Tyson v. Viacom, Inc.

• Decision Date: 12 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 4D01-4554.,4D01-4554.
• Parties: John M. TYSON, Appellant, v. VIACOM, INC., a Delaware corporation, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

890 So.2d 1205

John M. TYSON, Appellant, v. VIACOM, INC., a Delaware corporation, Appellee.

No. 4D01-4554.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

January 12, 2005.

Rehearing Denied January 12, 2005.

Mary B. Meeks of DeCubellis & Meeks, P.A., Orlando, for appellant.

Robert W. Pittman of Steel, Hector & Davis, LLP, Miami, and Lawrence P. Bemis of Kirkland & Ellis, Los Angeles, CA, for appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING EN BANC

PER CURIAM.

We grant Tyson's motion for rehearing en banc, withdraw our previous opinion, and substitute the following opinion in its place. We conclude that Tyson's claims were not barred by res judicata, the rule against splitting causes of action, or the statute of limitations, and reverse.

John Tyson appeals a final judgment entered following the trial court's order granting Viacom's motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion on the grounds that Tyson's second complaint alleging breach of employment contract and fraud in the inducement was barred by the doctrine of res judicata and the statute of limitations. Because we conclude that Tyson's claims are not barred by either res judicata or the statute of limitations, we reverse.

The relevant facts of this employment dispute case are as follows. Tyson commenced employment with the Blockbuster unit of Viacom in May 1996, at which time Mark Gilman was employed as the Senor Vice-President of Strategic Analysis. The United States District Court for the District of Oregon entered an injunction and judgment against Gilman on June 27, 1996. The injunction prohibited Gilman from using or disclosing the confidential information of his former employer, Hollywood Entertainment Corporation (which operates Hollywood Video), and specifically enjoined Gilman from directing domestic field operations at Blockbuster until April 1997. Domestic fields were defined as: "the selection, construction, design or operation of stores, but shall not include corporate level systems related to such functions, so long as such systems do not direct any field personnel, but merely provide the process by which to operate."

On July 30, 1996, Tyson executed an employment agreement with Blockbuster. Tyson's agreed position was Senior Vice-President — Development — Domestic Video, and his job responsibilities were set forth in an attachment to the contract. These job responsibilities included overseeing real estate and construction programs.

After Tyson executed the employment agreement, Gilman undertook tasks specified in Tyson's job description that allegedly violated the terms of the federal injunction. On November 17, 1996, Tyson faxed documents to the federal court in Oregon detailing Gilman's activities in violation of the injunction. On November 25, 1996, Tyson's employment with Blockbuster was terminated. On February 11, 1997, Tyson filed his first complaint alleging claims for breach of contract and violation of Florida's whistle blower statute, section 448.102(2), Fla. Stat. (1991).

On June 6, 1997, the trial court dismissed Tyson's whistle blower claim with leave to amend for failure to state a cause of action. Tyson did not amend the whistle blower claim but continued to litigate the breach of contract claim. After a year and a half, Viacom filed a motion for summary judgment on the breach of contract claim, and instead of responding to the motion, Tyson voluntarily dismissed without prejudice the claim for breach of contract.

Tyson then appealed the trial court's dismissal of the whistle blower claim to this Court. We affirmed the dismissal of the whistle blower claim by opinion on June 7, 2000. See Tyson v. Viacom, Inc., 760 So.2d 276 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)

. In affirming, we held that Tyson's claim did not satisfy the definitional requirements of the statute.¹

On November 22, 2000, Tyson filed a second complaint alleging a claim for breach of contract nearly identical to that in the first complaint, and for the first time, a claim for fraud in the inducement. The following new factual allegations were included in the second complaint. Viacom was aware that accepting employment with Blockbuster would require Tyson to discontinue his law practice in North Carolina and relocate to Fort Lauderdale. Blockbuster did not disclose to Tyson that it had offered his position to Gilman but withdrew the offer due to the injunction proceedings. Blockbuster also did not inform Tyson of its intention to use him as a smoke screen to permit Gilman to perform many of Tyson's job responsibilities in violation of the injunction entered against Gilman. Blockbuster did not disclose its intention to relocate its headquarters to Texas to Tyson.

