Tag: New York

Actuarial Firm Owes No Independent Legal Duty to Health Plan; Lost Profits Claim Lopped Off – 2nd Cir.

The Second Circuit appeals court recently examined the contours of New York’s economic loss rule in a dispute involving faulty actuarial services.

The plaintiff health care plan provider in MVP Health Plan, Inc. v. Optuminsight, Inc., 2019 WL 1504346 (2nd Cir. 2019) sued an actuary contractor for breach of contract and negligence when the actuary fell short of professional practice standards resulting in the health plan losing Medicare revenue.

The plaintiff appealed the district court’s bench trial verdict that limited plaintiff’s damages to the amounts it paid the actuary in 2013 (the year of the breach) and denied the plaintiff’s request for lost revenue.

The plaintiff also appealed the district court’s dismissal of its negligence count on the basis that it was duplicative of the breach of contract claim and the actuary owed the plaintiff no legal duty outside the scope of the contract.

Affirming, the Second Circuit first addressed the dismissal of plaintiff’s negligence claim. In New York, a breach of contract claim is not an independent tort (like negligence) unless the breaching party owes a legal duty to the non-breaching party independent of the contract. However, merely alleging a defendant’s breach of duty of care isn’t enough to bootstrap a garden variety contract claim into a tort.

Under New York law, an actuary is not deemed a “professional” for purposes of a malpractice cause of action and no case authorities saddle an actuary with a legal duty to its client extraneous to a contract. In addition, the court found the alleged breach did not involve “catastrophic consequences,” a “cataclysmic occurrence” or a “significant public interest” – all established bases for a finding of an extra-contractual duty.

Next, and while tacitly invoking Hadley v. Baxendale, [1854] EWHC Exch J70, the seminal 19th Century British court case involving consequential damages, the appeals court jettisoned the plaintiff’s lost revenues claim.

Breach of contract damages aim to put the plaintiff in the same financial position he would have occupied had the breaching party performed. “General” contract damages are those that are the “natural and probable consequence of” a breach of contract. Lost profits are unrecoverable consequential damages where the losses stem from collateral business arrangements.

To recover lost revenues as consequential damages, the plaintiff must establish (1) that damages were caused by the breach, (2) the extent of those damages with reasonable certainty, and (3) the damages were within the contemplation of the parties during contract formation.

To determine whether consequential damages were within the parties’ reasonable contemplation, the court looks to the nature, purpose and peculiar circumstances of the contract known by the parties and what liability the defendant may be supposed to have assumed consciously.

The court found that plaintiffs lost revenues were not damages naturally arising from defects in actuarial performance. Instead, it held those claimed damages were twice removed from the breach: they stemmed from plaintiff’s contracts with its member insureds. And since there was no evidence the parties contemplated the defendant would be responsible for the plaintiff’s lost revenues if the defendant breached the actuarial services agreement, the plaintiff’s lost profits damage claim was properly dismissed.

Afterwords:

MVP provides a useful primer on breach of contract damages, when lost profits are recoverable as general damages and the economic loss rule.
The case cements the proposition that where there is nothing inherent in the contract terms or the parties’ relationship that gives rise to a legal duty, the non-breaching party likely cannot augment its breach of contract action with additional tort claims.

High-Tech Sports Equipment Plaintiff Alleges Viable Fraud Claim Against Electronic Sensor Supplier (Newspin v. Arrow – Part II)

In Newspin Sports, LLC v. Arrow Electronics, Inc., 2018 WL 6295272, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s negligent misrepresentation claims but upheld its fraud claims.

Under New York law (the contract had a NY choice-of-law provision), a plaintiff alleging negligent misrepresentation must establish (1) a special, privity-like relationship that imposes a duty on the defendant to impart accurate information to the plaintiff, (2) information that was factually inaccurate, and (3) plaintiff’s reasonable reliance on the information.

New York’s economic loss rule softens the negligent misrepresentation theory, however. This rule prevents a plaintiff from recovering economic losses under a tort theory. Since the plaintiff’s alleged negligence damages – money it lost from the flawed electronic components – mirrored its breach of contract damages, the negligent misrepresentation claim was barred by the economic loss rule. [*10]

Plaintiff’s fraud claims fared better.  In New York, a fraud claim will not lie for a simple breach of contract.  That is, where the only “fraud” alleged is a defendant’s broken promise or lack of sincerity in making a promise, the fraud claim merely duplicates the breach of contract one.

To allege a fraud claim separate from a breach of contract, a plaintiff must establish (1) a legal duty separate from the duty to perform under a contract, or (2) demonstrate a misrepresentation collateral or extraneous to the contract, or (3) special damages caused by the misrepresentation that are not recoverable as contract damages. [*11] [32]-[33].

