Opinion ID: 1231921
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: breach of contract to reinstate.

Text: The district court granted Simplot a new trial on the issue of future lost wages as damages on the claim for breach of contract to reinstate. The trial court reasoned that future damages were too speculative to be predicted with any certainty and also that O'Dell caused the breach of the contract by rejecting the alternate position at the Food Division. The analysis to be made in reviewing this decision is set out in Sun Valley Shopping Center, Inc. v. Idaho Power Co., 119 Idaho 87, 803 P.2d 993 (1990). In determining whether or not there was an abuse of discretion committed by the trial court, the questions we must ask are: (1) whether the trial court correctly perceived the issue as one of discretion; (2) whether the trial court acted within the outer boundaries of its discretion and consistently with the legal standards applicable to the specific choices available to it; and (3) whether the trial court reached its decision by an exercise of reason. State v. Hedger, 115 Idaho 598, 600, 768 P.2d 1331, 1333 (1989). 119 Idaho at 94, 803 P.2d at 1000. In its Memorandum Opinion and Order issued on February 5, 1988, the trial court fulfilled the first requirement and correctly perceived the issue as one of discretion by quoting Blaine v. Byers, 91 Idaho 665, 429 P.2d 397 (1967), for the proposition that a motion to grant a new trial is within the sound discretion of the trial court. The next step in the process is to determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in granting a new trial as to liability for the breach of contract to reinstate. To determine whether the trial court abused its discretion, we must ascertain whether the trial judge has given due consideration to the facts and circumstances of the case, and correctly applied the law thereto. Quick v. Crane, 111 Idaho 759, 772, 727 P.2d 1187, 1200 (1986). As we have stated earlier, future lost wages as damages are not too speculative so as to deny recovery. Using the proper guidelines, future lost wages are an integral part of an ex-employee's damages for retaliatory discharge. It was error for the trial court to grant a new trial as to liability based upon its determination that future lost wages were not available as an element of contract damages. Next we review the trial court's determination that O'Dell's conduct prevented him from being reinstated to his position at the Land and Livestock Division. The burden of proving the existence of a contract and the fact of its breach is upon the plaintiff. Johnson v. Albert, 67 Idaho 44, 170 P.2d 403 (1946). Once those facts are established, the defendant has the burden of pleading and proving affirmative defenses which legally excuse performance of the contract. Pace v. Hymas, 111 Idaho 581, 726 P.2d 693 (1986); Harman v. Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co., 91 Idaho 719, 429 P.2d 849 (1967); Paurley v. Harris, 77 Idaho 336, 292 P.2d 765 (1956). According to the jury's verdict, this defense was not proven. The trial court differed in its interpretation of the evidence, and found, by the clear weight of the evidence, that O'Dell's alleged feelings were adequate justification for a breach of contract by Simplot. In this determination, the trial court abused its discretion. A review of the record does not disclose any evidence which would have made the performance of the contract so unworkable as to justify its breach. There was some testimony in the record that O'Dell did not admire Basabe and others with whom he had worked. However, that fact does not support the assertion that O'Dell's own conduct was the cause of Simplot's alleged inability to reinstate him to the Land and Livestock Division. O'Dell's feelings concerning some of the Simplot employees in the Land and Livestock Division were the result of various incidents during his tenure there. After Wilda Seibel utilized O'Dell's assistance in pursuing a grievance against Basabe, O'Dell testified that relationships in the office changed. He felt he was repeatedly asked in one-on-one interviews with Basabe to protect the company's interests before those of Seibel. At one point Basabe informed him that he had hired a private investigator to investigate Seibel, which fact O'Dell reported to Steve Beebe, Simplot's corporate counsel. O'Dell also reported to Beebe that Ron Parks, Division Purchasing Manager, was attempting to secure a photograph of Seibel. O'Dell testified that until that time his relationship with Basabe had been good, but that abruptly, approximately two months before his discharge, Basabe's attitude toward him changed. It was about this time that he was informed by Beebe that Basabe had become aware of the fact that O'Dell was reporting follow up information on the Seibel incident to the corporate office. Beebe warned O'Dell that there was likely to be strain in the relations between himself and Basabe, and O'Dell testified that the atmosphere in the office changed for the worse. Various proposals submitted for Basabe's review were routinely disapproved. Basabe's secretary testified to keeping records of O'Dell's incoming phone calls and meetings relating to the Seibel matter and his military career on her own initiative, and reporting the results to Basabe. According to a transcript of the tape recorded conversation made when O'Dell was fired, O'Dell's longstanding career in the National Guard was threatened by Tom Basabe. Following his termination he heard accusations from corporate personnel that he was intimate with Wilda Seibel, and that he had been disloyal to Basabe and the company. After being fired, he testified that he was stonewalled by Gary Wallis, who was reviewing his grievance, and felt that he could not get any information from the company about developments in his case. These types of incidents naturally created some ill feelings on O'Dell's part. Yet O'Dell testified that he had weathered such a situation several years earlier, when there was a prior conflict between Basabe's conduct and company policy. He testified that he pursued grievance procedures in an attempt to get his job back because he liked his job and liked the company. When called upon to give deposition testimony in the case pursued by Wilda Seibel, O'Dell recounted the feelings he retained as a result of these incidents leading to his termination. However, during the trial of his own case O'Dell related those statements to specific incidents, and stated that they were not broad and irrevocable attitudes. Despite defense counsel's efforts on cross-examination to characterize those responses as evidence of a vitriolic hatred on O'Dell's part against most of the managers of the Land and Livestock Division, O'Dell repeatedly qualified those statements, testifying that they were made in relation to specific incidents, and that those relationships would heal with time. The record does not contain any evidence of conduct on O'Dell's part which suffices to justify Simplot's breach of contract. O'Dell's feelings were the result of the conduct of others within the Division, and not due to any fault of his own. We hold that the court's ruling did amount to a manifest abuse of discretion. Although an appellate court may not be in a position to weigh evidence in reviewing a trial court's decisions, Quick v. Crane, 111 Idaho at 770, 727 P.2d at 1198, if appellate review is to mean anything at all, this Court must have the power to review the record, as we have done, and evaluate whether the trial court's decisions are supported by the record. In this case, the trial court's decision did not have the support of a factual basis, and therefore we hold that the grant of new trial on this issue was a manifest abuse of discretion. Accordingly, we reverse the grant of a new trial to defendants on the issue of liability for breach of the contract to reinstate. Because we reach this conclusion on the second element of the Sun Valley analysis, there is no need for further inquiry into the third element. Thus, we will not delve into the issue of whether the trial court reached its decision by an exercise of reason. BISTLINE, JOHNSON and BOYLE, JJ., concur.