Scottrade, Inc. v. Kristine Davenport

MEMORANDUM

On September 15, 2010, James LeFeber (“LeFeber”) died, leaving the contents of his Scottrade brokerage account to five of his friends: Shane LeFeber (“Shane”), Patricia Faller (“Faller”), Kristine Davehport (“Davenport”), Christopher Gibbons and Kimberly Chabot. However, one of those beneficiaries — Davenport—sought to claim all of LeFeber’s estate and brokerage account, based on an unrecorded oral contract that she allegedly made with LeFe-ber in 2007. She filed suit in Montana state court.

Faced with competing claims over LeFe-ber’s account, Plaintiff-Appellee Scottrade, Inc. (“Scottrade”) filed an interpleader action in the United States District Court for the District of Montana. A welter of claims, crossclaims and counter-cross-claims followed. Seeking the entire account, Davenport alleged a conspiracy of the other beneficiaries to interfere with the purported 2007 oral contract. Her causes of action included undue influence, duress, fraud, and. breach of fiduciary duty as well as others, like interference with expectancy, not recognized by Montana law. She also claimed that the conspirators, after inducing LeFeber to break his contract, had murdered him by…