair to apply offensive collateral estoppel is where the second action affords the defendant procedural opportunities unavailable in the first action that could readily cause a different result.” Id. at 630-31 (footnote omitted). The Court suggested that such procedural obstacles could be an inconvenient forum inhibiting full discovery or the availability of witnesses. Id. at 631 n.15. There are no such procedural problems here. Indeed, Cosmos Bank was originally filed in New York, and Bintliff had it transferred to Houston, where he lives, for convenience. See Wyndham Associates,
The Parklane Court did not consider its list of considerations exhaustive. See
Criteria 1, 2, 4, and 6 have been covered already. Criterion 3 requires us to consider our view that settlements are “highly favored in the law.” Pearson v. Ecological Science Corp.,
As to criterion 5, there is no question that the factual issues are the same. Criterion 7, because it appears to require a “judgment,” leads us to an evaluation of whether we should require the final ministerial act of entering final judgment before giving collateral estoppel effect to the findings of fact of the trial court.
The general rule in this circuit is that there must be “judicial finality” before collateral estoppel can be invoked. Since judicial finality has been assumed without analysis to require entry of final judgment, a settlement with no final judgment on the merits has been said to bar collateral estoppel. See, eg., Kaspar Wire Works, Inc. v. Leco Engineering & Machine, Inc.,
As the Second Circuit pointed out in Kurlan v. C. I. R.,
In Zdanok v. Glidden Co., Durkee Famous Food Division,
Dealing with this very question of the kind of finality of judgment necessary to create an estoppel, we pointed out, quite recently, that collateral estoppel does not require a judgment “which ends the litigation . .. and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment,” Catlin v. United States,324 U.S. 229 , 233,65 S.Ct. 631 [633],89 L.Ed. 911 (1945), but includes many dispositions which, though not final in that sense, have nevertheless been fully litigated. Lummus Co. v. Commonwealth Oil Refining Co.,297 F.2d 80 , 89 (2d Cir. 1961), cert. denied,368 U.S. 986 ,82 S.Ct. 601 ,7 L.Ed.2d 524 (1962), and cases cited. As we there said, “ ‘Finality’ in the context here relevant may mean little more than that the litigation of a particular issue has reached such a stage that a court sees no really good reason for permitting it to be litigated again.
The Second Circuit has reaffirmed these principles several times. See, e.g., United States ex rel. DiGiangiemo v. Regan,
Thus, the finality requirement does not necessarily demand the ministerial act of executing a judgment. It does not elevate form over substance in that fashion — the accurate definition of “finality” in the offensive collateral estoppel context is “fully litigated.” In this instance, the facts of Bintliff’s activities found in Cosmos Bank have been found again by the jury in Chem-etron. Thus, they have been twice fully litigated. That Judge Hannay felt he had rendered a fully litigated, fair, and correct adjudication on the merits in Cosmos Bank is evidenced by his refusal to sign an order granting a new trial because such an order had “no basis” and by his threat to enter judgment.
A recent opinion in the Ninth Circuit reinforces our conclusion here. In Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Jeppesen & Co.,
In conclusion, we have held that “although the decision to apply offensive collateral estoppel rests in the discretion of the trial judge, . . . this discretion is not unbounded and must be channeled through the considerations of fairness listed in Park-lane, along with any other considerations of fairness which the trial judge deems appropriate.” Hicks,
C. Federal Securities Law Claims Against Bintliff Based on Chemetron’s Alleged 1969 “Forced Sale” of its Westec Shares to the Bankruptcy Trustee.
Chemetron claims that it should have been permitted to submit to the jury claims against Bintliff under sections 10(b) and 9, and Rule 10b-5, arising out of an alleged “forced sale” of its Westec stock to the Westec bankruptcy trustee in June 1969.
The scope of this issue on appeal can be quickly narrowed. Since we have held that the fraud at issue here gives rise only to a section 9 cause of action, the “forced seller” doctrine of Rule 10b-5 cannot be applied. That leaves the issue of whether the 1969 claim is cognizable under section 9. However, we need not reach the merits of this claim, since it is quite evident from the proceedings below that Chemetron has been less than diligent in pursuing this claim and gave the trial judge ample cause to deny its submission to the jury.
Chemetron’s 1967 complaint asserted many causes of action and described the alleged manipulative scheme as well. However, that complaint could allege nothing about a 1969 transaction with the bankruptcy trustee. Its only reference to the bankruptcy was to say that “[Westec] is currently undergoing reorganization in a proceeding under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act” caused by the manipulative scheme. This was enough, Chemetron claims, to put the defendants on notice of a possible claim arising out of a possible bankruptcy “sale.” Chemetron argues that further notice, if necessary, was provided by discovery in August 1974, when defendants were informed of the terms of the “sale.”
As a result of the complaint and discovery, Chemetron asserts that there was adequate notice of this claim under Fed.R. Civ.P. 8’s liberal pleading doctrine. However, Chemetron neglects the strictures of Fed.R.Civ.P. 9:
(b) Fraud, Mistake, Condition of the Mind. In all averments of fraud or mistake, the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake shall be stated with particularity. Malice, intent, knowledge, and other condition of mind of a person may be averred generally.
While Rules 8 and 9 must be read in conjunction, see Powell, Inc. v. Abney,
Nor do we think discovery here afforded adequate notice of this claim to the defendants in the absence of a sufficient complaint. In 1974, the defendants apparently learned of the 1969 transaction through interrogatories. But merely learning of the “sale,” without more, did not give them notice of a specific claim arising out of it
Second, while the federal rules do not require statement of a legal theory in order to obtain relief, see Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 15,
Overall, then, we hold that defendants never had sufficient notice of this claim until the pretrial conference held shortly before trial in August and September of 1979, more than ten years after the 1969 “sale.” When Chemetron submitted its proposed pretrial order containing this claim at the conference, defendants were naturally surprised and objected. In response to a subsequent motion by Chemetron, the trial judge, in October 1979, barred a claim based on the 1969 transaction and limited the use of evidence about the 1969 “sale” to one issue:
ORDERED that Chemetron Corporation will not be barred from submitting evidence regarding its sale of Westec stock on June 24, 1969, as that sale relates to establishing the measure of damages as an element of its cause of action for violations of § 9(e) asserted against Defendant Bintliff in Plaintiff’s Complaint.
Chemetron never objected to this order and never pursued its fall 1979 motion for leave to file supplemental pleadings pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(d), specifically alleging and seeking relief based on the 1969 “sale.” Only now does Chemetron complain of the trial court’s failure to grant the motion to supplement.
Granting such a motion is within the discretion of the trial court. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc. v. City of Mesquite,
Given these factors, we hold that there were the “substantial reason[s]” required under Rule 15 to deny the motion to supplement. See Dussouy,
Balanced against these “substantial reasons” to deny is the possible prejudice to Chemetron of denial of leave to supplement. That prejudice is preclusion of a section 9 claim based on the 1969 transaction. Given the weakness of that legal theory and the fact that Chemetron’s primary cause of action arose out of its original purchase of the Westec securities, this prejudice is slight. Finally, judicial economy gave the trial court further cause to bring this case to trial without additional delay twelve years after its filing. For these reasons, we deny Chemetron’s cross-appeal on this issue.
