Menzies v. Seyfarth Shaw LLP

• Decision Date: 15 July 2016
• Docket Number: Case No. 15 C 3403
• Citation: 197 F.Supp.3d 1076
• Parties: Steven MENZIES, Plaintiff, v. SEYFARTH SHAW LLP, Graham Taylor, Northern Trust Corporation, and Christiana Bank & Trust Company, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

197 F.Supp.3d 1076

Steven MENZIES, Plaintiff,

v.SEYFARTH SHAW LLP, Graham Taylor, Northern Trust Corporation, and Christiana Bank & Trust Company, Defendants.

Case No. 15 C 3403

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed July 15, 2016

Daniel Aaron Dorfman, Harris Winick Harris LLP, Jeffrey B. Charkow, Harris Winick LLP, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.

Matthew J. Gehringer, Bates McIntyre Larson, Perkins Coie LLP, H. Nicholas Berberian, Kyle David Rettberg, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, Gary Michael Elden, Amy Yongmee Cho, Daniel M. Hinkle, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, Chicago, IL, Josephine Tung, Baker & McKenzie LLP, San Diego, CA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

John Robert Blakey, United States District Judge

Plaintiff is a rich man who, ostensibly through hard work and good fortune, put himself in a position to sell over sixty million dollars in stock in a company he helped create. No crime in that, closing on such a sale exemplifies part of the American Dream. But when lawyers and financial consultants sold him on a 100% tax avoidance plan to save him millions on the deal, Plaintiff later paid the price to Uncle Sam with an even bigger IRS bill. Any crime in that? Plaintiff claims it constitutes civil racketeering and violates a host of state laws. Defendants disagree and claim that, at worst, it was just bad advice. They now challenge his right to sue in federal court.

Specifically, Plaintiff Steven Menzies ("Menzies" or "Plaintiff") sued Defendants Seyfarth Shaw LLP ("Seyfarth"), Graham Taylor ("Taylor"), Northern Trust Corporation ("Northern") and Christiana Bank & Trust Company ("Christiana"), collectively "Defendants," based upon the purchase of a tax planning product designed to allow Plaintiff to avoid paying capital gains tax. Ultimately, the plan failed, and, in addition to the tax burden he owed the IRS, Plaintiff incurred fees, interest and penalties. Among other relief sought in his Complaint [1], Plaintiff seeks more than $10.4 million in damages from Defendants via nine causes of action, including civil racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment.

Defendants deny any wrongdoing and now move to dismiss [29] [31] [35] the Complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 9(b), 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6). For the following reasons, the motions are granted in part and denied in part. As explained below, this Court dismisses the RICO counts under Rule 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6), and, in light of the findings regarding the RICO claims, defers the motions to dismiss as to the state law counts.

I. Legal Standard

Under Rule 12(b)(6), this Court accepts as true all well-pleaded facts in the Complaint and draws all reasonable inferences from those facts in Plaintiff's favor. AnchorBank, FSB v. Hofer , 649 F.3d 610, 614 (7th Cir.2011). Although this Court normally cannot consider extrinsic evidence without converting a motion to dismiss into one for summary judgment, when a document is referenced in the Complaint and central to Plaintiff's claims the Court may consider it in ruling on the motion to dismiss. Hecker v. Deere & Co. , 556 F.3d 575, 582-83 (7th Cir.2009).

To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the Complaint must not only provide Defendants with fair notice of a claim's basis, but must also be "facially" plausible. Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) ; Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads "factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937. Although the Complaint need not include detailed factual allegations, Plaintiff's obligation to provide the grounds for his entitlement to relief requires more than mere labels and conclusions, and a "formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Twombly , 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

Likewise, Rule 9(b) requires a party alleging fraud to "state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud." Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 9(b). This "ordinarily requires describing the ‘who, what, when, where, and how’ of the fraud, although the exact level of particularity that is required will necessarily differ based on the facts of the case." AnchorBank , 649 F.3d at 615 (quoting Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp. Retiree Medical Benefits Trust v. Walgreen Co. , 631 F.3d 436, 441–42 (7th Cir.2011) ). Rule 9(b) applies to "all averments" of fraud, not just claims of fraud. Borsellino v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. , 477 F.3d 502, 507 (7th Cir.2007) (internal quotations omitted). Any "claim that ‘sounds in fraud’—in other words, one that is premised upon a course of fraudulent conduct—can implicate Rule 9(b)'s heightened pleading requirements." Id.

