Koblitz v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 09 July 1958
• Citation: 164 F. Supp. 367
• Parties: Milton S. KOBLITZ, Plaintiff, v. The BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

164 F. Supp. 367

Milton S. KOBLITZ, Plaintiff, v. The BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant.

United States District Court S. D. New York.

July 9, 1958.

Nathan B. Kogan, Louis Boehm, New York City, for plaintiff. David M. Palley, New York City, of counsel.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York City, for defendant. Ralph L. McAfee, George M. Billings, John D. Calhoun, New York City, of counsel.

FREDERICK van PELT BRYAN, District Judge.

Defendant moves for summary judgment, pursuant to Rule 56(b), Fed.Rules Civ.Proc., 28 U.S.C.A., on the grounds, first, that judgment in a prior action in this court is res judicata as to the cause of action alleged in the complaint, and second, that the cause of action is barred by the applicable New York statutes of limitation.

This action, commenced on February 15, 1957 in the New York Supreme Court, was removed to this court on defendant's petition on March 7, 1957. Plaintiff, the owner of $50,000 principal amount of bonds of The Alton Railroad Company (hereinafter referred to as "Alton"), sues, in a representative class action, on behalf of himself and all other owners of some $45,000,000 principal amount of Alton bonds. The complaint alleges that between 1931 and 1942 defendant Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company (hereinafter referred to as "B. & O."), which was then the sole stockholder of Alton, and completely controlled and dominated its affairs, entered into a conspiracy with Alton to defraud Alton's creditors, including its bondholders. It is alleged that in pursuance of the conspiracy Alton elected as its officers and directors employees of B. & O. and became in essence a mere agency of the B. & O. railroad system. Plaintiff charges that B. & O., with the consent and cooperation of Alton, mismanaged and milked Alton by, among other things, appropriating Alton's property and using it for its own purposes without fair compensation, diverting Alton's traffic and income, offsetting Alton's losses against its own profits, thereby depriving Alton of loss carry-overs, charging Alton excessive prices for the use of B. & O. equipment, and taking from Alton an unfair percentage of interchange revenue.

It is alleged that these acts and transactions caused Alton to default in the payment of interest on its bonds in April 1941 and resulted in Alton's reorganization under Section 77, sub. b of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 205, sub. b. The reorganization commenced on November 25, 1942 and ended May 31, 1947 with the confirmation of a plan under which Alton bondholders received $375 for each $1,000 principal amount of bonds held. Since the claims of the Alton bondholders were allowed in full in the reorganization proceedings it is asserted that plaintiff and the other Alton bondholders are in the position of judgment creditors whose claims have been unsatisfied after execution levied except to the extent provided in the reorganization plan. It is claimed that the sum of $28,343,750, the unpaid principal amount of the Alton bonds, with interest from April 1, 1941, is due and owing to the Alton bondholders from B. & O., and that this amount could not be ascertained and determined until the entry of the order in the reorganization proceedings approving the plan on May 31, 1947. Judgment is sought adjudging that Alton was merely an agent and instrumentality of B. & O., and for an accounting of all income diverted and profits made and damages caused by B. & O. as a result of the acts and transactions alleged in the complaint.

The judgments which the defendant relies upon as constituting res judicata on this cause of action were entered on March 7, 1955 and January 23, 1957 in an action in this court commenced on May 7, 1952 by Koblitz, the plaintiff here, and others, as plaintiffs against B. & O. as defendant. Reiser v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., D.C., 123 F.Supp. 44.

The prior action was also a representative class action brought by a number of Alton bondholders, including plaintiff Koblitz, on behalf of themselves and all other bondholders. The amended complaint in that action alleged in somewhat more detail the same acts and transactions by B. & O. with regard to Alton which are charged in the present complaint, as well as the same facts with respect to the Section 77, sub. b proceeding and the confirmation of the plan and the partial payments made to the bondholders thereunder. In the first cause of action the acts and transactions of B. & O. "in violation of its fiduciary duties" were alleged to have caused "loss, damage and injury to Alton, to the holders of Alton Bonds and to the property and assets covered by the lien of the mortgage securing the Alton Bonds," in the amount of $28,343,750, the principal balance of the bonds remaining unpaid after the receipt by the Alton bondholders of the sum provided by the confirmed plan in the section 77, sub. b reorganization. The second cause of action realleged all of the allegations of the first, and further alleged that

"The acts and transactions complained of also constitute a fraud practiced by the defendant upon Alton and the holders of Alton Bonds, including the plaintiffs."