V. CONCLUSION
To summarize, we hold and order the following: (1) Chemetron has no section 10(b) or Rule 10b-5 action in this case, and the judgment, insofar as it is based on them, is reversed; (2) the judgment for actual and exemplary damages based on Texas law is reversed due to the errors found; on remand the parties may retry the Texas claims in accordance with the rulings on Texas law and other issues found in this opinion; and (3) we find merit in only one of Chemetron’s cross-appeal claims; in a new trial on remand, Bintliff may be collaterally estopped from relitigat-ing facts found in Cosmos Bank.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Notes
. Austin died after the filing of this appeal, and his estate is prosecuting it.
. See, e.g., Williams v. Commissioner,
. Since initiation of this suit, BFI has become part of the Penn Central Corp.
. Art. 4004 was repealed effective September 1, 1967, shortly after Chemetron’s complaint was filed on August 21, 1967, by ch. 785, § 4, 1967 Tex.Gen. Laws, and reenacted as Tex.Bus. & Comm.Code § 27.01 (Vernon 1968). There was no change in the statute relevant to our disposition. For consistency with prior proceedings in this case, we refer to the Texas claim as arising under art. 4004 throughout.
. Section 9(a) provides:
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of any facility of any national securities exchange, or for any member of a national securities exchange—
(1) For the purpose of creating a false or misleading appearance of active trading in any security registered on a national securities exchange, or a false or misleading appearance with respect to the market for any such security, (A) to effect any transaction in such security which involves no change in the beneficial ownership thereof, or (B) to enter an order or orders for the purchase of such security with the knowledge that an order or orders of substantially the same size, at substantially the same time, and at substantially the same price, for the sale of any such security, has been or will be entered by or for the same or different parties, or (C) to enter any order or orders for the sale of any security with the knowledge that an order or orders of substantially the same size, at substantially the same time, and at substantially the same price, for the purchase of such security, has been or will be entered by or for' the same or different parties.
(2) To effect, alone or with one or more other persons, a series of transactions in any security registered on a national securities exchange creating actual or apparent active trading in such security or raising or depressing the price of such security, for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security by others.
(3) If a dealer or broker, or other person selling or offering for sale or purchasing or offering to purchase the security, to induce the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange by the circulation or dissemination in the ordinary course of business of information to the effect that the price of any such security will or is likely to rise or fall because of market operations of any one or more persons conducted for the purpose of raising or depressing the prices of such security.
(4) If a dealer or broker, or other person • selling or offering for sale or purchasing or offering to purchase the security, to make, regarding any security registered on a national securities exchange, for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security, any statement which was at the time and in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, false or misleading with respect to any material fact, and which he knew or had reasonable ground to believe was so false or misleading.
(5) For a consideration, received directly or indirectly from a dealer or broker, or other person selling or offering for sale or purchasing or offering to purchase the security, to induce the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange by the circulation or dissemination of information to the effect that the price of any such security will or is likely to rise or fall because of the market operations of any one or more persons conducted for the purpose of raising or depressing the price of such security.
(6) To effect either alone or with one or more other persons any series of transactions for the purchase and/or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange for the purpose of pegging, fixing, or stabilizing the price of such security in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
. Rule 10b-5 states:
It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of the mails or of any facility of any national securities exchange,
(a) To employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud,
(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading, or
(c) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security.
. Section 10(b) declares:
It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce or of the mails, or of any facility of any national securities exchange—
(b) To use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange or any security not so registered, any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
. Section 9(e) reads:
(e) Any person who willfully participates in any act or transaction in violation of subsection (a), (b), or (c) of this section, shall be liable to any person who shall purchase or sell any security at a price which was affected by such*1157 act or transaction, and the person so injured may sue in law or in equity in any court of competent jurisdiction to recover the damages sustained as a result of any such act or transaction. In any such suit the court may, in its discretion, require an undertaking for the payment of the costs of such suit, and assess reasonable costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, against either party litigant. Every person who becomes liable to make any payment under this subsection may recover contribution as in cases of contract from any person who, if joined in the original suit, would have been liable to make the same payment. No action shall be maintained to enforce any liability created under this section, unless brought within one year after the discovery of the facts constituting the violation and within three years after such violation.
. New courts have confronted this precise question, and we are the first to do so primed with the benefits of several recent and significant Supreme Court securities law cases.
In United States v. Charnay, 537 F.2d 341 (9th Cir.), cert. denied,
More recently, Wolgin v. Magic Marker Corp.,
. Because there were no specific allegations of violations of § 9(a)(3) and (5), which prohibit dissemination of information on predicted stock values or trading, commonly known as “prophecies,” the question of their nullification by Rule 10b-5 is not before us. However, our entire analysis applies to them with equal force and would yield the same conclusions.
. The grant of certiorari was limited to two questions. In No. 81-680, the question is:
Does implied remedy exist under either § 10(b) of 1934 Securities Exchange Act or § 17(a) of 1933 Securities Act for purchasers of securities who have express remedy under § 11 of 1933 Act by virtue of fact that securities purchased were issued pursuant to registration statement filed as required by § 5 of 1933 Act?
. Prior cases in this circuit do not permit us to forego the Huddleston analysis.
In Alabama Farm Bur. Mut. Cas. Co. v. American Fidelity Life Ins. Co.,
We also note that some Fifth Circuit cases have been cited as holding that “remedies of the two [1933 and 1934] Acts are cumulative and that plaintiffs have a choice in the event of overlap.” Wachovia,
However, in Wolf the district court held and this court affirmed that (1) plaintiffs had no individual claim under Rule 10b-5 but that derivative relief under- Rule 10b-5 was available and that (2) plaintiffs had an individual claim under § 12 of the 1933 Act, 15 U.S.C. § 771 (1976), but no derivative claim. See
In Rekant, although this court cited the Second Circuit dicta in Fischman v. Raytheon Mfg. Co.,
Neither Wolf nor Rekant requires us to recognize a § 9 remedy here and forego the Hud-dleston analysis.
. The opinion does not mention a § 9 claim, and there probably was no basis for one since the misleading statements were not alleged to be part of a stock manipulation scheme, and the stock at issue was apparently not registered on a national securities exchange as § 9 requires.
