Today I argued a motion for summary judgment of non-liability on counts for conversion and statutory theft. The action arose out of a joint venture to trade Pokémon cards. The plaintiff invested $14,200 as a passive participant in the venture. My client was the business. My client lost money and made no return on the $14,200. Now the plaintiff demands $400,000.
In addition to a count for simple breach of contract, the plaintiff alleges conversion and statutory theft. The law is plain: failure to pay money under a contract does not sound as the tort of conversion or theft. I moved for summary judgment of non-liability on the tort claims. Additionally, the tort claims were untimely: brought more than three years after the act complained of (failure to pay money under the contract). The plaintiff plead a continuing course of wrongdoing based on my client’s promises to pay. But the cited case was Jarvis, where the court found a continuing wrong based on that defendant repeatedly breaching her fiduciary duty of accounting as the custodian of assets for a disabled elder person. A simple breach of contract does not amount to a breach of fiduciary duty.
