Opinion ID: 1619901
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The 1997 Annual Bonus

Text: Scrushy next argues that the annual bonus of $10 million that he says in his brief to this Court was paid to him in the spring of 1997 related to HealthSouth's performance in 1996, a year for which the company had annual net income. Scrushy stated in his affidavit in opposition to Tucker's summary-judgment motion: 8. With the exception of the monthly target bonuses, whenever I received a bonus, I received it in the spring. HealthSouth reported the bonus in the following year's annual proxy filings with the SEC. For example, HealthSouth reported in its April 1997 proxy statement that I received in 1996 certain bonuses that related to 1995 and prior years. Scrushy reasons that HealthSouth could not have determined its net income for 1997 until after December 31, 1997; therefore, he argues, the annual bonus paid in the spring of 1997 must have been based on a look back at HealthSouth's annual net income for 1996. In response to Scrushy's argument, Tucker cites the Form 14A disclosure filed with the SEC on April 17, 1998. Contained in that form is a Summary Compensation Table reporting annual and long-term compensation for Scrushy and certain other executives of HealthSouth. The form states: The following table sets forth compensation paid or awarded to the Chief Executive Officer and each of the other four most highly compensated executive officers of the Company (the `Named Executive Officers') for all services rendered to the Company and its subsidiaries in 1995, 1996, and 1997. In a column labeled BONUS/ANNUAL INCENTIVE AWARD, the Form 14A reports that Scrushy was paid a bonus of $5,000,000 for 1995, $8,000,000 for 1996, and $10,000,000 for 1997. The report to the SEC makes it clear that an annual bonus in the amount of $10,000,000 was paid to Scrushy for 1997, regardless of when it was paid to him. Scrushy's affidavit merely states that he received bonuses other than target bonuses in the spring and refers to the proxy filings as dispositive; yet a review of the proxy filings does not substantiate the conclusion he asks us to draw from the affidavit. He does not allege in his affidavit that he received the $10,000,000 bonus in the spring of 1997. Therefore, we conclude that the affidavit creates no genuine issue as to material fact.