Beaumont Capital Corp. v. Bear, Stearns & Co.
Beaumont Capital Corp. v. Bear, Stearns & Co.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
Plaintiff, Beaumont Capital Corp. (“Beaumont”), filed the instant action pursuant to the securities laws to recover monies allegedly lost in a securities trading account. Defendant, Bear, Stearns & Co. (“Bear Stearns”), has filed a motion for summary judgment on the basis of a purported “Release and Settlement Agreement.” The case was referred to United States Magistrate Sharon E. Grubin for a report and recommendation, which she has submitted. The report recommends that defendant’s motion be granted. The facts are fully set forth in Magistrate Grubin’s report and recommendation.
Beaumont has filed objections to the Report and Recommendation in the form of an affidavit by its attorney. Plaintiff claims that Magistrate Grubin made assumptions regarding Samuel Lee’s
Plaintiff also contends that a trial is necessary to determine the circumstances surrounding the signing of the release. This contention stems from Mr. Lee’s affidavit in opposition to the instant motion. Mr. Lee’s affidavit attributes his signing of the release to Mr. Huang’s despondency when he visited Lee at his office. While noting that Mr. Lee’s affidavit differed significantly from his prior deposition testimony, Magistrate Grubin nonetheless accepted the assertions in the affidavit at face value. Quite correctly, Magistrate Grubin concluded that the contention that Mr. Lee would not have signed the release had he known Huang had a job lined-up is speculative. Further, it is not the type of “fraud” that would void the release because these considerations had nothing to do with the subject matter of the contract. Accordingly, even accepting Mr. Lee’s second account of the signing of the release, summary judgment was properly granted.
Moreover, the affidavit of Mr. Lee need not be accepted at face value. When an affidavit in opposition to a summary judgment motion contradicts prior deposition testimony, it will not suffice to overcome summary judgment. See Mack v. United States, 814 F.2d 120, 124 (2d Cir. 1987). Mr. Lee’s belated account of the circumstances surrounding the signing of the release does not, therefore, raise a genuine issue of material fact pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 56.
SO ORDERED.
. Samuel Lee is the president of Beaumont and the individual who personally dealt with Paul Huang, the trader at Bear Stearns that handled the trading account at issue herein.
. Alternatively, Mr. Lee did not know the exact amount of his loss until he learned the amount through discovery in this case. This would merely reinforce the notion that Lee did not need to know the precise extent of his loss to file this lawsuit or to understand that he had been wronged.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BEAUMONT CAPITAL CORP. v. BEAR, STEARNS & CO.
- Status
- Published