Thompson v. Direct Impact Co., Civ.A. 97-1250-A.

Citation63 F.Supp.2d 721
Decision Date14 August 1998
Docket NumberNo. Civ.A. 97-1250-A.,Civ.A. 97-1250-A.
PartiesJeffrey THOMPSON, Plaintiff, v. DIRECT IMPACT COMPANY, Defendant.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court (Eastern District of Virginia)

Gregory Lynn Murphy, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, Alexandria, VA, for plaintiff.

Bernard Joseph DiMuro, DiMuro, Ginsberg & Lieberman, Alexandria, VA, Michael Earl Barnsback, DiMuro, Ginsberg & Lieberman, P.C., Alexandria, VA, for defendant.

ORDER

DOUMAR, District Judge.

Presently before the Court is defendant's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, motion for a new trial under Rule 59(a)of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For the reasons set forth below, these motions are DENIED.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiff, Jeffrey Thompson, claimed that the defendant, Direct Impact Company ("the Company"), orally modified an Employment Agreement between Thompson and the Company. The alleged modification would have changed Thompson's commission on contracts that he secured for the Company from 20% of the gross margin or gross profit to 25% of the gross margin or gross profit.

The issue of whether there was a breach of the Employment Agreement with regard to the 1997 Tenneco contract also arose during trial. Immediately after securing the Tenneco contract, Thompson was informed that he was discharged. Thompson clearly assisted in securing the Tenneco contract for the Company before he was fired by the Company. Moreover, the principals of the Company specifically desired that Thompson participate in obtaining this contract with the knowledge that the Company would fire Thompson immediately thereafter. However, Thompson did not receive commissions for his work on the Tenneco contract because the Company stated that Thompson was not entitled to commissions unless the Company had "collected" revenues from Tenneco at the time of Thompson's termination. The Company does not contend that it did not ultimately receive the money from Tenneco because it did. What they contend is that a salesman under contract could sell the product, yet once sold, the Company could fire him before the funds from the sale were received and avoid paying the salesman his commission. At trial, a jury found by its verdict that Thompson failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that there was an oral modification of the Employment Agreement increasing the percentage of his commission rate, but that Thompson did prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the Company breached the Employment Agreement by failing to compensate him for the Tenneco contract. The jury awarded compensatory damages in the amount of 20% of the gross margin on the Tenneco contract. This Court then entered judgment based on the jury's verdict and granted summary judgment to Thompson in the amount of $60,000.

On May 6, 1998, the Company timely filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, a motion for new trial, and a motion to alter or amend the judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b), 59(a), and 59(e). On May 19, 1998, Thompson filed a brief in opposition to these motions.

RENEWED MOTION FOR JUDGMENT AS A MATTER OF LAW, MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL, AND MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND THE JUDGMENT
I. Standard of Review
A. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

The Company has renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law, initially made at the close of all of the evidence at trial. The issue is whether there was a legally sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to find for the plaintiff on the issues contested. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a). This motion can only be granted "if, viewing the evidence most favorable to the non-moving party and drawing every legitimate inference in that party's favor, [it is determined that] the only conclusion a reasonable trier of fact could draw from the evidence is in favor of the moving party." Tools USA & Equip. Co. v. Champ Frame Straightening Equip., Inc., 87 F.3d 654, 656-57 (4th Cir.1996) (citations omitted). A renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law is not an occasion for the Court to usurp the jury's authority to weigh the evidence and gauge the credibility of witnesses. Taylor v. Home Insurance Company, 777 F.2d 849, 854 (4th Cir.1985). In short, the defendant bears a "heavy burden" in establishing that the evidence is insufficient to uphold the jury's verdict. Price v. City of Charlotte, 93 F.3d 1241, 1249 (4th Cir.1996) quoting Bristol Steel & Iron Works, Inc. v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 41 F.3d 182, 186-87 (4th Cir.1994).

B. Motion for a New Trial

Under Rule 50(b), a motion for a new trial under Rule 59 may be joined with a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b). The Rule 59 standards are well established in the Fourth Circuit:

On such a motion it is the duty of the judge to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial, if he is of the opinion that [1] the verdict is against the clear weight of the evidence, or [2] is based upon evidence which is false, or [3] will result in a miscarriage of justice, even though there may be substantial evidence which would prevent the direction of a verdict.

Atlas Food Systems and Serv. v. Crane Nat. Vendors, 99 F.3d 587, 594 (4th Cir. 1996). "Courts do not grant new trials unless it is reasonably clear that prejudicial error has crept into the record or that substantial justice has not been done ..." Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 2d § 2803 (1995). "No error in either the admission or the exclusion of evidence and no error or defect in any ruling or order or in anything done or omitted by the court or by any of the parties is ground for granting for granting a new trial ... unless refusal to take such action appears to the court inconsistent with substantial justice." Fed.R.Civ.P. 61.

