Opinion
No. 10-1349.
Submitted: October 18, 2010.
Filed: October 25, 2010.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.
John Westrick, Westrick McDowallNix, Saint Paul, MN, for Appellant.
Brian N. Toder, Minneapolis, MN, pro se.
Phillip Gainsley, Gainsley Law Office, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellees.
Before RILEY, Chief Judge, BYE and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.
Steven M. Maus appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Brian N. Toder and Chestnut Cambronne, P.A. We affirm.
The Honorable Patrick A. Conmy, United States District Judge for the District of North Dakota, sitting in the District of Minnesota.
The dispute giving rise to this action is an attorney's lien for unpaid attorney fees in the amount of $81,778.93 held by the appellees on Maus's partnership dissolution trust account. After a state court entered judgment for the lien and the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment, Maus v. Galic, No. A06-1183, 2007 WL 1248160, at *2 (Minn.Ct.App. May 1, 2007), Maus brought this action in federal court seeking an accounting; he also stated claims for usury, breach of fiduciary duty, and an alleged violation of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1601- 1667f. The district court concluded the claim for an accounting was barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel because of determinations made in the Minnesota state court proceedings; the district court further concluded the claims for usury, breach of fiduciary duty, and the alleged TILA violation either failed on the merits or were time-barred. Maus v. Toder, 681 F.Supp.2d 1007, 1013-19 (D.Minn. 2010).
Having carefully reviewed the record de novo, as well as the parties' briefs, we affirm for the reasons stated by the district court in its thorough and well-reasoned decision. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.