Glover v. Sager
| Decision Date | 22 July 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 6659,6659 |
| Citation | 667 P.2d 1198 |
| Court | Alaska Supreme Court |
| Parties | David GLOVER and Dale Fett, Appellants, v. Hubert SAGER & Hubert Sager, Jr., d/b/a Sager Trucking, Appellees. |
Dale J. Walther, Clark, Walther, & Flanigan, Anchorage, for appellants.
John R. Strachan, Strachan, Kelly & Patterson, Anchorage, for appellees.
Before BURKE, C.J., RABINOWITZ, MATTHEWS, and COMPTON, JJ.
This is an appeal from an involuntary dismissal of a suit on an employment contract. Glover and Fett contend that the superior court committed error in dismissing their complaint with prejudice pursuant to Civil Rule 41(b). 1 Furthermore, they allege that the superior court erred in imposing insufficient sanctions against Sager Trucking (Sager) for its willful failure to make discovery.
At the time in question, Sager was hauling fuel oil for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. Glover and Fett were employed as truck drivers by Sager. In late 1979, Glover and Fett formulated plans to become independent truck owners under a proposed agreement by which they would continue driving for Sager. Glover and Fett claim that they were given assurances of long-term employment and a sufficient amount of work to enable them to make payments on the trucks they had purchased in contemplation of their transition from company drivers to owner/operators. They allege that they were provided a guarantee from Sager that their compensation would cover existing expenses and any increases therein and that any tariff increases granted Sager would be passed on to them. Finally, Glover and Fett claim they were assured by Sager that it would continue to follow a system of dispatching drivers by seniority. Glover and Fett's position is that they reached an understanding with Sager that these concerns would be satisfied upon their making the transition from employee/drivers to owner/operators.
By December 1979, Glover and Fett had purchased trucks and commenced operating under the new relationship with Sager. In addition, they signed agreements by which Sager leased the trucks. 2 Subsequently, Sager informed Glover and Fett that tariff increases granted to it would not be passed on to them. Negotiations between the parties followed this announcement. Sager also informed Glover and Fett that it was not earning an adequate profit. On the basis of this representation, Glover and Fett agreed to a modification of the seniority dispatch system. This change apparently resulted in a larger percentage of driver dispatches going to Sager's regularly employed drivers.
After negotiations between the parties collapsed, Sager terminated the lease agreements it had with Glover and Fett by giving them the thirty-days' notice required under the lease. 3 Thereafter, Glover and Fett filed suit for breach of contract. They also asserted claims of intentional and negligent misrepresentation based on representations Sager had made during negotiations regarding its financial condition. 4
The case was tried to the court without a jury. 5 At the conclusion of Glover and Fett's case in chief, the superior court dismissed their claims under Civil Rule 41(b). In conjunction with its order of dismissal, the superior court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Of significance to the resolution of this appeal are the following findings of fact and conclusions of the superior court:
David Glover ... and Dale Fett were owner-operators of trucks used for moving Sager trailers containing fuel oil for Alyeska Pipeline. Plaintiffs were employed by Sager Trucking personally, and leased their trucks to the company under a separate agreement.
... The plaintiffs were hired as "owner/operators"--that is, they were not strictly employees of Sager Trucking, but owned their own trucks and operated them under a standard United Owner/Operators of Alaska Equipment Lease. Gilbertson variously told each of the plaintiffs that the company would maintain a seniority system for them and that the company had an expectation of a long period, perhaps fifteen to twenty-five years, for retaining the Alyeska Haul. 6
Gilbertson told Glover that he would "try" to keep Glover's income to around sixty percent (60%) of the tariff and that as long as Sager Trucking had the Alyeska haul, Glover would have work with Sager; that Glover would run his truck under a seniority system and that tariff increases would be passed on to the drivers. Glover subsequently agreed that the Alyeska and military hauls could be assigned on a modified seniority system and that a rotating system or haul assignments could be instituted.
....