C. Motion to Alter or Amend the Judgment

Rule 59(e) provides a mechanism for an aggrieved party to petition the Court to alter or amend a judgment under certain limited circumstances: (1) to accommodate an intervening change in controlling law; (2) to account for new evidence not available at trial; or (3) to correct a clear error of law or prevent manifest injustice. EEOC v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 116 F.3d 110, 112 (4th Cir.1997). "Because of the interests in finality and conservation of judicial resources, Rule 59(e) motions should be granted sparingly." Rouse v. Nielsen, 851 F.Supp. 717, 734 (D.S.C.1994). Thus, a Rule 59(e) motion is not a vehicle for obtaining post judgment reargument on issues already decided. Durkin v. Taylor, 444 F.Supp. 879, 889-90 (E.D.Va.1977); see also Keyes v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., 766 F.Supp. 277, 280 (E.D.Pa.1991) (Rule 59(e) motions "are not at the disposal of an unsuccessful party to `rehash' the same arguments and facts previously presented"); 11 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2810.1, at 127-28 (2d ed. 1995) ("The Rule 59(e) motion may not be used to relitigate old matters").

II. Analysis
A. Breach of the Employment Agreement Regarding the Tenneco Contract

The Company contends that the question of whether it breached the Employment Agreement by failing to pay Thompson's commissions related to the 1997 Tenneco contract should never have gone to the jury. The Company argues that because the Employment Agreement was plain and unambiguous on its face, the Court was not at liberty to search for its meaning beyond the instrument itself. See Globe Iron Const. Co. v. First Nat. Bank of Boston, 205 Va. 841, 140 S.E.2d 629, 633 (1965). As a result, the company states that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law or alternatively, that the Court should amend the judgment to correct a clear error of law or prevent manifest injustice. In viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Thompson, the Company does not meet its "heavy burden" of establishing that the evidence is insufficient to uphold the jury's verdict.

The Company's argument is based on the premise that Thompson may not recover any commissions unless the Company had "collected" revenues from Tenneco at the time of Thompson's termination, that the phrase "collected" as used in the Employment Agreement was unambiguous, and that there was no evidence that the Company had "collected" any revenue from Tenneco pursuant to the relevant contract at the time of Thompson's termination. However, this Court concluded during trial that the term "collected" is ambiguous. While the word "collect" can mean "to claim as due and receive payment for" see Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, it can also mean "to obtain payment or liquidation of it, either by personal solicitation or legal proceedings." See Black's Law Dictionary (6th ed.1990) at 263. The word "liquidated" also has several meanings, such as "ascertained; determined; fixed, settled, made clear or manifest ... declared by the parties as to amount ... made certain or fixed by agreement of the parties or by operation of law." Id. at 930. "Liquidated debt" has the following definition: "a debt is liquidated when it is certain what is due and how much is due." Id. Thus, the phrase "collected" has several meanings and in this context and case would have the meaning the parties placed upon it.

Under the definitions listed supra, Thompson was entitled to commissions on the relevant Tenneco contract if, at the time of his termination, the amount of "gross profit" from the contract was "ascertained", "determined", "fixed", or "settled". The Company's president, John Brady, testified at trial that the Company's accounting is on an "accrual" basis rather than a "cash" basis. This means that the Company considered the revenue from the Tenneco contract to be received when the contract with Tenneco was entered into. Obviously,...

To continue reading

Request your trial
9 cases
  • Liberty Mut. Ins. v. Employee Resource Management
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
    • 29 March 2001
    ...as a matter of law, bears a heavy burden to establish that the jury's verdict should be invalidated. See Thompson v. Direct Impact, Co., 63 F.Supp.2d 721, 723 (E.D.Va.1998), aff'd 188 F.3d 503 (4th Cir.1999). In ruling on a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, a court may allow t......
  • X-It Products v. Walter Kidde Portable Equipment
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
    • 25 June 2002
    ...exhibit partiality or bias in front of the jury. The trial judge may also "comment on the evidence at trial." Thompson v. Direct Impact Co., 63 F.Supp.2d 721, 727 (E.D.Va.1998), aff'd, 188 F.3d 503 (4th Cir. 1999); Virginian Ry. Co. v. Armentrout, 166 F.2d 400, 405 (4th Cir.1948) (stating t......
  • In re Evans
    • United States
    • United States Bankruptcy Courts. Ninth Circuit. U.S. Bankruptcy Court — District of Idaho
    • 13 February 2020
    ...707, 710 (4th Cir. 2001) ; Guillermety v. Sec'y of Educ. , 341 F. Supp. 2d 682, 687 n.4 (E.D. Mich. 2003) ; Thompson v. Direct Impact Co. , 63 F. Supp. 2d 721, 724 (E.D. Va. 1998) ; In re Woods Auto Gallery, Inc. , 379 B.R. 875, 891 (Bankr. W.D. Mo. 2007) ; In re Williams , 183 B.R. 895, 89......
  • PCS Nitrogen, Inc. v. Ross Dev. Corp.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
    • 21 August 2015
    ...for the [c]ourt to usurp the jury's authority to weigh the evidence and gauge the credibility of witnesses." Thompson v. Direct Impact, Co., 63 F.Supp.2d 721, 723 (E.D.Va.1998), aff'd 188 F.3d 503 (4th Cir.1999) (citing Taylor v. Home Ins. Co., 777 F.2d 849, 854 (4th Cir.1985) ). "[T]he def......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT