Court Opinion

ID: 990923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-07-03 23:29:08.433736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:12:29.135560
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

SOCIAL CONSULTANTS INTERNATIONAL,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

ROBERT WINSHIP HASKELL,                                                No. 95-3047
Defendant-Appellant,

and

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF MARYLAND,
Defendant.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.
James C. Cacheris, Chief District Judge.
(CA-95-212-A)

Argued: October 30, 1996

Decided: December 6, 1996

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, and WILKINS and LUTTIG,
Circuit Judges.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

_________________________________________________________________

COUNSEL

ARGUED: James Edward Pinkowski, Sr., PINKOWSKI & FLAN-
DERS, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellant. Christopher Michael Collins,
CHRISTOPHER M. COLLINS, P.C., McLean, Virginia, for Appel-
lee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Defendant-appellant, Robert Winship Haskell, appeals from the
district court's decision that Haskell breached his employment con-
tract with, and committed the tort of conversion against, plaintiff-
appellee, Social Consultants International, Inc. ("SCI"). Finding no
error, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

SCI, a Virginia corporation, provided consulting services to the
United States Agency for International Development ("USAID"), a
federal agency, in the country of Chad. In 1993, SCI hired Haskell,
a domicile of the state of Georgia, to be the chief export marketing
adviser and manager of its USAID contract in Chad. As such, Haskell
had sole control over various SCI documents which recorded how
SCI funds were spent in performance of the USAID contract. These
documents were of negligible value to Haskell, but were worth
approximately $66,437.29 to SCI. When Haskell's employment con-
tract with SCI terminated, SCI demanded that Haskell return the doc-
uments. Haskell refused to return the documents, and did not return
them until SCI instituted this suit.

SCI filed suit against Haskell for his refusal to return the docu-
ments, alleging, alternatively, breach of contract and conversion. Has-
kell filed a counter-suit against SCI for breach of contract, claiming
that SCI owed him back wages and certain other monies.

After a bench trial before the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia, the district court concluded that Haskell

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breached the employment contract and committed the tort of conver-
sion, because Haskell had no right to retain SCI's documents but
withheld them nonetheless. The district court also concluded that SCI
did not breach the employment contract with Haskell. Although SCI
did owe Haskell $12,839.91 in back wages and severance pay, the
district court concluded that SCI was within its contractual rights
when, rather than pay this money to Haskell directly, it placed the
money in an escrow account and then offset that account by
$10,353.79, the amount that SCI had previously advanced to Haskell
for certain expenses, including airline tickets, health insurance and
travel visas for Haskell's family, and storage costs and insurance.

The district court calculated SCI's damages at $19,260.21, but
reduced this amount by $2,486.12, the remaining balance in the
escrow account. The district court then awarded SCI $16,774.09.

Having carefully reviewed the record and briefs, and considered
the contentions of the parties at oral argument, we find no error in the
district court opinion. We therefore affirm the decision of the district
court on the opinion of that court.

AFFIRMED

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