. In Ross, the claims involved stock price manipulation and artificial price inflation through dissemination of false and misleading information in annual reports, press releases, a prospectus, and 10 -K forms, some of which were filed with the SEC. See
Wachovia dealt with allegations of artificial stock price inflation through numerous oral and written misrepresentations, including press releases, SEC-filed reports, and unfiled reports. See
Huddleston, Wachovia, and Ross posited another reason, not present here, for permitting an implied cause of action. If those courts had permitted only express remedies, the availability of those remedies would have depended in part on whether the documents containing the misrepresentations were filed with the SEC. However, all three opinions concluded that basing liability on such a vagary would be irrational and therefore permitted an implied cause of action under Rule 10b-5 free of the filing requirements of the express remedies. See
. The definition of scienter in this circuit follows that of the Supreme Court in Ernst & Ernst: “A mental state embracing intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud,”
limited to those highly unreasonable omissions or misrepresentations that involve not merely simple or even inexcusable negligence, but an extreme departure from the standards of ordinary care, and that present a danger of misleading buyers or sellers which is either known to the defendant or is so obvious that the defendant must have been aware of it.
id. at 961 62. The Supreme Court has reserved the question of whether scienter under Rule 10b 5 includes recklessness. See Aaron v. SEC,
. Although the express language of § 9(a)(4) addresses only “false or misleading” statements and not omissions, Congress intended it to cover omissions as well. See H.R.Conf.Rep.No. 1838, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 32 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 20 (“The Senate amendment . . . expressly provides that a statement shall be construed to include any omission to state a material fact. The latter provision is omitted from the substitute as surplusage, in view of the fact that a statement obviously may be misleading because of a materia] omission.”); cf. In re Penn Central Securities Litigation,
. Subsection 9(a)(4) addresses statements or omissions that are “false or misleading with respect to any material fact.”
. Subsection 9(a)(4) covers statements or omissions made if the speaker “knew or had reasonable ground to believe" that they were false,or misleading, (emphasis added). Subsection 9(e) applies to “[a]ny person who willfully participates in any act or transaction in violation of subsection (a) . . .. ” (emphasis added).
The interplay of § 9(a)(4) and (e) yields at most two standards for actionable behavior. The first, a statement or omission known to be false or misleading and willfully made, clearly constitutes scienter. The second, a statement or omission believed to be false or misleading at the time and under the circumstances made,
. Subsection 9(a)(4) applies to statements or omissions made “for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale” of a security. (Emphasis added). Subsection 9(e) applies to “[a]ny person who willfully participates in any act or transaction in violation of subsection (a) .. .. ” (emphasis added).
. As Judge Rubin stated in Huddleston, reliance and causation are related but distinct concepts. See
We hold that § 9(a)(4) also requires reliance on the omissions or misstatements. The legislative history of § 9 makes clear that Congress desired that reliance be established. “[T]he burden is on the plaintiff to show . . . the fact that the statement was false or misleading, and that he relied thereon to his detriment.” S.Rep.No. 792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 13 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 17. This is in accord with the observation that the securities law remedies for misrepresentation are rooted in the common law tort cause of action for deceit, see, e.g., Huddleston,
. Subsection 9(e) extends liability “to any person who shall purchase or sell any security at a price which was affected by [an] act or transaction [in violation of subsection (a)].” (emphasis added).
. Accord 1 A. Bromberg & L. Lowenfels, Securities Fraud & Commodities Fraud § 2.5(4) (1968) (“Proof requirements appear much easier under 10b-5 than under express civil-liability provisions for market manipulation.”) (emphasis added, footnote citing § 9 omitted).
. This concern over “inexorable broadening of the class of plaintiffs” under Rule 1 Ob-5, Blue Chip,
. While we have reached our conclusion by focusing solely on the burden of proof, there are also procedural limitations on § 9 remedies not present in Rule 10b-5 actions. See § 9(e) (discretionary security costs and fees, right of contribution, uniform federal statute of limitations). The Supreme Court has emphasized that courts must respect both the substantive and procedural limitations imposed by Congress. See. e.g., Ernst & Ernst,
Finally, we also note the presence of an “additional consideration ] that weigh[s] heavily against permitting a cause of action under Rule 10b 5,” Santa Fe Industries,
. See Ernst & Ernst,
. See Huddleston,
. Wash sales are banned by § 9(a)(1)(A), matched orders by § 9(a)(1)(B) and (C).
. The very language of § 9(a)(1) requires scienter (e.g., “effect any transaction,” “enter any order . .. with the knowledge”). In addition, subsection 9(e) applies to any person who “willfully participates” in an act or transaction violating § 9(a). See S.Rep.No. 792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 17 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 17; H.R.Rep.No. 1383, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 20 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 18; United States v. Minuse,
. § 9(a).
. The legislative history of § 9 erects a reliance requirement:
[T]he bill provides that any person who unlawfully manipulates the price of a security, or who induces transactions in a security by means of fraud or misleading statements . . . shall be liable in damages to those who have bought or sold the security at prices affected by such violation or statement. In such case the burden is on the plaintiff to show the violation or the fact that the statement was false or misleading, and that he relied thereon to his detriment.
S.Rep.No. 792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 12-13 (1934), reprinted in 5 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 17.
. § 9(e).
. § 9(a)(2). It should be noted that § 9(a)(2)’s reach may be limited by SEC rules permitting manipulative activities for legitimate stabilizing purposes. See, e.g., SEC Rule 10b 7, 17 C.F.R. § 240.1 Ob-7 (1981). Prior to Rule 10b-7’s adoption in 1955, courts had held that legitimate stabilizing activity during a stock distribution otherwise violative of § 9(a)(2) is not actionable. See, e.g., Pergament v. Frazer,
. See, e.g., Crane Co. v. Westinghouse Air Brake Co.,
. § 9(a)(2).
. See supra n.30.
. § 9(e).
. § 9(a)(6).
. Id. The SEC does not currently have any rules published exclusively under § 9, although several § 10(b) rules are promulgated either pursuant to both §§ 9 and 10(b) or pursuant to § 10 but covering § 9 activities. See, e.g., Rules 10b 6, 7, 8, 13, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-6, 7, 8, 13 (1981). Thus, reference must be had to those rules and any conditions they impose if a plaintiff is pursuing a § 9(a)(6) claim. However, none of those rules may be used to circumvent Congress’ statutorily-imposed requirements as found in § 9(a)(6) and (e). See infra n.39.
. The SEC has maintained that it can enact prophylactic rules, such as Rule 10b-6, which brand particular practices illegal per se without the necessity of proving scienter. See Brief of the SEC as Amicus Curiae in Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, Inc.,
Whatever the current status of SEC rules in SEC enforcement actions, to the extent that an SEC rule is the basis for an express private cause of action under § 9, that rule may not be used to defy the will of Congress as expressed in § 9(e) by discarding elements of that cause of action. An SEC rule cannot be used to make an end-run around the language and intent of a statute. See Ernst & Ernst,
Our conclusion is buttressed by the observation that Congress intended activities banned by, for instance, § 9(a)(1) (wash sales and matched orders) to be illegal in all situations, yet the very language of § 9(a)(1) requires scienter and any doubt about Congress’ intent is removed by the scienter requirement in § 9(e) for private actions. See S.Rep.No. 792, 73d Cong., 2d Sess. 17 (1934), reprinted in 5
. See note 40 on page 1165.
*1165 Ellenberger & Mahar, Item 18. To have it otherwise could, as Chief Judge Cardozo said long ago, render defendants liable “in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class.” Ultramares Corp. v. Touche,255 N.Y. 170 , 179-80,174 N.E. 441 , 444 (1931), quoted in Ernst & Ernst,425 U.S. at 215 n.33,96 S.Ct. at 1391 n.33.
40. See supra n.30.
. § 9(e).
. In the wake of Shores v. Sklar,
. See supra nn.15, 18.
. Shores may also further reduce the plaintiffs burden of proof of reliance under Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) insofar as it permits reliance on the “integrity of the marketplace.” See
. Accord, 1 A. Bromberg & L. Lowenfels, supra n.22.
