Wilson v. First Houston Inv. Corp.

Citation566 F.2d 1235
Decision Date02 February 1978
Docket NumberNo. 75-3422,75-3422
PartiesFed. Sec. L. Rep. P 96,311 John M. WILSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FIRST HOUSTON INVESTMENT CORPORATION et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Joel H. Pullen, San Antonio, Tex., for plaintiff-appellant.

Brice A. Tondre, Houston, Tex., for First Houston Investment, Walser, Allgood and Barker.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before GODBOLD, TJOFLAT and HILL, Circuit Judges.

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from the dismissal of plaintiff's suit against his investment adviser, which plaintiff sought to bring under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, § 214, 15 U.S.C. § 80b-14 (1970) (the "IAA"), as well as Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. 240.10b-5 (1977). The district court dismissed plaintiff's complaint and first amended complaint, and plaintiff appealed.

The plaintiff alleged the following facts, drawn largely from his amended complaint. For a number of years he had maintained a stock portfolio. He became dissatisfied with his investment advisers. He became interested in First Houston Investment Corporation 1 after reading two magazine articles which purported to describe its investment management techniques. In particular the articles represented that First Houston utilized a system of computer analysis of the market and promptly eliminated stocks not meeting certain performance standards.

Plaintiff met with a representative of First Houston who stated that the magazine articles were accurate. As a result of these representations plaintiff executed a power of attorney giving First Houston full discretionary authority to manage plaintiff's stock portfolio, then valued at $104,358. First Houston assumed management of plaintiff's portfolio in March of 1972 and immediately converted all of his stocks into securities of its own choosing. In September 1973 First Houston notified plaintiff that it was resigning from management of the account because the account had become too small. The account was then worth $5,441 and included 1000 shares of Teleprompter stock, trading of which had been suspended. At no time did First Houston reveal to the plaintiff that the computer analysis system was no longer being used or that it had never been fully utilized.

In his original complaint plaintiff sought to assert an implied right of action for damages under the IAA and a Rule 10b-5 claim as well. Motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction was granted. The trial court reasoned that a private right of action should not be implied under the IAA and that the complaint failed to allege a valid 10b-5 claim. 2

Plaintiff was given leave to file an amended complaint, and he did so, again attempting to state a 10b-5 claim. However, he did not reassert his claim under the IAA, nor did he incorporate by reference the allegations of the original complaint. First Houston's motion to dismiss the amended complaint was granted.

I.

Plaintiff did not waive his right to appeal the order dismissing his claim under the IAA by filing an amended complaint which failed to make reference to that alleged cause of action. As a general rule an amended complaint supersedes and replaces the original complaint, unless the amendment specifically refers to or adopts the earlier pleading. La Batt v. Twomey, 513 F.2d 641, 651 (CA7 1975); Cedillo v. Standard Oil Co. of Texas, 261 F.2d 443 (CA5 1958). See also 6 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 1476 (1971); 3 Moore's Federal Practice P 15.08(7) (1974). But we hold that plaintiff, by filing an amended complaint after a dismissal with leave to amend, was not barred from raising on appeal the correctness of the dismissal order.

A rule that a party waives his objections to the court's dismissal if he elects to amend is too mechanical and seems to be a rigid application of the concept that a Rule 15(a) amendment completely replaces the pleading it amends. Without more, the action of the amending party should not result in completely denying him the right to appeal the court's ruling. By way of contrast, if the motion to dismiss is denied and defendant answers and defends on the merits, he still retains the right to object to the denial of his motion to dismiss on an appeal from the ultimate judgment. Similar principles apply to plaintiff when he unsuccessfully moves to strike a defense as legally insufficient and later serves a reply by order of the court. It therefore is not logical to deny a party the right to appeal simply because he decides to abide by the court's order and amend his pleading rather than allowing judgment to be entered against him and taking an immediate appeal.

6 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 1476, at 393 (1971) (footnotes omitted). The authors refer with approval to the approach suggested in Blazer v. Black, 196 F.2d 139, 143-44 (CA10 1952) (citation omitted):

(W)hile the pleader who amends or pleads over, waives his objections to the ruling of the court on indefiniteness, incompleteness or insufficiency, or mere technical defects in pleadings, he does not waive his exception to the ruling which strikes "a vital blow to a substantial part" of his cause of action.

There is authority to the contrary, 3 but such an approach spawns piecemeal appeals. We hold that the question whether a private right of action should be implied under the IAA is properly before us on appeal.

