Brooks v. Gigray Ranches, Inc.
| Citation | 910 P.2d 744,128 Idaho 72 |
| Decision Date | 29 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 20923,20923 |
| Parties | Richard L. BROOKS, Plaintiff-Respondent-Cross Appellant, v. GIGRAY RANCHES, INC., an Idaho Corporation, Defendant-Appellant-Cross Respondent. . Boise, March 1995 Term |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Idaho |
or new trial, denial of tendered jury instructions, and denial of attorney fees. Affirmed. Cross-appeal on award of costs. Affirmed.
Gigray, Miller, Downen & Wilper, Caldwell, for appellant. Donald Downen argued.
Richard B. Eismann, Nampa, for respondent.
Richard L. Brooks (Brooks) sued Gigray Ranches for breach of an agistment contract. Gigray Ranches, Inc. (Gigray Ranches) answered and counterclaimed on a theory of conversion. The jury returned a special verdict in favor of Gigray Ranches on Brooks' complaint for breach of contract. The jury also returned a verdict in favor of Gigray Ranches on the claim of conversion but awarded a lower amount of damages to Gigray Ranches than it claimed. Gigray Ranches moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or new trial. The district court denied the motion, and Gigray Ranches appeals the denial. Gigray Ranches also appeals the district court's ruling authorizing Brooks to cash the checks that had been the subject of its counterclaim and the ruling of the district court denying Gigray Ranches' request for attorney fees.
Brooks cross-appeals, arguing that if the Court rules in favor of Gigray Ranches on the conversion claim, then the entire action must be remanded for a second trial on all claims. Brooks also argues that an evidentiary ruling of the district court should be reversed if a new trial is ordered. Brooks additionally cross-appeals the district court's ruling granting Gigray Ranches costs.
Both parties seek attorney fees on appeal.
In 1981 Brooks was an employee of Gigray Ranches and had a herd of cattle and calves in place at the Gigray ranch. Brooks contracted in writing with Gigray Ranches for the care of the cows and calves. The 1981 contract was supplanted on March 9, 1982, by a second written contract. This was the last written contract between the parties who then operated on a verbal agreement for the several years culminating in the present dispute.
By the terms of the 1982 agreement Gigray Ranches agreed to provide pasture and feed at its ranch "near Marsing, Idaho" for Brooks' "115 pairs of cows and calves and 3 bulls." In exchange for providing "pasture and feed from January 1, 1982 to January 1, 1983, unless sooner removed or sold as provided [in the contract]," Gigray Ranches was to receive 60% of the calves raised. Payment was to be made by division of the animals at weaning time. The contract did not contain a clause providing for its renewal.
The parties followed the arrangement set forth in the 1982 contract through the end of 1988. When it came time to wean the calves in June of 1989, Brooks bought Gigray Ranches' 60% interest in that year's calves for a future sale that he planned. Gigray Ranches agreed that Brooks could keep the bull calves on Gigray Ranches' ranch so long as Brooks provided for their feed and care.
In late 1989 Brooks held a sale of his bull calves and other cattle. He also sold ten pair of cows with calves, in which Gigray Ranches still owned a 60% interest in the calves. However, Brooks kept Gigray Ranches' portion of the sale proceeds and never told Gigray Ranches of the sale.
Gigray Ranches told Brooks of a possible sale of the ranch on February 15, 1990. The sale was completed on March 30, 1990, and Gigray Ranches notified Brooks that the new owner would be taking possession of the ranch on May 1, 1990. Further, Brooks' employment would be terminated on April 15, 1990.
Brooks and William Gigray, the president of Gigray Ranches, discussed the care of Brooks' cattle for the remainder of 1990. Brooks maintained that Gigray Ranches was obligated to care for the cattle through January 1, 1991. Gigray disagreed. However, he made arrangements for the cattle to be kept on a ranch approximately ninety miles away, near Westphal, Oregon. The owner of the Westphal ranch offered to take the cattle for either $15 per cow per month, with Gigray Ranches retaining its rights under the agistment contract, or at no charge as assignee of Gigray Ranches' 60% interest in the calf crop. Brooks decided not to move his cattle to that location.