Viacom filed an answer including affirmative defenses and asserted that Tyson's breach of contract and fraud in the inducement claims were barred by res judicata and that his fraud in the inducement claim was also barred by the statute of limitations. Viacom filed a motion for summary judgment based on the res judicata and statute of limitations defenses. As to res judicata, Viacom argued that the second complaint was barred because the first and second complaints were based on identical facts, and therefore, should have been litigated in the same action.

As to the statute of limitations barring the fraud in the inducement claim, Viacom alleged that Tyson was aware of all of the facts central to the fraud in the inducement claim by November 17, 1996 when he contacted the federal court in Oregon, and therefore, the claim filed on November 22, 2000 fell outside the four-year statute of limitations so as to bar the claim.

The trial court granted Viacom's motion for summary judgment, citing three cases.² A final judgment based on the order was entered, and this appeal ensued.

RES JUDICATA

Res judicata has been defined as follows:

"A judgment on the merits rendered in a former suit between the same parties or their privies, upon the same cause of action, by a court of competent jurisdiction, is conclusive not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim, but as to every other matter which might with propriety have been litigated and determined in that action."

Huff Groves Trust v. Caulkins Indiantown Citrus Co., 810 So.2d 1049, 1050 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)(quoting Kimbrell v. Paige, 448 So.2d 1009, 1012 (Fla.1984)). Four identities are required for res judicata to be applicable to a case: "`(1) identity in the thing sued for; (2) identity of the cause of action; (3) identity of the persons and parties to the actions; and (4) identity of the quality or capacity of the persons for or against whom the claim is made.'" Freehling v. MGIC Fin. Corp., 437 So.2d 191, 193 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)(quoting Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Indus. Contracting Co., 260 So.2d 860, 862 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972)).

Identity of the cause of action is the requirement at issue in the case at bar. The presence of this identity is a question of "whether the facts or evidence necessary to maintain the suit are the same in both actions." Albrecht v. State, 444 So.2d 8, 12 (Fla.1984), superseded by statute on other grounds, Bowen v. Fla. Dep't of Envtl. Regulation, 448 So.2d 566 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)

(emphasis added); see U.S. Project Mgmt., Inc. v. Parc Royale E. Dev., Inc., 861 So.2d 74, 76 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)(same); Gold v. Bankier, 840 So.2d 395, 397 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)(quoting Cole v. First Dev. Corp. of Am., 339 So.2d 1130, 1131 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)(citing Gordon v. Gordon, 160 Fla. 838, 36 So.2d 774 (1948)))("`Identity of the causes of action is established where the facts which are required to maintain both actions are identical.'")(emphasis added).

In Tyson's case, the facts necessary to prove his three claims were not identical. For purposes of illustrating this conclusion, we will discuss Tyson's whistle blower claim despite the fact that this Court in an earlier opinion concluded it was properly dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. To prove a whistle blower claim, Tyson would have had to show that he was terminated by Viacom in retaliation for his disclosure of Gilman's injunction violations. See § 448.102, Fla. Stat. Therefore, the facts and evidence necessary to maintain this claim are the existence of the injunction against Gilman, Gilman's acts in violation of the injunction, his disclosure of the violations to the federal court in Oregon, and his termination by Viacom.

To prove the breach of contract claim, Tyson had to prove the existence of the employment agreement, including the duties imposed on Viacom, and that Viacom's breach of the contract was the legal cause of his damages. See Fla. Std. Jur. Instr. (Civ.) 12.1. Therefore, the facts and evidence necessary to maintain this claim are the existence of a contract and the terms expressed in it, such as termination only for good cause, that he was terminated for other than good cause, and that he was damaged by Viacom's actions.

To prove the fraud in the inducement claim, Tyson had to prove that Viacom made a misrepresentation to Tyson regarding a material fact, that Viacom knew or should have known that the statement was false, that Viacom intended for Tyson to rely on the statement, and that Tyson suffered injury as a result of his justifiable reliance on the misrepresentation. See Samuels v. King Motor Co. of Fort Lauderdale, 782 So.2d 489, 497 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)

. Therefore, the facts and evidence necessary to maintain this claim are Viacom's misrepresentations regarding Tyson's job responsibilities, Viacom's knowledge that the misrepresentations were false, Viacom's intention for the misrepresentations to induce Tyson into employment, and Tyson's damages resulting from his justifiable reliance on the misrepresentations.

A review of Tyson's three claims reveals that the facts necessary to maintain each of the claims are not identical. Although the facts may overlap to a degree, this does not result in the...