II.

The broad antifraud provision of the IAA, § 206, 4 makes no express provision for a private right of action for damages. But this alone does not preclude the recognition of a private right of action. See, e. g., Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U.S. 723, 730, 95 S.Ct. 1917, 1922, 44 L.Ed.2d 539, 546 (1975); J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U.S. 426, 432, 84 S.Ct. 1555, 1559, 12 L.Ed.2d 423, 427 (1964). The question is whether the implication of the cause of action is necessary to achieve the goals of Congress in enacting the legislation. Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., 430 U.S. 1, 26, 97 S.Ct. 927, 941, 51 L.Ed.2d 124, 143 (1977). In Abrahamson v. Fleschner, No. 75-7203, --- F.2d at ---- (CA2 1977), a majority of the panel held that a private cause of action for damages should be implied under the IAA. Judge Gurfein filed a strong dissent. Prior to Abrahamson this question had been considered by several district courts. Angelakis v. Churchill Management Corp., (1975-1976 Transfer Binder) Fed.Sec.L.Rep. (CCH) P 95,285 (N.D.Cal.1975) (cause of action implied); Bolger v. Laventhol, Krekstein, Horwath & Horwath, 381 F.Supp. 260 (S.D.N.Y.1974) (cause of action implied); Greenspan v. del Toro, No. 73-638 CIV JE (S.D.Fla. May 17, 1974) (no right of action), appeal dismissed for want of prosecution, No. 74-2943 (CA5 Sept. 5, 1974); Gammage v. Roberts, Scott & Co., (1974-1975 Transfer Binder) Fed.Sec.L.Rep. (CCH) P 94,760 (S.D.Cal.1974) (no right of action). See also Note, Private Causes of Action Under Section 206 of the Investment Advisers Act, 74 Mich.L.Rev. 308 (1975).

In Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., the Supreme Court was presented with the question whether a cause of action for damages should be implied under § 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Williams Act of 1968, 15 U.S.C. § 78n(e) (1970), in favor of an unsuccessful tender offeror who alleged that his bid for corporate control failed as a result of fraud on the part of the successful tender offeror and various other individuals. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the majority, noted that:

(W)here congressional purposes are likely to be undermined absent private enforcement, private remedies may be implied in favor of the particular class intended to be protected by the statute.

430 U.S. 1, 25, 97 S.Ct. 927, 941, 51 L.Ed.2d 124, 143 (1977). Having so stated the Court applied the following methodology in deciding the question:

Once we identify the legislative purpose, we must then determine whether the creation by judicial interpretation of the implied cause of action asserted by Chris-Craft is necessary to effectuate Congress' goals.

Id. The Court examined the legislative history of the Williams Act and determined that Congress had intended to protect the shareholders of target companies by regulating takeover bidders. Chris-Craft, the defeated tender offeror, was not a member of the class Congress sought to protect. Consequently an implied right of action in favor of Chris-Craft was not necessary to effectuate Congress' goals.

The Court confirmed this conclusion by applying the analysis of Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66, 95 S.Ct. 2080, 45 L.Ed.2d 26 (1975). Cort set out four relevant factors to be considered in deciding whether to infer a private remedy:

First, is the plaintiff "one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted," Texas & Pacific R. Co. v. Rigsby, 241 U.S. 33, 39, 36 S.Ct. 482, 60 L.Ed. 874 (1916) (emphasis supplied) that is, does the statute create a federal right in favor of the plaintiff? Second, is there any indication of legislative intent, explicit or implicit, either to create such a remedy or to deny one? See, e. g., National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. National Assn. of Railroad Passengers, 414 U.S. 453, 458, 460, 94 S.Ct. 690, 38 L.Ed.2d 646 (1974) (Amtrak ). Third, is it consistent with the underlying purposes of the legislative scheme to imply such a remedy for the plaintiff? See, e. g., Amtrak, supra; Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. Barbour, 421 U.S. 412, 423, 95 S.Ct. 1733, 44 L.Ed.2d 263 (1975); Calhoon v. Harvey, 379 U.S. 134, 85 S.Ct. 292, 13 L.Ed.2d 190 (1964). And finally, is the cause of action one traditionally relegated to state law, in an area basically the concern of the States, so that it would be inappropriate to infer a cause of action based solely on federal law? See Wheeldin v. Wheeler, 373 U.S. 647, 652, 83 S.Ct. 1441, 10 L.Ed.2d 605 (1...

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