Applying these principles, the Court noted that the plaintiff alleged the defendant made present-tense factual representations concerning its experience, skill set and that its components met plaintiff’s specifications.  Taken together, these statements – if true – sufficiently pled a legal duty separate from the parties’ contractual relationship to state a colorable fraud claim.

The Court also rejected the defendant’s argument that the plaintiff’s fraud claims were subject to the UCC’s four-year limitations period governing sales of goods contracts.  Since the plaintiff’s fraud count differed from its breach of contract claim, Illinois’s five-year statute of limitations for common law fraud governed.  See 735 ILCS 5/13-205,  As a result, plaintiff’s 2017 filing date occurred within the five-year time limit and the fraud claim was timely. [*12] [35].

Afterwords:

The economic loss rule will bar a negligent misrepresentation claim where a plaintiff’s pleaded damages simply restate its breach of contract damages;

A fraud claim can survive a pleadings motion to dismiss so long as the predicate allegations go beyond the subject matter of the contract governing the parties’ relationship.

High-Tech Sports Co.’s Warranty Claims Too Late Says Seventh Circuit (Newspin v. Arrow Electronics – Part I of II)

Newspin Sports, LLC v. Arrow Electronics, Inc., 2018 WL 6295272 (7th Cir. 2018), analyzes the goods-versus-services dichotomy under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and how that difference informs the applicable statute of limitations.

The defendant supplied electronic sensor components for plaintiff’s use in its high-tech sports performance products.  Plaintiff sued when most of the parts were faulty and didn’t meet Plaintiff’s verbal and written requirements.  Plaintiff brought both contract- and tort-based claims against the Plaintiff.

The Breach of Contract Claims

The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the contract claims on the basis they were time-barred under the UCC’s four-year limitations period for the sale of goods.

In Illinois, a breach of written contract claimant has ten years to sue measured from when its claim accrues. 735 ILCS 5/13-206.  A claim accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the non-breaching party’s lack of knowledge of the breach.  For a contract involving the sale of “goods,” a shortened 4-year limitations period applies. 810 ILCS 5/2-102 (goods df.), 810 ILCS 5/2-725(2)(4-year limitations period).

With a mixed contract (an agreement involving the supply of goods and services), Illinois looks at the contract’s “predominant purpose” to determine whether the 10-year or the compressed 4-year limitations period governs.

To apply the predominant purpose test, the court looks at the contract terms and the proportion of goods to services provided for under the contract.  The court then decides whether the contract is mainly for goods with services being incidental or if its principally for services with goods being incidental.

Here, the Court noted the Agreement was a mixed bag: the defendant promised to provide both goods and services.  But various parts of the contract made it clear that the defendant was hired to first provide a prototype product and later, to furnish components pursuant to plaintiff’s purchase orders.  The court found that any services referenced in the agreement were purely tangential to the main thrust of the contract – defendant’s furnishing electronic sensors for plaintiff to attach to its client’s golf clubs.  Support for this finding lay in the fact that the Agreement set out specific quantity and price terms for the goods (the components) but did not so specify for the referenced assembly, manufacturing and procurement services.

Other Agreement features that led to the court ruling the Agreement was one for goods included its warranty, sales tax, “F.O.B. and title passing provisions. The court noted that the warranty only applied to the manufactured products and not to any services and the contract’s sales tax provision – making Plaintiff responsible for sales taxes –  typically applied in goods contracts, not services ones.

Additionally, the Agreement’s F.O.B. (“free on board”) and title passage terms both signaled this was a goods (not a services) deal. See 810 ILCS 5/2-106(1)(sale consists in passing title from seller to buyer for a price). [*5]

Since the plaintiff didn’t sue until more than five years elapsed from the breach date, the Court affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and breach of warranty claims.

The Negligent Misrepresentation Claim

The Seventh Circuit also affirmed dismissal of plaintiff’s negligent misrepresentation claim. Under New York law (the contract had a NY choice-of-law provision), a plaintiff alleging negligent misrepresentation must establish (1) a special, privity-like relationship that imposes a duty on the defendant to impart accurate information to the plaintiff, (2) information that was in fact incorrect, and (3) plaintiff’s reasonable reliance on the information.

Like Illinois, New York applies the economic loss rule. This precludes a plaintiff from recovering economic losses under a tort theory. And since the plaintiff’s claimed negligent misrepresentation damages – money it lost based on the component defects – mirrored its breach of contract damages, the economic loss rule defeated plaintiff’s negligent misrepresentation count. [*10]

Afterwords:

The case presents a useful summary of the dispositive factors a court looks at when deciding whether a contract’s primary purpose is for goods or services.  Besides looking at an agreement’s end product (or service), certain terms like F.O.B., title-shifting and sales tax provisions are strong indicators of contracts for the sale of goods.

The case also demonstrates the continuing viability of the economic loss rule.  Where a plaintiff’s breach of contract damages are identical to its tort damages, the economic loss rule will likely foreclose a plaintiff’s tort claim.