Qatar Nat. Bank v. Winmar, Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 September 2009
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 06-1307 (GK).
• Citation: 650 F.Supp.2d 1
• Parties: QATAR NATIONAL BANK, Plaintiff, v. WINMAR, INC., d/b/a Winmar Construction, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff. Winmar, Inc., d/b/a Winmar Construction, Third-Party Plaintiff and Counterclaim Defendant, v. Al-Jazeera International, Third-Party Defendant and Counterclaim Plaintiff.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

Page 1

650 F.Supp.2d 1

QATAR NATIONAL BANK, Plaintiff, v. WINMAR, INC., d/b/a Winmar Construction, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff.

Winmar, Inc., d/b/a Winmar Construction, Third-Party Plaintiff and Counterclaim Defendant, v. Al-Jazeera International, Third-Party Defendant and Counterclaim Plaintiff.

Civil Action No. 06-1307 (GK).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

September 3, 2009.

Alan T. Dickey, Patton Boggs, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

James Forest Lee, Jr., Trevor M. Ashbarry, Lee & McShane, P.C., Washington, DC, for Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff/Third-Party Plaintiff and Counterclaim Defendant.

Leslie Hugh Wiesenfelder, Dow Lohnes PLLC, Washington, DC, for Third-Party Defendant and Counterclaim Plaintiff.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GLADYS KESSLER, District Judge.

Plaintiff Qatar National Bank ("QNB") brings this action against Defendant and Third Party Plaintiff Winmar, Inc. ("Winmar"). QNB alleges that Winmar had no right to retain funds that were mistakenly transferred to it (Count I), and that Winmar was unjustly enriched as a result of the mistaken transfer (Count II). This matter is now before the Court on QNB's Motion for Summary Judgment [Dkt. No. 35]. Upon consideration of the Motion, Opposition, Reply, Surreply, the entire record herein, and for the reasons set forth below, QNB's Motion for Summary Judgment is granted.

I. Background¹

A. Plaintiff's Statement of Material Facts Is Admitted

Defendant submitted a Statement of Material Facts as to Which There is No Genuine Dispute, but failed to submit a "separate concise statement of genuine issues setting forth all material facts as to which it is contended there exists a genuine issue necessary to be litigated," as required by Local Rule 7(h). See LCvR 7(h).

According to Local Rule 7(h), "the court may assume that facts identified by the moving party in its statement of material facts are admitted, unless such a fact is controverted in the statement of genuine issues filed in opposition to the motion." Id. As our Court of Appeals has held, "[i]f the party opposing the motion fails to comply with [Local Rule 7(h)], then the district court is under no obligation to sift through the record and should [i]nstead . . . deem as admitted the moving party's facts that are uncontroverted by the non-moving party's Rule [7(h)] statement." Secs. & Exch. Comm'n v. Banner Fund Int'l, 211 F.3d 602, 616 (D.C.Cir.2000) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted); see also Jackson v. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, 101 F.3d 145, 151 (D.C.Cir.1996) (the local rules place "the burden on the parties and their counsel, who are most familiar with the litigation and the record, to crystallize for the district court the material facts and relevant portions of the record").

Here, Defendant failed to comply with Rule 7(h) because it did not file a statement of disputed facts. Instead, it submitted only its own Statement of Material Facts as to Which There Is No Genuine Dispute. Therefore QNB's facts are admitted because they have not been controverted.

B. QNB's Duplicate Payment and Refund Request

On November 23, 2005,² Winmar and Third Party Defendant Al-Jazeera entered into a contract for the renovation of Al-Jazeera's office at 1627 K Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. Under the terms of the contract, Al-Jazeera agreed to submit payments by wiring funds to an account at Citibank Federal Savings Bank in Washington ("Citibank"). On October 20, 2005, Winmar and Janson Design Group ("Janson"), the architect on the project, certified that Winmar was due an initial deposit of $645,164, plus a first payment of $474,677.

On October 27, 2005, Al-Jazeera wired an initial deposit of $645,161 to the Citibank account. On December 7, 2005, Janson certified that Winmar was owed three additional payments of $115,872, $775,913, and $471,678, which totaled $1,363,463.

On December 8, 2005, Al-Jazeera faxed a payment order to QNB, requesting that QNB wire $474,677 to the Citibank account. On December 12, 2005, QNB used the FedWire system to wire the funds to JPMorgan Chase Bank, its correspondent bank, which in turn wired the funds to the Citibank account.

On December 22, 2005, Christopher Condon, Winmar's Vice President, sent Al-Jazeera a letter reiterating that it owed Winmar an additional $1,363,463.

On January 4, 2006, Winmar informed Al-Jazeera that it planned to suspend its performance of the contract unless it received a payment of $1,363,463.

On January 5 and January 6, 2006, Winmar received two letters from Janson. In the letters, Janson stated that it had erred in certifying the $1,363,463 amount, and it requested that Winmar provide documentation to support its claim that it was owed $1,363,463. On January 11, 2006, Al-Jazeera terminated the contract for convenience.