Judgment was sought in the sum of "not less than $28,343,750", the unpaid balance on the Alton bonds with interest from the date of default, for distribution to the Alton bondholders by a receiver to be appointed by the court.

In the prior Reiser-Koblitz action defendant B. & O. moved for summary judgment on the ground that the claims asserted were barred by the three-year or six-year New York statutes of limitations. New York Civil Practice Act, §§ 49(7), 47-a, 48(1, 8). It also moved in the alternative for the dismissal of all claims accruing prior to May 7, 1942, ten years before the commencement of the action, as barred in any event by the New York ten-year statute of limitations. New York Civil Practice Act, § 53. The District Court held that the three-year and six-year statutes did not apply but granted partial summary judgment based upon the ten-year statute barring all claims which did not accrue within the ten-year period prior to commencement of the action. 123 F.Supp. 44.

On appeal the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the District Court. However, its reasoning differed from that of the court below and its affirmance was upon the express ground that "the pertinent period of limitations is either (a) three years, under the New York Civil Practice Act, Section 49, subdivision 7, or (b) six years, under Section 48, subdivision 1 or 8," and that the causes of action alleged were, at the least, barred by the six-year statute. 228 F.2d 563, 565.

Relying on the decision of the Court of Appeals, defendant B. & O. again moved for full summary judgment in the District Court. The District Court granted the motion, holding that, as the Court of Appeals had stated, "making assumptions most generous to the plaintiffs, suit on the claims against B & O were barred on November 25, 1948, i. e. six years from the appointment of Alton's bankruptcy trustee on November 25, 1942." Judgment was accordingly entered on January 23, 1957 dismissing the complaint on the merits. An appeal from this judgment was dismissed by the Court of Appeals for lack of prosecution on April 16, 1957, a motion to reinstate the appeal was denied May 8, 1957, and a petition for rehearing was denied June 4, 1957.

In the meantime, Koblitz, sans the other former plaintiffs, on February 15, 1957 had commenced the present action against B. & O.

The plaintiff in the present action was also a plaintiff in the prior action and B. & O. was the sole defendant in both. Both actions were representative class actions on behalf of the Alton bondholders. The same wrongful acts and transactions by B. & O. are alleged in each. The issues in both actions concern the same alleged wrongful mismanagement and looting of Alton by B. & O. to the detriment of the bondholders. In each the bondholders are alleged to be in the position of judgment creditors with execution partially unsatisfied. In each recovery is sought for the loss and damage to the bondholders allegedly resulting from these wrongful acts on the part of B. & O. Each action is in the same jurisdiction.

It could therefore be anticipated that the judgment in the prior action dismissing the complaint on the merits would be a complete bar to a suit on the cause of action alleged in the present complaint. This would be true whether the prior adjudication had been based on a determination of the ultimate substantive merits of plaintiff's claim or upon the bar of a statute of limitations of the same jurisdiction. Williamson v. Colombia Gas & Electric Corp., 3 Cir., 186 F.2d 464, certiorari denied 341 U.S. 921, 71 S.Ct. 743, 95 L.Ed. 1355; Miller v. National City Bank of New York, 2 Cir., 166 F.2d 723; Liken v. Shaffer, 8 Cir., 141 F.2d 877, 882, certiorari denied sub nom Wilson v. Shaffer, 323 U.S. 756, 65 S.Ct. 90, 89 L.Ed. 605. See, also, Angel v. Bullington, 330 U.S. 183, 190, 67 S.Ct. 657, 91 L.Ed. 832. The estoppel here is direct estoppel by judgment and the prior judgment would therefore be conclusive upon the parties not only as to the matters actually litigated but as to any which might have been litigated. Angel v. Bullington, supra; Jackson v. Irving Trust Co., 311 U.S. 494, 61 S.Ct. 326, 85 L.Ed. 297; Intertype Corp. v. Clark-Congress Corp., 7 Cir., 240 F.2d 375; Pagano v. Arnstein, 292 N.Y. 326, 55 N.E.2d 181.

However, plaintiff claims that these well-settled principles are not applicable here because there is a basic and fundamental difference in theory between the...