Opinion ID: 4537103
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Litigation Ensues

Text: On December 22, 2015, the executors of the three estates sued Mackey alleging, among other things, conversion of the stock. Mackey filed a plea in bar of the statute of limitations. The trial court determined that the limitations issue should be decided at trial. The case was tried without a jury on August 21, 2017. At the close of evidence, Mackey moved to strike arguing that no tolling occurred because the misrepresentation, if any, was made long before any act creating a cause of action occurred. The trial court asked the parties to brief the limitations issue in written closing statements. The trial court ultimately issued a letter opinion ruling that Mackey converted the stock. It first found that Code § 8.01-229(D) tolls the limitations period even if no cause of action has accrued at the time of the misrepresentation, relying on the analysis in Evans v. Trinity, 137 F. Supp. 3d 877 (E.D. Va. 2015), for this proposition. It further found that Mackey “made an affirmative act to conceal his planned conversion of the Trigon stock from each of its rightful owners,” which “resulted in the conversion being hidden from the plaintiffs until 2015.” The trial court recited the evidence regarding the interactions between Mackey and Quinn at length, observing that it did “not find Mackey’s testimony to be credible.” The trial court noted that Mackey asked Workman for the death certificates, changed the firm’s mailing address, and sold the stock all without informing the estates even though Quinn asked about the stocks on multiple occasions. It then wrote: These acts and omissions do not rise to the level of affirmative misrepresentations, but they cast Mackey as having deliberately prevented other parties from accessing the stock. On the other hand, Quinn had no personal stake in the stock, followed up 5 numerous times to ask if Mackey had any information or could provide updates on its status, then suddenly stopped. Quinn’s representation that he did so because Mackey told him to the stock was essentially worthless is both compelling and persuasive. I am sympathetic to Mackey’s argument that Quinn could have looked up the value of the Trigon stock at any time. However, I am not comfortable finding that an experienced lawyer should question every statement from other experienced lawyers with whom he has an ongoing professional relationship and no reason not to trust. The trial court concluded that “[g]iven Mackey’s misrepresentation, I find it reasonable for Quinn to have relied on that statement in deciding not to act further.” By ruling that Mackey concealed the stock from “each of its rightful owners,” the trial court found that the tolling applied to all of the estates even though Mackey spoke only to Quinn, who was representing Viar’s executor. The trial court further held that the executors had proven the elements of conversion. It found that the executors, as representatives of the deceased partners’ estates, had an actual right to the stock at the time of conversion but Mackey did not because he was not a member of the partnership when Trigon issued the stock in 1997. The trial court ultimately awarded $259,212 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages, which it confirmed by final order incorporating the letter opinion. We awarded Mackey this appeal.