Court Opinion

ID: 9643743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:39:32.09864+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:02.993293
License: Public Domain

McLELLAN, District Judge
(dissenting).
While I agree that within the meaning of the Securities Act (the material portions whereof appear in the majority opinion) one who sells as agent is a “seller” and subject to the statutory liabilities of a seller, I cannot concur in the result here reached. There was abundant evidence, which would have justified, if it did not require, a finding that the defendant acted not as agent for the seller but as agent for the plaintiff who was the buyer. The trial judge, after instructing himself that “whether the seller, being a broker, himself owns the security, or whether he is acting as the agent for the owner, or for the purchaser, or for both, is immaterial” found for the plaintiff upon the theory that the defendant was a “seller”. To me, it seems, that one who acts solely as agent for the purchaser cannot be regarded as a seller and that the liability of such an agent for misrepresentations rests upon common-law principles, not upon the Securities Act which relates to misrepresentations by a seller.
The trial judge having proceeded upon a contrary view, I think justice requires that the judgment of the District Court be set aside and a new trial ordered.