Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s finding that defendant committed fraud against plaintiffs, as well as its assessment of compensatory and punitive damages totaling $1.3 million, arising out of defendant’s actions in withdrawing and keeping for itself over $3 million from letters of credit that were meant for plaintiffs. While defendant asserted that it could not be liable for fraud because it was not plaintiffs’ agent or their fiduciary, and thus did not have duty to alert plaintiffs that it had changed instructions about who would control letters of credit, Dist. Ct. could properly find that defendant’s prior five years of business dealings with plaintiffs created “special relationship,” which supported both existence of duty to disclose to plaintiffs instant change in letters of credit, as well as jury’s verdict
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Fraud