Court Opinion

ID: 9464168
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:26:46.178155+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:29.735393
License: Public Domain

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result and in much of the court’s opinion, adding these words only because my concept of the nature and significance of the equitable claim made by appellants differs from that stated in the opinion. Appellants purport to be aggrieved because the broker handling transactions in securities for them had, either recklessly or improvidently, so it is alleged, encouraged them to speculate in commodities transactions. When this ended unhappily, appellants sought relief in the form of either $50,000 in damages, or restitution of the securities held by the broker for their account which had been sold to make good the losses under the commodities contracts. Although the complaint purported to seek rescission of those contracts, that was obviously a frivolous request for relief since those contracts with third parties stood on their own independent legal footing. Such rescission was not, however, essential to the claim for restitution. The securities in question were precisely identified in the complaint, and appear to be of the kind that are publicly traded.
Appellants are thus left in the position of representing to the court that they want either $50,000, a relief customarily thought of as legal in nature, or restitution of the securities, a claim traditionally sounding in equity. The complaint does not suggest that appellants had a preference for either of these claims, or thought of one as bulking larger than the other; and certainly it cannot be said that the equitable claim is only incidental to the legal. Under these circumstances, a finding of nonappealability seems to me to be plainly justified. See Danford v. Schwabacher, 488 F.2d 454, 457 (9th Cir. 1973).