. See supra n.23.
. See supra n.24.
. Judging by the comments of its own members, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is probably one of the better statutes in terms of coherence and thoroughness ever to emerge from Congress. See, e.g., 78 Cong.Rec. 8164 (1934) (remarks of Sen. Fletcher).
. “Wash sales” are banned by § 9(a)(1)(A), “matched orders” by § 9(a)(1)(B) and (C), market operations by § 9(a)(2), “prophecies” by § 9(a)(3) and (5), false and misleading statements by § 9(a)(4), pegging, fixing, or stabilizing securities prices by § 9(a)(6), and “puts,” “calls,” “straddles,” “options,” and “privileges” by § 9(a)(6), (b), (c), and (d).
. As comments made by “persons responsible for the preparation or the drafting of [the] bill,” Ernst & Ernst,
. To like effect is another early case, Montague v. Electronic Corp. of America,
The settled rule of statutory construction is that, where there is a special statutory provision affording a remedy for particular specific cases and where there is also a general provision which is comprehensive enough to include what is embraced in the former, the special provision will prevail over the general provision, and the latter will be held to apply only to such cases as are not within the former.
Id. (citations omitted); see In re Bache & Co., [1972-73 Transfer Binder] Fed.Sec.L.Rptr. (CCH) ¶ 93,571 (§ 9 exclusive remedy for activities it covers, no Rule 10b-5 coverage) (N.Y. Sup.Ct.1972).
. The rule is named after the case in which it originated, Birnbaum v. Newport Steel Corp.,
. SEC Rule 10b-6, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-6 (1981).
. The SEC urged this position on the Court. See Brief of the SEC as Amicus Curiae, supra note 39, at 191-94.
. Accord, Ruder, Civil Liability Under Rule 10b-5: Judicial Revision of Legislative Intent?, 57 Nw.L.Rev. 627, 660, 685 (1963).
We recognize that Rule 10b-5 was not expressly promulgated pursuant to § 9 as was Rule 10b-6 in Piper. Compare Rule 1 Ob-5, SEC Exch.Act Rel. No. 3230 (1942), reprinted in A. Bromberg & L. Lowenfels, supra n.21, at app. B (Rule promulgated “pursuant to authority conferred upon [SEC] by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, particularly Sections 10(b) and 23(a) thereof’) with Rule 1 Ob-6, SEC Exch.Act Rel. No. 5194 (1955), reprinted in [1952-56 Transfer Binder] Fed.Sec.L.Rep. (CCH) ¶ 76,350 (Rules 1 Ob-6, -7, and -8 promulgated “pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, particularly Sections 3(b), 9(a)(6), 10(b) and 23(a) thereof”).
However, since the SEC may administer the securities laws only in conformance with congressional intent, see Aaron,
. Because we deny Chemetron’s cross-appeal of the trial judge’s (1) denial of a directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict regarding Special Interrogatory No. 6 (the answer to which foreclosed § 9 relief because the jury found that the scheme had not “affected” the price it paid for its Westec stock) and (2) denial of a federal securities law claim arising out of its 1969 sale of its Westec stock to the bankruptcy trustee, see infra section IV, we pretermit discussion of numerous other issues raised on appeal insofar as they are directed at the federal securities law claims.
. Former Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4004 (Vernon 1966) (reenacted as Tex.Bus. & Comm. Code § 27.01 (Vernon 1968), see supra n.4, declared:
Actionable fraud in this State with regard to transactions in real estate or in stock in corporations or joint stock companies shall consist of either a false representation of a past or existing material fact, or false promise to do some act in the future which is made as a material inducement to another party to enter into a contract' and but for which promise said party would not have entered into said contract. Whenever a promise thus made has not been complied with by the party making it within a reasonable time, it shall be presumed that it was falsely and fraudulently made, and the burden shall be on the party making it to show that it was made in good faith but was prevented from complying therewith by the act of God, the public enemy or by some equitable reason. All persons guilty of such fraud shall be liable to the person defrauded for all actual damages suffered, the rule of damages being the difference between the value of the property as represented or as it would have been worth had the promise been fulfilled, and the actual value of the property in the condition it is delivered at the time of the contract. All persons making the false representations or promises and all persons deriving the benefit of said fraud, shall be jointly and severally liable in actual damages, and in addition thereto, all persons wilfully making such false representations or promises or knowingly taking the advantage of said fraud shall be liable in exemplary damages to the person defrauded in such amount as shall be assessed by the jury, not to exceed double the amount of the actual damages suffered.
. Rule 49(a) provides:
Special Verdicts. The court may require a jury to return only a special verdict in the form of a special written finding upon each issue of fact. In that event the court may submit to the jury written questions susceptible of categorical or other brief answer or may submit written forms of the several special findings which might properly be made under the pleadings and evidence; or it may use such other method of submitting the issues and requiring the written findings thereon as it deems most appropriate. The court shall give to the jury such explanation and instruction concerning the matter thus submitted as may be necessary to enable the jury to make its findings upon each issue. If in so doing the court omits any issue of fact raised by the pleadings or by the evidence, each party waives his right to a trial by jury of the issues so omitted unless before the jury retires he demands its submission to the jury. As to an issue omitted without such demand the court may make a finding; or, if it faiis to do so, it shall be deemed to have made a finding in accord with the judgment on the special verdict.
(emphasis added).
. After the reading of the instructions to the jury and its retirement, the trial judge entertained objections on the record to the instructions. Counsel for Chemetron proposed that all counsel file objections at a later time. The trial court agreed, as did counsel for BFI on behalf of all defendants.
All defendants subsequently filed timely objections to the instructions and interrogatories that covered all of their points on appeal. These objections repeated those made at an off-the-record charge conference in chambers before submission to the jury.
. Thus the Huddleston court, for instance, found that reliance and causation were contested material issues in a Rule 10b-5 case and required their submission.
. The premise underlying this assertion is that the existence of a duty to disclose is always a jury issue. This premise is not valid in all cases. The existence of such a duty depends on whether there is a fiduciary or confidential relationship between the parties, which is usually a question of fact for the jury. See, e.g., Schiller v. Elick,
. Special Interrogatory No. 20, upon which liability under Texas law is premised, asked: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that at the time and the occasion of Chemetron’s purchase of Western Equities stock on January 14, 1966, that there was no disclosure to Chemetron of said plan, scheme or conspiracy?” (emphasis added).
. Special Interrogatory No. 1 asked:
Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that during the period September 2, 1964 through August 25, 1966, James W. Williams, directly or indirectly, alone or with others, participated in a plan or scheme to manipulate the stock of Western Equities by effecting a series of transactions in the stock of Western Equities, creating actual or apparent active trading in or raising the price of Western Equities stock for the purpose of
inducing the purchase or sale of such stock by others ?
(emphasis added).
. Special Interrogatory No. 1 is not defective in what it does — ask the jury whether there was a scheme or conspiracy. But as our discussion of Texas law infra reveals, the exist- ■ ence of a civil conspiracy alone does not create liability under art. 4004: at least one of the conspirators must specifically defraud the plaintiff.
. Burden of Proof
Plaintiff has the burden of proving its contentions by a preponderance of the evidence taking into account the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, and the testimony of witnesses that you have heard.
It is important now that you understand what preponderance of the evidence means. It means to prove that something is more likely so than not so. It is the greater weight of the believable evidence. If upon any question submitted to you, you should find that the evidence is equally balanced, then the plaintiff has not sustained its burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence on that question. It does not mean that you have to believe the side with the most witnesses, but it means that you should weigh all the testimony which, when considered and compared with the testimony opposed to it, has the most convincing force and produces in your minds a belief that what is sought to be proved is more likely true than not true. Jury Instruction No. 11.
. The court’s instruction on this issue declared:
Withdraw
In connection with the term “withdraw” or “withdrew” or “withdrawal” from a conspiracy as used in this case, you are instructed that a person withdraws from a conspiracy if he engages in affirmative acts inconsistent with the object of the conspiracy, that is to say acts which disavow or defeat the purpose of the conspiracy, and by communicating the abandonment in a manner reasonably calculated to reach co-conspirators. Because withdrawal is a defense, the burden of proving “withdrawal from a conspiracy" is on the defendants.
Jury Instruction No. 27.
. There is no special interrogatory on Bintliff’s withdrawal.
. We stress that this holding relies on the record in this case. The evidence as to the extent of the transactions comprising the scheme is clear, and that is the sole issue in Special Interrogatory No. 25. We intuit no view here on the sufficiency of the evidence on liability for the scheme.
In the vast majority of cases, the evidence will not be as clear as it was here, and an incorrect placement of the burden of proof will mandate reversal. See Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. v. Breslin,
. Special Interrogatory No. 31 on exemplary damages lumped all the defendants together: “What sum of money, if any, if now paid in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff Chemetron is entitled to as exemplary damages?” Appellants complain of the use of the phrase “entitled to” because it may improperly imply that the purpose of exemplary damages is compensation for the plaintiff instead of punishment for the defendants. See Courtesy Pontiac, Inc. v. Ragsdale,
. Art. 4004 declares:
[A]ll persons wilfully making such false representations or promises or knowingly taking advantage of said fraud shall be liable in exemplary damages to the person defrauded in such amount as shall be assessed by the jury, not to exceed double the amount of the actual damages suffered.
(emphasis added). As reenacted in Tex.Bus. & Comm.Code § 27.01(c) (Vernon 1968), these requirements are maintained:
A person who willfully makes a false representation or false promise, and a person who knowingly benefits from a false representation or false promise, commit the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and are liable to the person defrauded for exemplary damages not to exceed twice the amount of actual damages.
(emphasis added).
. Tex.Bus. & Comm.Code § 27.01 retains the difference:
0s) A person who makes a false representation or false promise, and a person who benefits from that false representation or false promise, commit the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and are jointly and severally liable to the person defrauded for actual damages... .
(c) A person who willfully makes a false representation or false promise, and a person who knowingly benefits from a false representation or false promise, commit the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and are liable to the person defrauded for exemplary damages not to exceed twice the amount of actual damages.
(emphasis added).
. This conclusion is reinforced by the Legislature’s reenactment of art. 4004 in § 27.01 where the same parallel structure was retained. See supra nn. 70, 71.
. In a recent civil conspiracy case by a parent seeking damages for emotional distress due to the abduction of a child, a federal district court applying Texas law apportioned exemplary damages among the conspirators. Although apportionment was not challenged on appeal, this disposition is in accord with our interpretation of Texas law. See Fenslage v. Dawkins,
. Jury Instruction No. 32 said in full:
Exemplary Damages Under Texas Law
If you find that the plaintiff is entitled to actual damages as a result of having proved against any defendant or defendants all of the required elements of the Texas actionable fraud statute, Texas law permits the jury to award the plaintiff exemplary damages in addition to actual damages under certain circumstances. To be entitled to exemplary damages, the plaintiff must prove that such defendant or defendants willfully failed to disclose a material fact or that such defendant or defendants knowingly took advantage of the failure to disclose a material fact. In such instances a jury is permitted to award exemplary damages not to exceed twice the amount of actual damages.
If you, the jury, should find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the plaintiff is entitled to a verdict for actual or compensatory damages, and should you further find that the act or omission of the defendants or defendant which caused the actual injury or damage to the plaintiff was willfully done or with an intention to knowingly benefit from such, you, the jury, may in the exercise of your discretion, add to the*1178 award of actual damages such amount as you shall agree to be proper as exemplary. In any event, that amount may not exceed twice the amount of actual damages. Whether to make any award of exemplary damages in addition to the actual damages is a matter exclusively within the province of the jury.
. The Texas pattern instructions suggest the following instruction on exemplary damages: “ ‘Exemplary damages’ means an amount which you may in your discretion award as an example to others and as a penalty or by way of punishment.” 1 State Bar of Texas, Texas Pattern Jury Charges § 11.10 (1969).
Federal judges are advised to tell the jury: [T]he law permits the jury, under certain circumstances, ... to award the injured person punitive and exemplary damages, in order to punish the wrongdoer for some extraordinary misconduct and to serve as an example or warning to others not to engage in such conduct.
3 Devitt & Blackmar, Federal Jury Practice & Instructions § 85.11 (3d ed. 1977).
. We note that the interaction of art. 4004 and Texas civil conspiracy law to render Bintliff liable here arguably may raise due process problems. We think not.
Although art. 4004 and the conspiracy law applied here are civil, not criminal, in nature, they can be labelled penal or quasi-criminal because they address fraud and permit punitive damages for violation. In order to err on the side of caution, we will apply criminal law standards in our due process analysis.
The possible due process problem is one of vagueness. Under a criminal statute, a person cannot be held “criminally responsible for conduct which he could not reasonably understand to be proscribed.” Rose v. Locke,
In Texas, even before the enactment of art. 4004, the common law provided a remedy for actual damages for stock fraud, see Bordwine, Civil Remedies Under the Texas Securities Laws, 8 Houston L.Rev. 657, 658 & n.6 (1971); exemplary damages were also available in Texas at common law without statutory authorization, Briggs v. Rodriguez,
Art. 4004 codified the common law of fraud and concomitant exemplary damages, see Bordwine, supra, at 658 & n.7, changing (enlarging) only the measure of actual damages, see El Paso Development Co. v. Ravel,
. This result also avoids the possible due process problems of imposing exemplary damages, which are punitive in nature, on Bintliff without regard to his intent to commit the act for which he is punished. See Marshall v. Isthmian Lines, Inc.,
. “Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.”
. Limited Admissibility
When evidence which is admissible as to one party or for one purpose but not admissible as to another party or for another purpose is admitted, the court, upon request, shall restrict the evidence to its proper scope and instruct the jury accordingly.
(emphasis added).
. Since this minimum definition cannot be satisfied in this case, we express no opinions on the degree of responsibility or influence required by § 9(e) or the existence of other restrictions on the § 9(e) causation requirement.