The Seventh Circuit has not yet explicitly examined whether Rule 9(b)'s heightened standard extends to each and every element of a civil RICO claim containing fraud-based predicate activity within it, or whether Rule 8's less rigorous pleading standard applies to the non-fraud elements of the violation. The Seventh Circuit has, however, explicitly applied the Rule 8 standard to RICO's enterprise element. Richmond v. Nationwide Cassel L.P. , 52 F.3d 640, 644 (7th Cir.1995) ; Drobny v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. , 929 F.Supp.2d 839, 845 (N.D.Ill.2013) (applying the Rule 8 standard to the non-fraud elements of a civil RICO claim). Following that lead, this Court applies the traditional Rule 8 standard to the non-fraud elements of the RICO claims, and the stricter Rule 9(b) standard to the underlying allegations of fraud-based racketeering activity within those claims (here, the mail and wire fraud predicates themselves). Slaney v. The Intern. Amateur Athletic Federation , 244 F.3d 580, 597 (7th Cir.2001) (finding "allegations of fraud" within a civil RICO complaint are "subject to the heightened pleading standard" of Rule 9(b) ).

II. Facts

Without predicting which parties and claims might prevail later at summary judgment or trial, this Court gleans the following from the Complaint:

A. Initiation of the Estate Planning Conspiracy

Plaintiff is the co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Applied Underwriters Inc. ("AUI"), a financial services firm that specializes in providing workers' compensation insurance to small and mid-sized businesses. Compl. ¶ 1. In November 2002, Northern contacted Plaintiff and other AUI senior executives to gauge their interest in Northern's estate planning services. Northern, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Chicago, Illinois, is a prominent financial services firm with offices dotting the globe. Plaintiff and others at AUI accepted a meeting to learn about Northern's tax products, and, thereafter, Northern gave a presentation highlighting its services. Id. ¶¶ 8-9, 28-29.

In the following months, Northern marketed and discussed its estate planning and personal financial services solutions with Plaintiff and other AUI executives. Through in-person meetings and phone calls, Northern outlined the ways Plaintiff could avoid certain tax liabilities, including those related to his ownership of the highly-valued AUI stock. Id. ¶ 30. In January 2003, Northern sent Plaintiff a proposal for personal financial consulting. Northern proposed to: (1) review Plaintiff's financial data and personal information; (2) develop a financial plan of action tailored to his "goals and objectives"; and (3) implement an appropriate plan of action. A key element of Northern's proposal entailed financial planning for income tax liability and "special strategy ideas relative to any potential liquidity events." Id. ¶¶ 31-32. Persuaded by the proposal, Plaintiff retained Northern in March 2003. Id. ¶ 33.

Plaintiff alleges that by mid-2003, Northern and its agents, Mark Harbour ("Harbour"), Michael Niemann ("Niemann") and Tom Hines ("Hines"), had gathered enough information about Plaintiff and other AUI executives that they then decided to perpetrate an illegal tax scam, what Plaintiff terms an "abusive" tax avoidance scheme ("Tax Scheme"). Compl. ¶ 34. Disguised as a legitimate estate planning tax-savings strategy, this Tax Scheme purported to lawfully reduce (if not eliminate) capital gains tax on a participant's gains, such as Plaintiff's disposition of AUI stock, by artificially inflating the shareholder's tax basis, thereby diminishing or eliminating any capital gains associated with the stock sale. Id. ¶ 16. Plaintiff avers that Defendants hatched—and then participated in, promoted, marketed and implemented—the Tax Scheme to pocket substantial fees from its participants, including Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 17. By early July 2003, Northern pitched the specifics of the Tax Scheme to Plaintiff and others at AUI, and marketed it as a lawful tax strategy for the disposition of the AUI stock, which supported Plaintiff's estate planning objectives. Id. ¶ 36.

On July 30, 2003, Northern arranged a conference call with Plaintiff to outline the steps of the Tax Scheme, describing it as a legal tax shelter for the contemplated gains realized from his disposition of AUI stock. The proposed tax shelter plan involved a series of loans, unsecured structured notes from alleged co-conspirator European American Investment Bank, AG ("Euram Bank") and the creation and use of trusts and other devices. Plaintiff alleges that Northern failed to disclose during the call, or ever, that this type of tax shelter was unlawful and would subject him to significant liability for taxes, penalties and interest. Relying upon Northern's false representations, Plaintiff set up the tax shelter transactions for the purpose of selling his AUI stock and avoiding tax liability. Compl. ¶¶ 37-40.

On July 31, 2003, Plaintiff believes a conference call took place, without him, among agents for Euram Bank,...