Brooks moved the cattle from the Gigray Ranches' property in May and split up the herd in order to pasture them in several different places. Brooks held three calf sales in the summer and fall of 1990 and did not provide any of the proceeds to Gigray Ranches. Sixty percent of the proceeds of the three sales would have been $22,188.88, $4,644.00, and $1,816.39, respectively.
Brooks brought an action against Gigray Ranches for breach of the agistment contract, seeking damages of $9,813.23, calculating the difference between the costs he incurred as a result of Gigray Ranches' alleged breach and the offsetting credits he would acknowledge if the contract were still in effect. Gigray Ranches counterclaimed against Brooks for conversion, seeking damages for 60% of the calf sale proceeds. The jury returned a special verdict on Brooks' contract claim, finding that Gigray Ranches did not breach its contract with Brooks. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Gigray Ranches on the conversion claim but only assessed damages in the amount of $900. The district court denied Gigray Ranches' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or in the alternative for a new trial. The district court granted Brooks' motion to amend the judgment and clarify his interest in two checks representing the proceeds from the sale of calves in August of 1990. The district court granted Gigray Ranches' costs in the amount of $745.00 but denied Gigray Ranches' request for attorney fees.
In reviewing a motion for judgment n.o.v this court "applies the same standard as does the trial court which passed on the motion originally." Quick v. Crane, 111 Idaho 759, 764, 727 P.2d 1187, 1192 (1986). Reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party with the benefit of all resulting legitimate inferences, the jury's verdict will only be set aside if as a matter of law it cannot be said that "there is substantial evidence upon which the jury could properly find a verdict for that party." Id. at 763, 727 P.2d at 1191.
The jury found that Gigray Ranches did not breach its contract with Brooks. Gigray Ranches maintains that Brooks admitted that he owed $33,713.47 in offsets, and if Gigray Ranches did not breach the contract it must be entitled to judgment in that amount, citing Chisholm v. J.R. Simplot Co., 94 Idaho 628, 495 P.2d 1113 (1972).
The record does not support Gigray Ranches' logic. The reply to the counterclaim asserted the defense of failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. While the reply admitted a contract had been entered into in 1982, the reply did not admit existence of a contract on the date of the conversions alleged by Gigray Ranches. The jury was instructed on the elements of a valid contract and was instructed that a contract could be amended, modified or discharged by an oral or written agreement. It is not explicit from the special verdict, but the jury's determination is consistent with a determination that no contract existed at the time of the calf sales in the summer and fall of 1990. Further, it is clear that Brooks did not admit owing Gigray Ranches $33,713.47. That evidence was offered by Brooks as a reduction from any award he would obtain if the jury determined that Gigray Ranches breached an existing contract. Brooks did not admit any amount being due Gigray Ranches.
The jury's verdict was consistent with either the theory that there was no agistment contract in 1990, or, that if a contract existed for 1990, it was terminated prior to the 1990 calf sales. The trial court properly denied the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
A trial court's ruling on a motion for new trial will not be reversed unless the lower court abused its discretion. Burggraf v. Chaffin, 121 Idaho 171, 173, 823 P.2d 775, 777 (1991). That determination will be made by applying the three-part inquiry of Sun Valley Shopping Ctr. v. Idaho Power, 119 Idaho 87, 803 P.2d 993 (1991), 1 to the district court's two-part analysis of the motion for new trial. In ruling on a motion for a new trial, the court must ask "whether the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and if the ends of justice would be served by vacating the verdict" and "whether a different result would follow in a retrial." Burggraf, 121 Idaho at 174, 823 P.2d at 778 (quoting Robertson v. Richards, 115 Idaho 628, 631-32, 769 P.2d 505, 508-09 (1987)).
The district court did not abuse its discretion under the Sun Valley standard. The district court stated that it was faced with a discretionary decision and indicated it had done the weighing and felt the verdict was fair based on the evidence, concluding that a second jury would not rule differently. This constitutes a sufficient articulation of the court's discretionary ruling applying the controlling standard. There is sufficient evidence in the record such that the ruling amounts to an "exercise of reason." Sun Valley Shopping Ctr., 119 Idaho at 94, 803 P.2d at 1000.
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