. This is the text of the letter:
Since I talked to you last, Mr. Bintliff has offered to settle this matter for a sum which Cosmos has agreed to accept. The settlement is, however, contingent on the Judge’s entering a form of order which will protect Mr. Bintliff against the use of the Judge’s findings and conclusions in other litigation. Accordingly, [the attorney for Cosmos] and I will be filing promptly a joint motion for relief designed to meet Mr. Bintliff’s problems and I would appreciate it if the Judge would consider our previously filed motion for judgment only in the event that he decides to deny the joint motion which is about to be filed.
(emphasis added).
. The letter to counsel read, in pertinent part:
I have studied your Joint Motion for dismissal of the above matter. While I favor your agreement to settle and am willing to sign an order of dismissal that provides for withdrawal of my previous findings and conclusions, the proposed form of order granting a new trial is unacceptable. There is, in my opinion, no basis for a new trial.
I am enclosing an order that is acceptable to me. If you want me to enter this order as a part of your agreed settlement each of you should approve it at the place indicated and return it to [the district clerk] promptly. Otherwise, I will take up for consideration Plaintiffs’ pending motion for judgment on my findings and conclusions.
(emphasis added).
. The order stated:
The joint Motion of Plaintiff, Cosmos Bank, and Defendant, David C. Bintliff, having been heard by the Court; and it appearing to the Court that Plaintiff, Cosmos Bank and Defendant, David C. Bintliff, have agreed upon a compromise settlement of all claims and causes of action which were, or could have been asserted by and between them in the above-styled cause, and as a part of such compromise settlement agreement, have jointly moved the Court that this Order be entered, and the Court being of the opinion that the compromise settlement agreement which fully disposes of the claims of Plaintiff against all parties, should be approved;
THEREFORE, it appearing to the Court that pursuant to the Compromise Settlement Agreement of Plaintiff, Cosmos Bank, and Defendant, David C. Bintliff, all claims and
The general rule should be that in cases where a plaintiff could easily have joined in the earlier action or where . . . the application of offensive estoppel would be unfair to a defendant, a trial judge should not allow the use of offensive collateral estoppel. causes of action which were, or could have been asserted, by and between them in this cause, have been compromised and settled and the consideration therefore paid in full;
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the above styled cause be and it is hereby DISMISSED with prejudice as to Defendants, David C. Bintliff, Lester L. Lilley, Ernest M. Hall, Jr., and James W. Williams, and the Findings of Fact and Conclusion of Law heretofore entered by the Court in this cause be and the same is hereby withdrawn and set aside.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that costs of court be and they are hereby taxed against the Defendants, jointly and severally including the sum of $1,500 as a part of the Special Master’s Fee who supervised a portion of the consolidated discovery of which this case was a part.
. On remand in this case Bintliff faces only state law liability, since this opinion has eliminated any federal liability. He may not even face state liability, since we have held that Chemetron must prove some additional elements of an art. 4004 claim not proven in the original trial. If Bintliff is held liable under art. 4004, his actual damage liability will be joint and several, while any punitive damages will be individual. Actual damages will probably be reduced on remand, since this court has rejected the zero-value theory. Finally, as a late-joining conspirator, Bintliff’s punitive damages could be considerably less than his fellow defendants.
All in all, Bintliff’s exposure to higher damages in this case is not severe enough to prevent the use of offensive collateral estoppel.
. It may have been arguable in the first Chem-etron trial that the Cosmos Bank settlement avoided litigation by avoiding an appeal. There are two problems with this argument. First, the amount of work necessary to pursue an appeal in Cosmos Bank seems relatively small compared to the judicial and adversary effort required to undertake years of discovery and several weeks of trial. Therefore, the savings of legal resources by settling after a full trial were nominal. Second, that argument has no force now, since this issue has come before an appellate court.
. The only significant difference between this case and Parklane is that in Parklane judgment was entered in the underlying case and was affirmed on appeal, see
. On appeal, the court did not reach the merits of the ruling on offensive collateral estoppel. Because of this, we cite the district court’s opinion in Aetna only for the persuasive value of its reasoning.
. One last contention that Bintliff may raise
. It is far from clear that the Rule 10b-5 forced sale doctrine even covers the 1969 transaction. Our prior cases have held only that “substantial” liquidations of a shareholders’ interest qualify under this doctrine. See Alley,
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in all parts of Judge Gee’s opinion except Part III, A, the Federal Securities Law claims. I particularly note my concurrence in those portions of the majority opinion to which Judge Reavley directs his dissenting views.
Judge Gee’s opinion rules out any liability under federal law for the stock manipulations of James Williams and those who participated in or who are responsible for his activities. The opinion is meticulously reasoned. The difficulty I have with it is that it leads to a result which borders on the absurd. In spite of the reasoning, I cannot conclude that Congress intended any such result.
The defendants before the Court, Business Funds, Inc. (BFI) and David Bintliff are responsible for the manipulations of Williams and John Austin, Chairman of BFI, upon which this lawsuit is based. Williams was found to have engaged in a (1) scheme relating to the purchase or sale of stock, which included (2) misstatements or
In evaluating this case it is of significant aid to speculate what the result would have been if Chemetron had brought its suit only under Section 10(b) and not referred to Section 9(a) at all. I should think the result is clear. An offense was committed by the defendants under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. All of the requisites were met. It is only because an additional element of an offense under Section 9(a) was not proven that the defendants are freed of all responsibility for having violated federal securities law. This is an overtly unrealistic view of the law, and I cannot conceive that Congress would contemplate such a result.
If it were true that this was some unusual kind of stock manipulation which could only be cognizable under Section 9(a), then the majority opinion’s analysis would be correct. But such is not this case. The defendants through Williams engaged in a number of different kinds of manipulations and deceits designed to enhance the value of the stock. These manipulations and deceits were not unique nor unusual for such offenses. At least some of them were “manipulative or deceptive” devices or contrivances clearly at the core of a Section 10(b) violation as well as a Section 9(a) violation. The Section 9(a) violations charged in this case require a series of transactions. Section 10(b) requires only one. But surely it cannot be argued that someone who commits one violation under Section 10(b) must go free if he commits more than one unless additional and more stringent proofs are met. This would be an open invitation to commit more than one offense to make responsibility more difficult to prove.
It is quite true, as the opinion for the Court points out, that Section 10(b) was created as a “catch-all.” It was intended to cover transgressions other than those covered by the specific requirements of Section 9(a) and a number of other sections of the statute. But I cannot see what is wrong with the use of a catch-all. As the jury found, Williams did not violate Section 9(a). But he was in complete and literal violation of Section 10(b). Hence the application of a “catch-all.”
The opinion for the Court concedes that, “Rule 10b-5 has been extended well beyond its gap-filling purpose as originally envisioned by Congress in Section 10(b) and proposed by the SEC.” The major alteration of the scope of Section 10(b), of course, was the finding of an implied private right of action under Rule 10b-5 in Kardon v. National Gypsum Co.,
It is asserted, however, that we are bound by the analysis of this Court in Huddleston v. Herman & MacLean,
But the second, and more compelling reason, is that the Huddleston analysis did not focus at all upon or evaluate in detail a situation where, as in this case, a person engaged in deceitful stock manipulations would clearly be in violation of Section 10(b) while another person who did the same thing but was charged with his actions having a serious and harmful additional impact would go free.