On January 18, 2006, Winmar submitted a revised certification, claiming Al-Jazeera owed it $653,449 as a final payment under the contract. On January 19, 2006, Janson rejected this certification. On the same date, Al-Jazeera wrote a letter to Winmar, stating that Winmar was not entitled to any additional payments until it provided supporting documentation. On January 23, 2006, Winmar submitted a revised certification in which it claimed that Al-Jazeera owed it $355,297.

On January 30, 2006, Al-Jazeera faxed a second copy of the December 2005 payment order to QNB. Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 4. At the top of the fax, there was a handwritten note stating that Al-Jazeera had not "received any . . . transfer confirmation for this" and requesting QNB to "please send the Confirmation." See id.

QNB mistakenly understood this fax to constitute a second payment order, rather than a request for confirmation that the first payment order had been processed. On January 30, 2006, QNB wired a duplicate payment of $474,677 to the Citibank account. The funds arrived in the Citibank account on January 31, 2006. Al-Jazeera did not authorize this second payment.³

After it had wired the funds to the Citibank account, QNB recognized that it had erred in sending the duplicate payment. On February 2, 2006, it wired the following instructions to JPMorgan Chase Bank:

URGENT . . . URGENT . . . THE ABOVE PAYMENT HAS BEEN WRONGLY DUPLICATED FROM OUR SIDE WITH REF 6202790001932 DATED 12.12.2005 WITH THE SAME AMOUNT AND THE SAME BENEFICIARY DETAILS KINDLY TREAT THE PAYMENT ORDER . . . DATED 30.01.2006 AS NULL AND VOID AND REFUND THE AMOUNT TO OUR ACCOUNT WITH YOU UNDER URGENT SWIFT ADVISE TO US. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED

JPMorgan Chase responded on the same day, stating that it had already processed the payment and that it would contact Citibank to request the refund.

On February 3, 2006, Al-Jazeera notified Winmar that it owed nothing on the contract and that in fact, it was owed $200,000 from Winmar.

On the same date, Winmar's President informed a subcontractor that it had been notified by Al-Jazeera about the termination of the contract, that it had submitted a "final requisition of payment," that it had not yet received the payment, and that it had been "advised" that Al-Jazeera denied the requisition for payment.

On February 8, 2006, JPMorgan Chase informed QNB that it had contacted Citibank about receiving a refund from Winmar, but that Winmar had refused to refund the money. QNB did not receive any additional response from Winmar regarding its February 2, 2006 refund request.

On February 24, 2006, Al-Jazeera submitted a formal claim to Janson in which it stated that the $474,677 payment was an overpayment.

On March 9, 2006, Winmar responded by letter. It stated that it was "unaware until your [February 24, 2006 claim] was received that any wire had been accomplished on January 31st [2006]." Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 6. It acknowledged that it had received a payment of $474,677, and stated that the "excess over the amount last requisitioned by Winmar is reflected in the enclosed check for $119,380." Id.

On March 12, 2006, Al-Jazeera informed QNB by letter that QNB was responsible for the mistaken transfer. It threatened to initiate legal proceedings if QNB did not refund the money. On March 20, 2006, QNB refunded $474,677 to Al-Jazeera.

On March 28, 2006, Winmar wrote a letter to Janson in which it stated that the "February 24, 2006 letter was the first notice Winmar received that [Al-Jazeera] had wired money into Winmar's account. Prior to February 24, 2006, Winmar received no request from [Al-Jazeera] to return the wired funds." Pl.'s Statement of Material Facts ¶ 24.

On April 12, 2006, QNB sent a second refund request to Winmar. QNB received no response.

QNB filed a Complaint against Winmar in this Court on July 24, 2006. QNB alleged that Winmar has no right to retain money it received by mistake (Count I) and that Winmar has been unjustly enriched as a result of retaining the money (Count II). On November 9, 2006, Winmar filed a Third Party Complaint against Al-Jazeera [Dkt. No. 19]. On February 1, 2007, Al-Jazeera filed a Counterclaim against Winmar [Dkt. No. 20]. On June 16, 2008, QNB filed a Motion for Summary Judgment [Dkt. No. 35]. On July 7, 2008, Winmar filed an Opposition [Dkt. No. 37], on July 21, 2008, QNB filed a Reply [Dkt. No. 38], and on August 4, 2008, Winmar filed a Surreply [Dkt. No. 40].

II. Standard of Review

Summary judgment may be granted "only if" the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), as amended December 1, 2007; Arrington v. United States, 473 F.3d 329, 333 (D.C.Cir.2006). In other words, the moving party must satisfy two requirements: first, demonstrate that there is no "genuine" factual dispute and, second, that if there is it is "material" to the case. "A dispute over a material fact is `genuine' if `the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could...