Cosgrave appellate attorneys Thomas Brown and Wendy Margolis successfully defended an appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals in a securities fraud case. The Court of Appeals upheld an order in our clients’ favor in Amerivest Financial LLC v. Malouf, 263 Or App 327, 328 P3d 739 (2014).

Cosgrave’s clients were in the business of buying and selling senior life policies (SLPs), some of which were sold via other defendants to plaintiff Amerivest as part of a $10 million investment program. The trial court granted summary judgment for our clients on Amerivest’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty, common-law fraud, and violations of Oregon’s securities laws. On Amerivest’s appeal, the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for our clients, concluding that neither the investment program nor the SLPs were investment contracts – and thus were not subject to Oregon’s securities law – because the transactions were managed and controlled by Amerivest’s own officer and not by “others,” as the law requires. The court’s decision protects our clients’ substantial investment in the purchase and sale of SLPs.