Professional Documents
Culture Documents
David Forkner
Marcie R. Ziegler
Williams & Connolly
725 12th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
F. Warren Jacoby
Jennifer M. McHugh
Cozen O'Connor
1900 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Attorneys for Coventry First, LLC, Coventry Group,
Inc., Montgomery Capital, Inc., Coventry Financial
LLC, and Reid S. Buerger, Defendants - Appellants
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OPINION
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HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge.
Appellee Lincoln T. Griswold purchased a life
insurance policy that was later sold to Appellant Coventry
First LLC (Coventry) for an allegedly inflated price that
included undisclosed kickbacks to the broker. Griswold sued,
and Coventry moved to dismiss the case for lack of standing
or, in the alternative, to compel arbitration. The District Court
denied the motion and Coventry appealed. Two questions are
presented: (1) whether we have appellate jurisdiction to
review the District Courts denial of a motion to dismiss for
lack of standing; and (2) whether the District Court erred
when it denied a motion to compel arbitration.
I
This appeal arises from an alleged fraud in connection
with a life settlement, which involves the sale of a life
insurance policy for more than its cash-surrender value but
less than the net death benefit. The purchaser of the policy
pays the premiums until the original policy owners death, at
which time the purchaser collects the death benefit.
In January 2006, Griswold purchased an $8.4 million
life insurance policy. He then established the Lincoln T.
Griswold Irrevocable Trust (the Trust) under Georgia law for
the sole and exclusive purpose of owning the policy and he
disclaimed any personal right, title or interest in or power,
privilege or incident of ownership in the trust property. He
appointed Wells Fargo Bank to serve as Trustee.
Two weeks after the Trust was formed, Griswold
named Griswold LLP 1 as its sole beneficiary. 2 According to
the terms of the partnership agreement, Griswold LLP would
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The
other
AppellantsCoventry
Group,
Montgomery Capital, Coventry Financial, and Reid S.
Buergerwere non-signatories to the purchase agreement,
and therefore cannot bind other non-signatories. Invista, 625
F.3d at 85 (stating that the party seeking to compel arbitration
had offer[ed] no authority for its contention that a nonsignatory to an arbitration agreement can compel another
non-signatory to arbitrate certain claims, and we have found
none).
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* * *
For the reasons stated, we hold that we lack appellate
jurisdiction to review the District Courts denial of
Coventrys motion to dismiss. And we will affirm the District
Courts denial of the motion to compel arbitration against
Griswold and Griswold LLP.
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