Gilbertson told Fett that as long as he kept his nose clean and did a good job Sager Trucking would keep him on as long as Sager had the Alyeska Haul on a seniority basis and the he would "try" to keep Fett's income to around sixty percent (60%) of the trucking tariff. Sager told Fett that he would make sure Fett got enough work to pay his truck off. Fett agreed, as did the other drivers after they went to work, to a modification of the seniority system of trucking assignments.
In its conclusions of law the superior court ruled that:
1. An employment contract existed between each of the plaintiffs and Sager Trucking.
2. The employment contract was not breached by Sager Trucking. Sager Trucking did not commit fraud, intentional misrepresentation or negligent misrepresentation with regard to any of the plaintiffs.
3. Plaintiffs therefore are not entitled to any relief requested by their complaint.
4. The defendants are entitled to a judgment of dismissal with prejudice and to recover their costs and attorney's fees. 7
In their appeal, Glover and Fett advance four specifications of error. They claim that the superior court erred in concluding that Sager was not bound by representations made to and relied upon by Glover and Fett; that the superior court erred in concluding that Glover and Fett had agreed to a modification of the seniority dispatch system of drivers; that the superior court erred in not finding Sager's anticipatory repudiation to be a breach of Glover and Fett's employment contracts with Sager; and that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to impose sufficient sanctions against Sager for its failure to make relevant documents available for discovery.
Resolution of the merits of this appeal depends in part upon application of Civil Rule 41(b). See supra note 1. In considering Rule 41(b) motions, the trial court is required to view the plaintiff's evidence in its most favorable light. 8 In Rogge v. Weaver, 368 P.2d 810, 813 (Alaska 1962), we stated that
where plaintiff has presented a prima facie case based on unimpeached evidence we are of the opinion that the trial judge should not grant the motion even though he is the trier of the facts and may not himself feel at that point in the trial that the plaintiff has sustained his burden of proof. 9
We are of the opinion that application of the foregoing principles leads to the conclusion that the superior court erred in granting Sager's Civil Rule 41(b) motion and that the decision should be reversed. Glover and Fett established a prima facie case of breach of contract which precluded the superior court from granting a Civil Rule 41(b) involuntary dismissal.
We think the superior court's findings of fact themselves mandate reversal. In our view, the evidence summarized in the court's findings demonstrates that Glover and Fett established a prima facie case against Sager under several theories. First, we think that Glover and Fett have made out a prima facie case of promissory estoppel under the Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 90 (1981). This section reads as follows, in relevant part:
A promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or forbearance on the part of the promisee or a third person and which does induce such action or forbearance is binding if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise.
In Slaymaker v. Peterkin, 518 P.2d 763, 766 (Alaska 1974), this court adopted the first Restatement's formulation of the promissory estoppel doctrine. 10 Subsequently, in State v. First National Bank of Ketchikan, 629 P.2d 78, 81 (Alaska 1981), we noted that:
Corbin identifies four elements necessary to a successful section 90 action: a) that the action induced "must amount to a substantial change of position," 2) that the action induced must have been either actually foreseen or reasonably foreseeable by the promisor, 3) that "an actual promise must have been made" and "must itself have induced the action or forbearance in reliance on it," and 4) that enforcement must be necessary in the interest of justice. 1A A. Corbin, Corbin on Contracts, § 200, at 215-21 (1963).
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, we hold that Glover and Fett established a prima facie case of promissory estoppel. Inherent in this holding is our conclusion that the actual terms of Glover and Fett's employment relationship with Sager are reasonably definite and certain and thus enforceable. We further conclude that a prima facie case of breach on Sager's part has been established by virtue of the thirty-day notices of termination which were given under the lease by Sager. Thus, the superior court erred in dismissing Glover and Fett's complaint insofar as their proof made out a prima facie case of promissory estoppel.
Secondly, we hold that analysis of Glover and Fett's proof under ordinary contract principles leads to the conclusion that they established a prima facie case of contract formation and subsequent breach by Sager. In Stenehjem v. Kyn Jin Cho, 631 P.2d 482, 484-85 (Alaska 1981), we stated in part that:
We have recognized that "the primary underlying purpose of the law of contracts is the attempted 'realization of reasonable expectations that have been induced by the making of a promise.' " Rego v. Decker, ...
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