Opinion ID: 3166758
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: DiPietro’s Counterclaim against Faith Temple

Text: [¶30] DiPietro also challenges the court’s entry of judgment against him on his counterclaim against Faith Temple. A counterclaim defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings “is the equivalent of a defendant’s motion to dismiss [a complaint] for failure to state a claim.” MacKerron v. MacKerron, 571 A.2d 810, 813 (Me. 1990). A counterclaim therefore will not be dismissed as insufficient “unless it appears to a certainty that under no facts that could be proved in support of the claim is the [counterclaim] plaintiff entitled to relief.” Monopoly, Inc. v. Aldrich, 683 A.2d 506, 510 (Me. 1996) (quotation marks omitted). We thus review the legal sufficiency of DiPietro’s counterclaim against Faith Temple to determine whether it “sets forth elements of a cause of action or 19 alleges facts that would entitle [DiPietro] to relief pursuant to some legal theory.” Ramsey v. Baxter Title Co., 2012 ME 113, ¶ 6, 54 A.3d 710 (quotation marks omitted). [¶31] The sole contention in Faith Temple’s motion for judgment on the pleadings was that the validity of the bankruptcy judgment was “a key element” of each of DiPietro’s counterclaim counts and that, because the court had already issued an execution on the judgment, DiPietro did not have any remaining claim for relief. In reality, however, only count one of DiPietro’s counterclaim, seeking a declaratory judgment, was premised on the assertion that an execution could not issue on the bankruptcy judgment. All of the other counts of DiPietro’s counterclaim were based on alleged misrepresentations that Faith Temple and Stearns made to the court in seeking an attachment against DiPietro’s property and on statements that Stearns made to DiPietro.9 The fate of DiPietro’s remaining claims, therefore, was not necessarily determined by the court’s conclusion that the Bankruptcy Court judgment was enforceable and that an execution should issue. Further, as discussed in section B supra, the issuance of the execution was in error, thus eliminating the foundation for the court’s order. Accordingly, the court erred 9 Faith Temple did not advance any arguments in its motion or on appeal regarding the sufficiency of those individual counts to state claims for relief, nor did it include a memorandum of law in its motion as required pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 7(b)(3). Thus, Faith Temple has waived any challenge to the sufficiency of DiPietro’s individual counterclaims. See M.R. Civ. P. 12(h)(2). 20 in entering judgment on the pleadings against DiPietro merely because it had already ordered that a writ of execution issue. E. Motion to Dismiss DiPietro’s Claim Against Stearns [¶32] DiPietro argues that the court also erred when it dismissed his counterclaims against Stearns, each of which sounds in tort. The court concluded that DiPietro had failed to state a claim against Stearns because all of the actionable conduct alleged by DiPietro was undertaken by Stearns in his capacity as pastor for Faith Temple. “We review the grant of a motion to dismiss de novo,” Gorham v. Androscoggin Cty., 2011 ME 63, ¶ 9, 21 A.3d 115, “view[ing] the facts alleged in the complaint as if they were admitted,” Ramsey, 2012 ME 113, ¶ 2, 54 A.3d 710. [¶33] In the context of allegations of tortious conduct by an individual, we have recognized that “[c]orporate officers who participate in wrongful acts can be held liable for their individual acts, and such liability is distinct from piercing the corporate veil.”10 Advanced Constr. Corp. v. Pilecki, 2006 ME 84, ¶ 13, 901 A.2d 189. Thus, even when a corporate agent is acting on behalf of the corporation, he may be liable for his own tortious conduct. See Blue Star Corp. v. CKF Props., LLC, 2009 ME 101, ¶ 44, 980 A.2d 1270; Pilecki, 2006 ME 84, ¶ 13, 10 DiPietro does not contend that Stearns should be held personally liable by piercing Faith Temple’s corporate veil. Rather, he contends that Stearns is individually liable for torts he allegedly committed while he was acting in the capacity of pastor at Faith Temple. 21 901 A.2d 189. It is also true, however, that if “an officer or director [of a corporation] did not personally participate in the tortious conduct, has no knowledge of it, or did not consent to it, he or she will not be held individually liable” for the corporation’s wrongful acts. In re Fresenius GranuFlo/NaturaLyte Dialysate Prods. Liab. Litig., 76 F. Supp. 3d 321, 336 (D. Mass. 2015) (applying California law); see also Norwest Capital Mgmt. & Trust Co. v. United States, 828 F.2d 1330, 1344 & n.11 (8th Cir. 1987). Therefore, if DiPietro had alleged that Stearns bears liability to him on the sole ground that he was an agent of a corporate tortfeasor, the claim against Stearns could not survive as a matter of law. [¶34] At this stage, however, DiPietro’s claims against Stearns are based on allegations that the “counterclaim defendants,” including Stearns personally, committed torts that resulted in injury to DiPietro. The claims are thus sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss, because they allege that Stearns himself engaged in actionable conduct against DiPietro, even though he may have acted for the corporation when he allegedly committed the torts. The court therefore erred in dismissing DiPietro’s counterclaims against Stearns on the sole ground that Stearns was acting on behalf of Faith Temple when he allegedly engaged in actionable conduct. 11 11 Stearns relies on a footnote in Town of Lebanon v. E. Lebanon Auto Sales LLC, 2011 ME 78, ¶ 9 n.3, 25 A.3d 950, for the proposition that, for an individual agent of a corporation to be held liable, the individual’s wrongful act must be distinct from any acts taken as an agent of the corporation. Stearns 22 [¶35] Stearns also contends that, even if the court erred in dismissing the counterclaim against him on individual liability grounds, the counterclaim should nonetheless have been dismissed because he was improperly joined as a party. See M.R. Civ. P. 13(h) (“Persons other than those made parties to the original action may be made parties to a counterclaim or cross-claim in accordance with the provisions of Rules 19 or 20.”). Because DiPietro’s claims against Stearns arose out of many of the same transactions or occurrences as those alleged in his claims against Faith Temple and there were questions of law and fact common to both sets of claims, it was proper for Stearns to be permissively joined as a party. See M.R. Civ. P. 20 (stating that “[a]ll persons may be joined in one action as defendants if there is asserted against them . . . any right to relief . . . arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question of law or fact common to all defendants will arise in the action”). misconstrues that discussion. In that footnote, we concluded that an individual who was the sole member of an LLC could not be held individually liable for corporate wrongdoing because the plaintiffs had not proved “any individual acts of wrongdoing distinct from those of the LLC.” Id. (citing Blue Star Corp. v. CKF Props., LLC, 2009 ME 101, ¶ 44, 980 A.2d 1270). In Town of Lebanon, there was no suggestion that the individual herself engaged in any individual wrongful acts, either on her own or acting as an agent of the corporation, and thus she could not be held personally liable pursuant to the theory of agency liability articulated in Blue Star. As we discuss in the text, Town of Lebanon therefore does not protect Stearns from liability here, because DiPietro’s counterclaim alleges that Stearns personally committed tortious acts for which he can be held liable, regardless of whether he was acting as the agent of a corporation. It bears note that on appeal, Stearns observes that his liability for actions undertaken as a church pastor may be limited by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 3 of the Maine Constitution, but he does not press the issue. Accordingly, we decline to reach the application of agency liability principles to churches and their ministers, recognizing that the trial court may address the issue if it is later raised during the course of this litigation. 23 F. Attachment [¶36] DiPietro does not separately challenge the order granting an attachment against his property, and thus we do not reach the question of whether the court abused its discretion by issuing the order. See Brickyard Assocs. v. Auburn Venture Partners, 626 A.2d 930, 934 (Me. 1993). DiPietro does contend, however, that Faith Temple is not entitled to compounding post-judgment interest, therefore implicitly arguing that the court erred in calculating the amount of the attachment to be $163,091.48. [¶37] “Entitlement to interest on judgments is derived from statute . . . .” Walsh v. Cusack, 2008 ME 74, ¶ 4, 946 A.2d 414 (quotation marks omitted). Here, the controlling statute is 28 U.S.C.S. § 1961 (LEXIS through Pub. L. No. 114-91), which provides for compounding interest on judgments in “civil case[s]” in federal “district court,” including bankruptcy cases. See Lassman v. Keefe (In re Keefe), 401 B.R. 520, 526 (B.A.P. 1st Cir. 2009) (holding that 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a) applies to bankruptcy court judgments because “[a] bankruptcy court is a ‘unit’ of the district court”); see also Ocasek v. Manville Corp. Asbestos Disease Comp. Fund, 956 F.2d 152, 154 (7th Cir. 1992); In re Pester Ref. Co., 964 F.2d 842, 849 (8th Cir. 1992). Thus, under controlling federal law, the court did not err in determining that Faith Temple was entitled to compounding post-judgment interest. 24 [¶38] We note, however, that the court’s calculation of the amount that Faith Temple is likely to receive from a final judgment appears to be erroneous. As is explained above, see supra n.2 & n.3, the court apparently added an extra $11,000 when it calculated the amount of the judgment with compounding interest at the statutory rate of 9.15%. On remand, the court shall correct the amount of the attachment accordingly.