Opinion ID: 492351
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Is The Contract Barred By The Statute Of Frauds?

Text: 28 Defendants' final challenge concerns the enforceability of the alleged oral contract in light of the statute of frauds. According to defendants' theory, the contract to which Mayo testified at trial--involving a commission on all identified hydroelectric sites that could be acquired in the exercise of reasonable diligence within three years--violates that portion of the statute of frauds which requires a writing for agreements that cannot be completed within one year. See N.H.Rev.Stat.Ann. Sec. 506:2; see also Mass.Gen.L. ch. 259, Sec. 1. Defendants raised this defense for the first time in their motions for judgment n.o.v. and for a new trial. 29 Mayo's response is that defendants waived reliance on the statute of frauds because they neither pleaded it as an affirmative defense, nor cited it when moving for a directed verdict at the close of plaintiff's case and again at the close of all the evidence. We have held, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b), 1 that a party may not be awarded judgment nothwithstanding the verdict on a ground that was not previously included in a motion for directed verdict at the close of all the evidence. Martinez Moll v. Levitt & Sons of Puerto Rico, Inc., 583 F.2d 565, 568 (1st Cir.1978). As we explained, the prudential rationale underlying Rule 50(b) is that both the opposing party and the court should be on notice of the movant's legal claim prior to the case going to the jury. This ensures that the opposing party will be able to cure any deficiency in his case and permits the judge to rule on the legal sufficiency of the case without impinging on the jury's fact-finding province. Id. at 569. 30 Defendants seek to escape the operation of Rule 50(b) in this case by asserting that there was no previous occasion on which they could possibly have raised the statute of frauds defense. They attempt to support this contention by noting that Mayo, who had previously been pursuing an equity interest in Continental, changed his theory just prior to trial and sought instead the $20,000 per megawatt commission for all sites acquirable within three years. According to defendants, there was no waiver of the statute of frauds defense because they asserted it at the earliest possible opportunity after reviewing the plaintiff's claims as stated at trial. 31 We cannot accept this rationalization. Plaintiff's pre-trial decision to change his theory of recovery may excuse defendants' failure to plead the statute of frauds defense in their answer, but it does not excuse defendants' inaction after the plaintiff had completed his testimony regarding the alleged oral contract. If defendants truly believed that Mayo's testimony was inconsistent with the allegations of his complaint, then they should have objected to the introduction of this evidence or moved to amend their answer in light of the new theory advanced by plaintiff. Nothing in the record indicates that defendants took such steps. Subsequent to plaintiff's trial testimony, moreover, defendants had two additional opportunities to raise the statute of frauds defense when moving for a directed verdict. Yet defendants, while fully cognizant of the contours of Mayo's contract claim, failed to raise the defense both at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case and at the conclusion of all the evidence. We therefore see no compelling reason to treat their failure to act as anything other than a waiver of the statute of frauds defense. 32 For the reasons stated, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.