Opinion ID: 396895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 7 The Oppenheims assert that the trial court erred in failing to hold that, as a matter of law, the appellants were entitled to recover damages from the appellees for breach of contract and interference with business relations. This is a thinly disguised claim that there was an insufficient evidentiary basis for the jury's verdict. Appellants, however, do not show that they filed motions for either directed verdict or judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and thus our review is limited to recognition of plain error apparent on the face of the record. Wright & Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure: Civil § 2536 (1971); Little v. Bankers Life & Casualty Co., 426 F.2d 509, 511 (5th Cir. 1970). 8 Much of the evidence at trial presented the jury with credibility choices between witnesses. Our review of the trial record leaves us with little doubt that the jury verdict is untainted by plain error and is, to the contrary, supported by ample evidence. Repeatedly, the jury saw the trial testimony of the Oppenheims impeached by reference to their earlier deposition testimony. They heard Mrs. Oppenheim admit that she and her husband never had any intention of contributing $30,000 to Alduro-Raynes, as stipulated in the memorandum of understanding between the parties. 1 Mr. Oppenheim testified that he mailed the Moreaus a notice of the directors' meeting (in which the Moreaus would be removed from the corporate board) only two days before the meeting was to be held, knowing full well that the letter would take a minimum of four days to reach the Moreaus abroad. 9 The jury also heard Mrs. Oppenheim apparently contradict her own trial testimony on an important issue. In brief, the central factual issue on which both the Moreaus' and the Oppenheims' contract claims turned was a simple one: did the contract provide and did the parties intend from the outset to have title to the horses transferred to the Alduro-Raynes corporation, or did the Oppenheims represent to the Moreaus that the horses were being formally conveyed to the corporation merely for immigration purposes and that the corporation would never own the horses. Although both Mr. and Mrs. Oppenheim early in the trial vehemently denied having made any such representation, Mrs. Oppenheim admitted on the last day of testimony on direct examination no less than four times that such a representation had in fact been made. 2 The jury, therefore, had ample grounds to conclude, inter alia, that the Moreaus' version of the agreement between the parties was the more accurate one and that the Moreaus-not the Oppenheims-had suffered damage from interference with business relations and contract rights. 10