UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

SOCIAL CONSULTANTS INTERNATIONAL,

INCORPORATED,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

ROBERT WINSHIP HASKELL, No. 95-3047

Defendant-Appellant,

and

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF MARYLAND,

Defendant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.

James C. Cacheris, Chief District Judge.

(CA-95-212-A)

Argued: October 30, 1996

Decided: December 6, 1996

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, and WILKINS and LUTTIG,

Circuit Judges.

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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

ARGUED: James Edward Pinkowski, Sr., PINKOWSKI & FLANDERS, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellant. Christopher Michael Collins,
CHRISTOPHER M. COLLINS, P.C., McLean, Virginia, for Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See

Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Defendant-appellant, Robert Winship Haskell, appeals from the

district court's decision that Haskell breached his employment contract with, and committed the tort of conversion against, plaintiffappellee, Social Consultants International, Inc. ("SCI"). Finding no

error, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

SCI, a Virginia corporation, provided consulting services to the

United States Agency for International Development ("USAID"), a

federal agency, in the country of Chad. In 1993, SCI hired Haskell,

a domicile of the state of Georgia, to be the chief export marketing

adviser and manager of its USAID contract in Chad. As such, Haskell

had sole control over various SCI documents which recorded how

SCI funds were spent in performance of the USAID contract. These

documents were of negligible value to Haskell, but were worth

approximately $66,437.29 to SCI. When Haskell's employment contract with SCI terminated, SCI demanded that Haskell return the documents. Haskell refused to return the documents, and did not return

them until SCI instituted this suit.

SCI filed suit against Haskell for his refusal to return the documents, alleging, alternatively, breach of contract and conversion. Haskell filed a counter-suit against SCI for breach of contract, claiming

that SCI owed him back wages and certain other monies.

After a bench trial before the United States District Court for the

Eastern District of Virginia, the district court concluded that Haskell

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breached the employment contract and committed the tort of conversion, because Haskell had no right to retain SCI's documents but

withheld them nonetheless. The district court also concluded that SCI

did not breach the employment contract with Haskell. Although SCI

did owe Haskell $12,839.91 in back wages and severance pay, the

district court concluded that SCI was within its contractual rights

when, rather than pay this money to Haskell directly, it placed the

money in an escrow account and then offset that account by

$10,353.79, the amount that SCI had previously advanced to Haskell

for certain expenses, including airline tickets, health insurance and

travel visas for Haskell's family, and storage costs and insurance.

The district court calculated SCI's damages at $19,260.21, but

reduced this amount by $2,486.12, the remaining balance in the

escrow account. The district court then awarded SCI $16,774.09.

Having carefully reviewed the record and briefs, and considered

the contentions of the parties at oral argument, we find no error in the

district court opinion. We therefore affirm the decision of the district

court on the opinion of that court.

AFFIRMED

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