Court Opinion

ID: 9596366
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:48:57.117171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:23.265839
License: Public Domain

FITZGERALD, J.
dissenting.
Opinion by Justice FITZGERALD, dissenting.
I agree with the majority concerning the law applicable to this case. When we interpret an unambiguous contract, our primary concern is to ascertain the true intentions of the parties as those intentions are expressed in the instrument. Coker v. Coker, 650 S.W.2d 391, 393 (Tex.1983). In this case, I believe the parties to the employment contracts at issue intended to prohibit an employee from retaining a bonus he received on a sales contract that is later cancelled. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
The majority sets forth the provisions of both the 2001 Plan and the 2002 Plan that address cancelled sales. In each of these provisions, the value of the unearned bonus is returned to the employer. In the normal course of events, if a sales contract were cancelled, then “sales credit for the cancelled sales [would] be deducted from the sales rep’s current sales credit.” Thus, a sales representative who received an unearned bonus would reimburse SAS the value of that bonus from his future compensation. Once the cancellation occurred, the sales representative owed SAS the amount of the unearned bonus.
Similarly, in the case of an employee who left the company after receiving a bonus, if the contract were cancelled, both Plans required the former employee “to pay back to SAS Institute the portion of the bonus that was paid based upon the cancelled sales.” Again, once the cancellation occurred, the former sales representative owed SAS the amount of the unearned bonus. In the case of a former employee, because he would receive no future compensation from which the bonus could be deducted, his obligation was simply to pay back the amount of the bonus.
The majority concludes that Breiten-feld’s situation is not covered by either of these contractual provisions, and, therefore, Breitenfeld is entitled to retain his unearned bonus. I disagree that Breiten-feld’s situation is not covered by the two Plans. Breitenfeld was unquestionably an employee when the sales contract was can-celled. At that point in time, he owed SAS the value of his unearned bonus, and the company had the right to deduct that amount from his future compensation. Breitenfeld attempted to thwart this operation of the contractual provision by resigning from his employment with SAS before the compensation adjustment was scheduled to be made.
*680The majority’s decision allows Breiten-feld to manipulate the mandates of the Plans by focusing on the time of his resignation — after the cancellation, but before his next quarterly payment — rather than on the parties’ clear intent that unearned bonuses must be returned to the company. Because I find such a result contrary to the parties’ agreements and fundamentally inequitable, I respectfully dissent.