Opinion ID: 199871
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Breach of contract and statutory wage claim

Text: 34 Counts V and VI state claims for breach of contract and failure to pay wages as required by law. Martin asserted that he spent over 500 hours developing the Spirit Saver product while employed by Tech Tools, and that ACT breached its promise to give him ten percent of the profits when the product entered the market. 35 New Hampshire's Statute of Frauds, N.H.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 506:2, requires contracts not performed in one year to be in writing. It is undisputed that the Spirit Saver agreement was performed over eighteen months. Martin argues that the agreement falls within an exception to the Statute of Frauds because ACT committed fraud in denying him compensation. See Tsiatsios v. Tsiatsios, 140 N.H. 173, 176, 663 A.2d 1335 (1995). 36 To date, New Hampshire courts have applied such exceptions only in the narrow circumstances of land sale contracts. See id.; Weale v. Mass. Gen. Hous. Corp., 117 N.H. 428, 431, 374 A.2d 925 (1977). Even if we were to extend the fraud exemption to other fact patterns, this case does not involve the sort of representation recognized as fraud under New Hampshire law, i.e., a representation made with knowledge of its falsity or with conscious indifference to its truth and with the intention of causing [plaintiff] to rely on the representation. Patch v. Arsenault, 139 N.H. 313, 319, 653 A.2d 1079 (1995). 37 Martin contends that the relevant exception to the statute of frauds should not be limited to fraud in the inducement, but should extend to remedy any sort of contractual unfairness. To date, New Hampshire courts have not recognized the sort of broad equitable exception that Martin seeks, and we will not extend state law in such a manner. Cf. Kassel v. Gannett Co., 875 F.2d 935, 949-50 (1st Cir.1989). 38 Martin has not pointed to sufficient evidence that ACT acted with the requisite knowledge or indifference when it promised Martin a share of the Spirit Saver profits in November of 1995. Consequently, any action based on the alleged oral agreement concerning Spirit Saver profits is barred by § 506:2. Because we affirm the dismissal of the contract claim, there is no foundation for the statutory wage claim. 39 Affirmed.