Huddleston points out clearly in its footnote 7,
But Huddleston argued that these cases and these authorities are now somewhat in doubt as a result of recent Supreme Court decisions “curtailing the broader sweep given the Securities Acts by lower federal courts. . . .,”
Moving to claimed further restrictive interpretations, Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington,
Finally, Chiarella v. United States,
None of the cases summarized above has any measurable impact upon the well established law as exemplified both by commentators and the lower federal courts that Section 10(b) violations can stand along side Section 9(a) violations and violations of other sections of the law. This conclusion is also confirmed by recent holdings of both the Second and the D.C. Circuits. In Ross v. A. H. Robins Co.,
It is suggested that if we allow the Section 10(b) remedy in this case we have eliminated the provisions of Section 9(a). The same argument can be turned around the other way. If we do not allow the remedy under Section 10(b), we have eliminated Section 10(b) as it relates to manipulative and deceptive schemes in the purchase and sale of securities. And this is contrary to the exact and precise wording of the Section. There is no denying the expansion of Section 10(b) has weakened the impact of Section 9(a). But that expansion took place long before this ease. This earlier expansion, of course, lessened the significance of legislative history of the 1930’s relied upon so heavily in the majority opinion. It is not necessary in this case to decide what other kinds of improper and fraudulent stock transactions are forbidden in Section 9(a) which may not be covered by Section 10(b). Section 9(a) is a long and complicated section, and it cannot be concluded that to hold as I here suggest wipes out the entire Section 9(a).
The compelling irony in this case is that the majority view results in freeing the more serious offender but holding the lesser offender liable for engaging in exactly the same activities, manipulative and fraudulent devices in securities transactions. Such an interpretation does not ring true.
Defendants are responsible for the actions of Williams in his manipulative and deceitful wrongdoing under Section 10(b) of the statute but which fell short of violation of Section 9(a). This liability is not because of any particular activities or techniques which are any different under Section 9(a) or Section 10(b), but solely because the jury found the activities did not “affect” the value of the stock (Section 9(a)), although it is obvious, and the majority of the Court agrees, that the activities did “touch upon the reasons for the investment’s decline in value” (Section 10(b)). By the same analysis a person engaged in these stock manipulations who was charged with acting intentionally (scienter under Section 9(a)) and also recklessly (scienter under Section 10(b)) but who is found to have acted not inten
Posed as the issue is in the stark facts of this case, I cannot accept the cases which indicate that the Section 10(b) catch-all must be interpreted in such a way as to free from federal wrong-doing individuals who commit offenses which fall literally, specifically, and precisely within the scope of Section 10(b) when those same activities fall short of the offenses set out in Section 9(a). I therefore respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which rules out any liability on the part of defendants under the federal securities laws for these obviously forbidden securities manipulations.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting in part:
I join most of Judge Gee’s fine opinion. I dissent, however, from the holdings (1) that Bintliff may be held liable to Chemetron as a civil conspirator and (2) that Bintliff is collaterally estopped by the findings in. a case that was settled and dismissed by agreement of the parties.
I. Conspiracy
There is no allegation or proof in this case to justify the court’s holding that Bintliff may be liable to Chemetron as a conspirator under Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. § 4004. The evidence shows that Hall and Williams were engaged in a manipulative scheme to enhance the price of Westec stock from September 1964 until August 1966. The sale to Chemetron took place in January 1966. The only evidence against Bintliff is that he took part in three transactions — two in May 1966 and one in July 1966 — none of which concerned Chemetron. There is no evidence that Bintliff benefitted in any way from the Chemetron sale.
The majority’s holding confuses concepts of criminal and civil conspiracy. The gist of criminal conspiracy is the agreement itself: the defendant is guilty of the crime of conspiracy if he agrees to commit a substantive crime, regardless of whether he personally participates in or even knows of all the acts taken in furtherance of the conspiracy. That the defendant is guilty of conspiracy, however, does not make him guilty of the substantive crimes that his co-conspirators have committed as part of the conspiracy.
To hold a defendant liable in damages to a particular plaintiff as a civil conspirator, it is not enough to prove that, at some point, he became a member of the conspiracy. “[T]he gist of a civil conspiracy is the damage resulting from commission of a wrong which injures another, and not the conspiracy itself.” Schlumberger Well Surveying Corp. v. Nortex Oil & Gas Corp.,
The majority concedes that Bintliff could not have agreed to the “particular wrong” to Chemetron. Nevertheless, the majority holds that Bintliff may be liable by invoking the principle that a late-joining conspirator “becomes in law a party to every act previously or subsequently done by any of the others in the pursuance of it.” State v. Standard Oil Co.,
I agree with the majority that a co-conspirator need not have directly participated in or even have known of all the details of the Chemetron transaction to be liable. But Schlumberger requires that, at a minimum, he must have agreed to injure Chem-etron by the commission of a particular wrong. Such agreement could be proved by showing that the co-conspirator joined in the scheme to sell stock specifically to Chemetron, or that, prior to the sale to Chemetron, he joined in a fraudulent scheme to sell Westec stock to all comers.
We hear of no Texas authority for the proposition that a conspirator may be held liable in damages for particular wrongs committed long before his involvement in the conspiracy.
Furthermore, the evidence in this record is insufficient as a matter of law to prove that Bintliff joined in a scheme to create actual or apparent active trading in, or to raise the price of, Westec stock for the unlawful purpose of fraudulently inducing the purchase of Westec stock by the general public.
The evidence shows that Hall and Williams were engaged in a manipulative scheme to enhance the price of Westec stock from September 1964 until August 1966. As representatives of both Westec and Business Funds, which controlled Wes-tec, they had many reasons to desire the long-term enhancement of the market price of Westec stock. The only evidence against Bintliff is that he took part in three transactions which occurred months after the January 1966 sale of stock to Chemetron. These three transactions are not sufficient circumstantial evidence to prove that Bint-liff ever joined in the conspirators’ broad purpose to induce the general public to buy Westec stock.
The first two Bintliff transactions took place in May 1966. Williams offered to sell Bintliff 60,000 shares of Westec stock at $40 a share when the market price was $50 a share. Bintliff made the deal and re-sold half the shares immediately. He expressed his intent to re-sell the remainder immediately, but then agreed not to sell it until November 1966.
Later in May, Williams and Hall were in need of funds to continue financing the conspiratorial scheme. Bintliff agreed to guarantee a $3,000,000 loan for 30 days. His fee was 3,000 shares of Westec, worth $150,000 on the market.
Finally, in July 1966 Bintliff guaranteed a 3 day, $3,000,000 loan for Hall. He received a guarantee fee of $216,000 and permission to sell immediately half of his remaining shares from the first transaction.
When Bintliff discovered in August 1966 that Williams and Hall could no longer get financing for their Westec purchases, he realized that the Westec market was about to crash, and he sold his remaining shares.
This evidence does not tend to prove that Bintliff ever joined in the conspirators’ purpose to induce the purchase of Westec stock by the general public through manipulation of the market. Rather, the evidence shows that Bintliff engaged in three arm’s-length transactions with the conspirators in which he exacted a high price for his services. It was irrelevant to him whether the conspirators’ long-range manipulation scheme was successful — if, indeed, he was even aware of its scope. Bintliff was acting for his own purposes, not to advance the conspirators’ purpose. In purchasing the Westec stock, he was attempting to make a quick profit on the difference between the sale price and the market price; in guaranteeing the loan, he was taking advantage of the conspirators’ desperate need for financing.
