Opinion ID: 221235
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mountain Valley's Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Text: After the jury returned its verdict, Mountain Valley renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law, see Fed. R.Civ.P. 50(b), on Southern's claims for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The district court denied Mountain Valley's motion. On appeal, Mountain Valley challenges only the district court's denial of its Rule 50(b) motion for judgment as a matter of law on Southern's implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim. We review de novo a district court's denial of a post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. Canny v. Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up Bottling Grp., Inc., 439 F.3d 894, 899 (8th Cir.2006). Judgment as a matter of law is only appropriate when no reasonable jury could have found for the nonmoving party. Mattis v. Carlon Elec. Prods., 295 F.3d 856, 860 (8th Cir.2002). In deciding whether to grant judgment as a matter of law, we may not weigh the credibility of evidence, and conflicts in the evidence must be resolved in favor of the verdict. Schooley v. Orkin Extermination Co., 502 F.3d 759, 764 (8th Cir.2007). Mountain Valley argues that, [w]hen actions allegedly constituting a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing are also allegedly a breach of the contract itself, that claim is properly asserted as a breach of contract claim, and that Southern failed to identify the damages that resulted from Mountain Valley's alleged breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. However, Mountain Valley did not object to the verdict form, which included separate interrogatories for Southern's breach of contract claim and its breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim but only a single interrogatory for the amount that you find from the preponderance of the evidence should be awarded to Southern Wine to reasonably and fairly compensate it for the damages which you find were proximately caused by the fault of Mountain Valley. Our court has made it very clear that[,] where the [district] court submits a single damage question for multiple claims and where the evidence supports the actual damage award on any of the claims, the award will not be set aside. Walsh v. Nat'l Computer Sys., Inc., 332 F.3d 1150, 1159 (8th Cir.2003). Therefore, because Mountain Valley did not appeal the district court's denial of its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law on Southern's breach of contract claim, we nonetheless affirm the jury's award of damages to Southern on its unchallenged breach of contract claim. See LeSueur Creamery, Inc. v. Haskon, Inc., 660 F.2d 342, 346 n. 7 (8th Cir.1981) (We need only find that LeSueur is entitled to recover on one of its claims to sustain the verdict.); see also Conseco Fin. Servicing Corp. v. N. Am. Mortg. Co., 381 F.3d 811, 822-23 (8th Cir.2004). As such, the district court did not err when it denied Mountain Valley's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law on Southern's implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim.