Opinion ID: 174351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claims against BoA

Text: Lechoslaw's brief-in-chief and reply brief ask us to review three issues regarding its claims against BoA: whether the District Court erred in (1) excluding admissions of Bank Handlowy's counsel that the check was mailed, (2) denying Lechoslaw's motions to be allowed to serve process and conduct discovery in accordance with the Hague Convention, and (3) dismissing Lechoslaw's 93A claims. [10] We address each in turn.
During the course of one its filings when it was a party to this litigation, Bank Handlowy, through its counsel, made certain admissions regarding the mailing of the check to BoA. After Bank Handlowy was dismissed from the case, Lechoslaw attempted to bring these statements in as nonhearsay because, Lechoslaw claims, they were admissions by a party opponent since Bank Handlowy had the same counsel as BoA. See Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2). BoA filed a motion in limine to exclude the statements and the District Court granted it. Lechoslaw objects. BoA counters that these statements are not admissible against it regardless of its common counsel with Bank Handlowy. We agree. The Federal Rules of Evidence make clear that a statement is not hearsay if the statement is offered against a party and is ... a statement by the party's agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(D); Gomez v. Rivera Rodriguez, 344 F.3d 103, 116 (1st Cir.2003). Lechoslaw attempts to confuse the issue by citing cases holding that attorneys serve as agents of their clients. See, e.g., Blake v. Hendrickson, 40 Mass.App. Ct. 579, 666 N.E.2d 164, 166 (1996). There is no question that Bank Handlowy's counsel was its agent, and that BoA's counsel was also its agent. But the fact that both banks shared counsel does not change the application of the rules of evidence. Here, Bank Handlowy's attorney made certain statements during its representation of Bank Handlowy. Those statements may have been admissible against Bank Handlowy if it were a party to this litigation, but it was dismissed. There was no abuse of discretion on the facts here in the court's exclusion of the statement as offered against BoA.
Next, Lechoslaw argues that the Superior Court and the District Court both erred in preventing him from taking depositions of Bank Handlowy's agents in accordance with the Hague Convention. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide that depositions may be taken in a foreign country pursuant to any applicable treaty or convention. Fed.R.Civ.P. 28(b). Both trial courts denied Lechoslaw's various motions seeking to extend the discovery deadline and to take depositions abroad. Given the lateness of the request to take depositions and the potential for delay, this call was well within the court's discretion as to trial management. Ayala-Gerena v. Bristol Myers-Squibb Co., 95 F.3d 86, 91 (1st Cir.1996). Bank Handlowy was dismissed from the case for lack of personal jurisdiction on December 2, 2004. After three extensions to the tracking order, the discovery deadline for this case was extended to February 28, 2005. On March 6, 2006, over one year after the deadline for the end of discovery had passed, after cross motions for summary judgment had been filed by both remaining parties, and after the Superior Court had ruled on some of those motions, Lechoslaw filed his first motion to reopen discovery, extend the discovery deadline, amend the tracking order, and to depose Bank Handlowy under the Hague Convention. Lechoslaw filed essentially this same motion multiple times with the Superior Court and once with the District Court. While the information that Lechoslaw sought in these motions might have been crucial to his case, [11] the Superior Court and later the District Court did not abuse their discretion in failing to reopen discovery over one year after it had closed and after summary judgment motions had been filed in the case. The procedures of the Hague Convention do not come without a significant time cost. In many situations the Letter of Request procedure authorized by the Convention would be unduly time consuming and expensive, as well as less certain to produce needed evidence than direct use of the Federal Rules. Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v. U.S. Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of Iowa, 482 U.S. 522, 542, 107 S.Ct. 2542, 96 L.Ed.2d 461 (1987); see also Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee, 105 F.R.D. 435, 450 (S.D.N.Y. 1984) ([A] number of courts have observed that the Hague Convention is quite slow and costly even when the foreign government agrees to cooperate); In Re Bedford Computer Corp., 114 B.R. 2, 6 (Bankr.D.N.H.1990) (opining that the only effect of using the Hague Convention rules would be to further delay [this] adversary proceeding). Lechoslaw waited until almost two years after Bank Handlowy was dismissed from the case to request information from it. Not only that, but at the time Lechoslaw made his first request, discovery had been completed for over a year and cross summary judgment motions had been filed and adjudicated. Lechoslaw should have known that he needed this information from Bank Handlowy much earlier than 2006. Under these circumstances, it was not an abuse of discretion for the courts not to reopen discovery.
Lechoslaw's last claim of error is that the District Court should not have directed a verdict against him on his 93A claim because BoA failed to disclose facts which would have led Lechoslaw not to purchase the official check. [12] Chapter 93A punishes unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A, § 2(a). As relevant to Lechoslaw's appeal, a business violates 93A if it fails to disclose to a buyer or prospective buyer any fact, the disclosure of which may have influenced the buyer or prospective buyer not to enter into the transaction. 940 C.M.R. § 3.16; V.S.H. Realty, Inc. v. Texaco, Inc., 757 F.2d 411, 416 (1st Cir.1985) (applying regulation to businesses). Our review of the directed verdict is de novo. Chamberlin v. Town of Stoughton, 601 F.3d 25, 30 (1st Cir.2010). A ruling that conduct violates Chapter 93A is a legal, not a factual determination. Incase Inc. v. Timex Corp., 488 F.3d 46, 56 (1st Cir.2007)(internal quotation marks omitted). Lechoslaw's contentions center around his argument that BoA's agents should have apprised him of before selling him the official check. According to Lechoslaw, BoA should have not induced him to purchase an official check, and he would not have been so induced had BoA explained the risks associated with its purchase. The risk that Lechoslaw wanted to be apprised ofand which he contends supports a violation of 93A for BoA's failure to disclosewas that the official check could be lost in transit from one bank to another, and that its payment would therefore be delayed. The evidence at trial was that Lechoslaw came to a BoA branch wanting to send money to Poland but he lacked the necessary information to do so via a wire transfer. Lechoslaw claims that this method was superior to the official check and that therefore BoA should have allowed him to use a wire transfer. BoA's witness explained that BoA could not initiate a wire transfer if the client did not bring with him a bank account number at the receiving bankin this case, a Polish bankand a routing identification number for that bank. Since Lechoslaw did not have a bank account in a Polish bank that could accept wire transfers from the United States, the BoA agent told Lechoslaw that his best option was an official check, which Lechoslaw obtained. Lechoslaw's arguments that BoA had an obligation to advise him of the possibility that the check could get lost in the mail and that this would delay the payment is simply unavailing. The risk that letters may be lost in the mail is commonly known; BoA did not need to state the obvious. There was no evidence that BoA violated chapter 93A in any of its dealings with Lechoslaw, and the District Court properly entered judgment in its favor.