Polk v. Larrabee

• Decision Date: 15 December 2000
• Docket Number: No. 25098.,25098.
• Parties: Mickey POLK, and Carla Polk, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents Cross Appellants, v. Robert D. LARRABEE, Family Home Center, Inc., and Danny B. Laws and Steven C. Nash, as Personal Representatives of the Estate of Roy B. Laws, Defendants-Appellants Cross Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

17 P.3d 247

135 Idaho 303

Mickey POLK, and Carla Polk, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents Cross Appellants, v. Robert D. LARRABEE, Family Home Center, Inc., and Danny B. Laws and Steven C. Nash, as Personal Representatives of the Estate of Roy B. Laws, Defendants-Appellants Cross Respondents.

No. 25098.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Lewiston, October 2000 Term.

December 15, 2000.

Charles A. Brown, Lewiston, for appellants.

Clark & Feeney, Lewiston, for respondents. Ronald T. Blewett argued.

KIDWELL, Justice.

This appeal results from the district court's decision to treble damages on a jury verdict, which found in favor of the employees in a wage claim dispute. The employer claims that treble damages were not appropriate under the Idaho Code.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In November of 1994, Mickey Polk came to Idaho to discuss a job opportunity with Roy B. Laws and Robert D. Larrabee. Laws and Larrabee were opening a manufactured housing distributorship in Idaho called the Family Home Center. As compensation for running the new Nampa, Idaho, store, Polk would receive a $2,000.00 monthly salary, a 5% commission on all homes sold at the Nampa location, and a 25% commission on all homes that he personally sold. Polk and his wife Carla accepted the offer, and in January of 1995, relocated from Texas to Nampa.

Upon arriving in Idaho, Polk was provided with two weeks training at the company's main headquarters in Lewiston. After the training, Polk returned to Nampa to manage the store. Shortly thereafter, Carla Polk was hired as a salesperson at the Nampa store, which compensated her by providing a commission of 20% on all manufactured homes she sold.

In March of 1995, Polk was offered the position of general manager of Family Home Center in Lewiston. On April 5, 1995, Polk and his wife Carla moved to Lewiston and Polk began work as the general manager, while Carla continued as a salesperson on the Lewiston lot. As compensation for running the company, Polk was to receive, in addition to his previous package, a 20% share of the profits of the company, as well as a 5% commission on every home sold by the company. At trial he testified that he was promised an income of at least $150,000.00 for taking the general manager position, and that Larrabee agreed to his terms for figuring the company's profits.

Soon after taking over the responsibilities of general manager, Polk made discoveries that caused him to question the financial soundness of the company. He testified that he found the company owed a significant amount of money on past due debts, and that the company had spent $80,000 to $120,000 from customer trust accounts.

On January 16, 1996, the Polks terminated their employment with the Family Home Center. On that day, they gave a written demand for payment of the salary and commissions they felt they were entitled to. Polk claimed $1,000.00 for his salary, $10,813.69 worth of sales commissions, and $18,698.00 for his 20% share of Family Home Center's profit, as calculated by him. Carla claimed $21,283.65 of commissions for homes she had sold. Family Home Center, however, refused to pay any of the claims except for the $1,000.00 salary owed to Polk. It claimed that the company did not owe the Polks any of the commissions because the sales upon which the commissions were based had not closed.

The Polks filed suit against Family Home Center, Larrabee and the representatives of Law's estate on January 31, 1996. In its answer, Family Home Center claimed that it did not owe any money to the Polks because the sales had not closed. It also counterclaimed that Polk had mishandled Family Home Center funds.

Prior to trial, the Polks hired Court Koep, a certified public accountant, to review Family Home Center's financial status. The accountant discovered what he believed to be discrepancies in Family Home Center's financial records. According to Koep's calculations, Family Home Center earned a profit between April 5, 1995 and January 16, 1996 of $96,440.00, of which Polk claimed a 20% share. Koep arrived at this figure by making certain adjustments to Family Home Center's books. The parties refer to these adjustments as the "thirteenth statement." Family Home Center, on the other hand, claimed it had a loss of $384,375.00 for the year ending December 31, 1995, and that Koep was improperly manipulating the figures to show a profit.

A jury trial began on July 27, 1998. During the trial, the court allowed Koep to testify as to how he made his calculations. Family Home Center objected to Koep's testimony, claiming that he had excluded legitimate business expenses as personal expenses, and that these reductions were not part of the employment contract. The Polks responded that they had not signed Family Home Center's contract, but rather Larrabee had agreed to the terms of the contract drafted by Polk.