II. Collateral Estoppel
The majority holds that Bintliff is collaterally estopped by withdrawn findings in a prior case that was settled and dismissed by agreement of the parties. This holding ignores settled principles of preclusion, overrules Fifth Circuit precedent, and undermines the strong public interest in the settlement of law suits. Its application to this case is especially unfortunate, for it deprives Bintliff of the primary benefit of his agreement to settle while resulting in almost no saving in time or resources to the litigants or the courts.
The most basic prerequisite to the use of preclusion is “a judgment that is valid, final, and on the merits.” 18 C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4427, at 269 (1981) [hereinafter Wright & Miller]. An issue is precluded (or subject to collateral estoppel) only when it is “determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment.” Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 (1982); accord, Ashe v. Swenson,
The “judgment” on which the majority bases its holding was neither final nor on the merits. Nothing was determined by the order of dismissal in the Cosmos Bank case but that the court approved the parties’ settlement and withdrew the findings of fact that the majority today finds preclu-sive.
The majority reasons that the findings of fact in Cosmos Bank meet the requirement of a final judgment because “only the judicial act of signing a final, known adverse, judgment was left.” But findings of fact in themselves have no operative effect, and certainly these withdrawn findings cannot be considered “essential to the judgment” that was in fact rendered: a judgment of dismissal.
The disposition of Cosmos Bank the majority uses was not “final.” It is the general rule that a decision is not “final” for collateral estoppel purposes if it cannot be tested by appellate review. 18 Wright & Miller, supra, § 4433, at 315-21.
Nor was the disposition of Cosmos Bank “on the merits.” It is well-settled that when litigation is terminated by a consent decree, the judgment may only preclude “the issues actually intended to be precluded by the parties.” Kaspar Wire Works,
Recognizing these basic principles of the law of preclusion, this court held in Associates Capital Servs. Corp. v. Loftin’s Transfer & Storage Co.,
Apparently, the majority believes that it need not adhere to our precedent because Bintliff voluntarily chose to avoid judgment and forgo appeal. In essence, what the majority holds today is that once a trial court is prepared to enter judgment against a litigant, that litigant may not settle his case for the purpose of avoiding the collateral estoppel effect of the district court’s findings. I think that is bad law and bad policy. Society maintains a strong interest in settlements at every stage of litigation. The majority claims that this interest is not served here because “the reason that settlements are favored is that they avoid litigation,” and that “the savings of legal resources by settling after a full trial [a]re nominal.” Even assuming, without agreeing, that “the” only reason settlements are favored is that they conserve legal re
Certainly the majority is wrong in its estimation of the savings in this case.
The sole authority the majority finds for its decision today is Aetna Cas. & Surety Co. v. Jeppesen & Co.,
[T]he result [in Aetna] is questionable at best. The terms of settlement and dismissal would make it impossible to apply issue preclusion between the parties to the original action. The prospect of applying preclusion in favor of a non-party*1203 is little more attractive. Not only did the settlement sacrifice the possibility of appeal from the findings of liability, but the subsequent use of preclusion may make it more difficult to settle cases in this posture.
18 Wright & Miller, supra, § 4433, at 318 (footnote omitted).
Finally, the majority’s holding is unfair to Bintliff. As the majority acknowledges, the primary reason that Bintliff settled Cosmos Bank was to avoid the application of collateral estoppel. He relied on well-settled rules of law in deciding to settle. He gave up his right to appeal, the exercise of which would either have delayed the trial in this case or prevented, for all practical purposes, the use of collateral estoppel in this case. He saved the judicial system a certain appeal and a possible retrial and second appeal, and saved his adversary additional time and expense in collecting damages. Nevertheless, today the majority disregards his justifiable reliance interests and deprives him of the primary benefit of his bargain. The majority says that the rules of collateral estoppel are based on “fairness,” but I see nothing fair about the majority’s decision.
. Standard Oil was an action by the State of Texas to recover statutory penalties and obtain injunctive relief against the members of an agreement that violated the state antitrust laws; it was not an attempt to recover damages for particular anti-competitive acts. See
Bourland v. State,
. An exception exists if the decision “is surrounded by alternative protections or special policies that support preclusion,” id. at 316— for example, findings adopted by the Supreme Court in cases under its original jurisdiction are given preclusive effect, see id. at 320-21. But the exception would swallow the rule if the requisite “alternative protections or special policies” could be found in the nonappealable findings of any district court.
. The unavailability of an appeal distinguishes this case from ail of the appellate court decisions on which the majority relies in finding a “final judgment.” Not only was an appeal available in the prior action in each of these cases, but in all but one the appeal had in fact been taken and the appellate court had rendered its judgment. Compare Miller Brewing Co. v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.,
. Migues v. Fibreboard Corp.,
. Settlements are favored for many reasons besides the conservation of judicial and other legal resources.
In addition to ending the uncertainty and anxiety of the litigants concerning the results of further litigation, settlements also resolve any doubts concerning the correctness of the court’s fact findings and the justness of the remedy it devises. Because “ ‘[t]here are “two sides” to most disputes,’ ” Howard v. Commissioner,
Settlements also protect the litigants’ interest in autonomy, allowing them to reach their own solution to their dispute rather than having a remedy imposed on them by a legal system that may not necessarily share the litigants’ own shared norms. See generally Eisenberg, Private Ordering Through Negotiation: Dispute-Settlement and Rulemaking, 89 Harv.L.Rev. 637, 656-57 (1976).
Moreover, it has long been recognized that the restoration of amicable and socially useful relationships is more likely to result after a negotiated settlement than after a litigated fight to the finish. See Howard v. Commissioner,
. Despite the majority’s hyperbole about “years of discovery” and “several weeks of trial,” it is obvious that the only savings in this case will be the time and expense of retrying issues that the parties have already tried once. In my estimation, it is this savings that is “nominal” when compared to the savings that resulted when Bintliff agreed to settle the Cosmos Bank case. There is no reason to believe that an appeal in Cosmos Bank — which involved smaller stakes but issues similar to those in this case — would have consumed significantly less time than the over two-and-one-half years that have elapsed since the district court entered judgment in this case. During the pendency of that appeal, the preclusive effects of the Cosmos Bank findings would have remained uncertain. See 18 Wright & Miller, supra, § 4433, at 311-13. Since a reversal in Cosmos Bank would have nullified any reliance on the Cosmos Bank findings in this case, see id. § 4432, at 303, as a practical matter the parties would have been forced to relitigate the issues, await the court of appeals’ decision in Cosmos Bank, or risk retrial of this complex case when and if Cosmos Bank was reversed.
The majority makes the mathematically indefensible claim that the Cosmos Bank settlement has resulted in “no” savings to the judicial system, because “this issue has now come before an appellate court.” What issue? No appellate court has even considered whether possible trial errors, incorrect interpretations of law, or insufficiency of evidence would require reversal of all or part of the judgment that was never entered in Cosmos Bank.
