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Breach of Contract – Breach of Fiduciary Duty

By: Derek Hawkins//January 24, 2017//

Breach of Contract – Breach of Fiduciary Duty

By: Derek Hawkins//January 24, 2017//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Margaret Richek Goldberg v. Bank of America, N.A., et al

Case No.: 11-2989

Officials: FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Breach of Contract – Breach of Fiduciary Duty

LaSalle Bank offered custodial accounts that clients used to invest in securities. If an account had a cash balance at the end of a day, the cash would be invested in (“swept” into) a mutual fund from a list that the client chose. LaSalle Bank would sell the mutual fund shares automatically when the customer needed the money to make other investments or wanted to withdraw cash. Stephen Richek, as trustee under the Seymour Richek Revocable Trust, opened a custodial account with a sweeps feature. (The current trustee is Margaret Richek Goldberg; for the sake of continuity we continue to refer to the investor and plaintiff as Richek.) Richek was satisfied with LaSalle’s services until it was acquired by Bank of America. After the acquisition, Bank of America notified the clients that a particular fee was being eliminated. Richek, who had not known about the fee, then sued in state court, contending that LaSalle had broken its contract (which had a schedule that did not mention this fee) and violated its fiduciary duties. Richek proposed to represent a class of all customers who had custodial accounts at LaSalle. (Because LaSalle became a subsidiary of Bank of America, and now operates under its name, we refer from now on to “the Bank,” which covers both institutions.)

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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