On July 2, 1998, Family Home Center made an offer of judgment to the Polks in the amount of $45,000.00. The Polks countered with a settlement offer of $235,000.00. Neither offer was accepted.

Prior to submitting the matter to the jury, the district court granted Family Home Center's motion for a directed verdict disallowing the Polk's claim for punitive damages. On August 5, 1998, the issues of breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing went to the jury for determination. On the same day, the jury returned a verdict for the Polks on both counts. The jury awarded Polk $18,698.00 and Carla Polk $11,393.22 in damages.

Following the jury's verdict, the Polks moved the district court to treble the jury's award. The district court granted the motion and entered judgment in the amount of $90,273.66. The district court then determined that according to this figure, the Polks had recovered in excess of Family Home Center's offer of judgment. The court also determined that the Polks were the prevailing parties and awarded them costs. This award resulted in a final total judgment of $101,944.54. Family Home Center filed its notice of appeal on November 2, 1998, and the Polks filed their cross-appeal on November 20, 1998.

II. ANALYSIS

A. The Amounts Due And Owing To The Polks Were Sufficiently Ascertainable To Allow The District Court To Properly Treble The Jury's Verdict.

Standard of Review

"Determining the meaning of a statute and its application is a matter of law over which this Court exercises free review." J.R. Simplot Co. v. Western Heritage Ins. Co., 132 Idaho 582, 584, 977 P.2d 196, 198 (1999).

Analysis

Family Home Center argues that the district court erred when it trebled the amount of the jury verdict. Family Home Center claims that the trebling provisions of I.C. § 45-617 should not apply because the amount of wages that the Polks claimed was not due and owing at the time they resigned. Family Home Center also asserts that the amount the Polks had claimed was not ascertainable because the wages were based on commissions for the sale of manufactured homes, some of which never actually closed.

On September 24, 1998, the district court entered judgment. The judgment included the amount of the jury award, and an award of treble damages "pursuant to I.C. § 45-617(4)." At that time, I.C. § 45-617(4) provided¹:

Any judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction for the plaintiff in a proceeding pursuant to this chapter shall include all costs and attorney fees reasonably incurred in connection with the proceedings and the plaintiff, or the director in his behalf, shall be entitled to recover from the defendant, as damages, three (3) times the amount of unpaid wages found to be due and owing.

Family Home Center argues that this statute should not be applied because, due to the nature of commission sales, the actual amount of wages due to the Polks on the day they resigned could not have been known. It claims that since some of the homes did not close, it would have actually overpaid the Polks if it had paid the amount the Polks had demanded.

While it appears that this issue has never been specifically addressed by this Court in the past, there are a number of cases from the Court of Appeals which are instructive.

In Smith v. Idaho Peterbilt, Inc., 106 Idaho 846, 683 P.2d 882 (Ct.App.1984), Peterbilt, the employer, had refused to pay Smith for wages due on the commission on the sale of trucks. Id. at 847, 683 P.2d at 883. Even though the parties agreed that Smith was owed something for the commissions, they disputed the exact amount of the percentage rate of the commissions. Id. at 847-48, 683 P.2d at 883-84. After the trial court awarded Smith $5,468.52 for commissions, the court trebled the damages. Id.

On appeal, Peterbilt argued that since it had not wrongfully withheld payment, the trebling statute did not apply. Id. In holding that the damages were properly trebled, the Court of Appeals noted that "the question merely was a sum due and, if so, how much." Id. at 849, 683 P.2d at 885. On this issue, the Court of Appeals concluded that "the issue was the method of calculation to arrive at a determination of the commissions owed. The trial court here found the amount owed. I.C. § 45-615(4) was properly invoked." Id. at 850, 683 P.2d at 886.

Likewise, in another case from the Court of Appeals, the court determined that the amount of damages became due and owing at the time the employee made the demand, rather than at the completion of the grievance process as argued by the employer. Kalac v. Canyon County, 119 Idaho 650, 652, 809 P.2d 511, 513 (Ct.App.1991). In that case, Kalac, a former deputy sheriff for Canyon County, made a written demand for wages under his contract, and for accumulated personal leave after being fired from the sheriff's department. Id. at 651, 809 P.2d at 512. In response, the department tendered $2,304.21 which represented the amount the department believed it owed to Kalac. Id. Following a grievance hearing, the hearing officer...