Opinion ID: 1730180
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Claim of Breach of Fiduciary Duty.

Text: In count VI of its petition, CTI contends the defendants breached their fiduciary duty to CTI. The district court concluded that Three D Industries, Longnecker, and Enos were not in a fiduciary relationship with CTI because their relationship was based on the potential purchase of CTI, and they were acting solely for their own benefit, not that of CTI. The district court further concluded that Yelton was not in a fiduciary relationship with CTI because there was no evidence that Yelton was anything more than a customer and a salesman for CTI's equipment. We agree with the trial court's conclusions as to any fiduciary relationship between Three D Industries, Longnecker, Enos, and Yelton. The district court also concluded that the employee-defendants did not have a fiduciary relationship with CTI because CTI failed to present any evidence suggesting that the employee-defendants were anything more than traditional employees. On appeal, CTI contends a jury could reasonably find that the employee-defendants owed a duty of loyalty and a fiduciary duty to CTI arising out of the employee-defendants' representation of CTI to potential customers and suppliers, as well as the trust CTI placed in these employee-defendants to maintain the confidentiality of its proprietary information. It is true, as the district court noted, that the question of whether a fiduciary relationship exists in a given case may, in some cases, be decided by the court in a summary-judgment proceeding. See, e.g., Weltzin v. Cobank, ACB, 633 N.W.2d 290, 292 (Iowa 2001). We do not believe, however, that this is such a case. In Kurth v. Van Horn, 380 N.W.2d 693 (Iowa 1986), we recognized that fiduciary duty is [a] very broad term embracing both technical fiduciary relations and those informal relations which exist wherever one man trusts in or relies upon another. One founded on trust or confidence reposed by one person in the integrity and fidelity of another. A `fiduciary relation' arises whenever confidence is reposed on one side, and domination and influence result on the other; the relation can be legal, social, domestic, or merely personal. Such relationship exists when there is a reposing of faith, confidence and trust, and the placing of reliance by one upon the judgment and advice of the other. Kurth, 380 N.W.2d at 695-96 (quoting Black's Law Dictionary 564 (5th ed.1979) (citations omitted)). The present case is distinguishable from both Kurth and Weltzin because here the employees executed confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements. A jury could find that the relationship between CTI and the employee-defendants is, therefore, one based on trust or confidence reposed by one person in the integrity and fidelity of another. Kurth, 380 N.W.2d at 695. We believe the question of whether a fiduciary relationship has been established turns on the facts of the case and does not lend itself to disposition by summary judgment. We therefore reverse the judgment of the district court regarding the claim of breach of fiduciary duty on the part of the employee-defendants and remand on that issue.