Court Opinion

ID: 9468128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:05:46.513928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:42.333655
License: Public Domain

MURPHY, District Judge.
I respectfully disagree.
*397This Court holds that the complaint in this diversity action for moneys due and owing fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Because I believe that the affirmance of an order granting defendant’s motion to dismiss, pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. Rule 12(b)(6), deprives plaintiff of its Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial, I dissent.
The complaint, alleging diversity, plaintiff being a Utah corporation with its principal office in Salt Lake City, and defendant a resident and citizen of California, and the necessary monetary amount, alleges that in 1975 at Salt Lake City it and defendant entered into a written contract (a copy of which was attached to the complaint) wherein plaintiff agreed to provide training and advance certain sums of money to defendant which were repayable by him out of future commissions to be earned, and defendant agreed to repay said sums of money to plaintiff out of such commissions. It then alleges that plaintiff has performed all the conditions by it to be performed, including the advancement of some Eleven Thousand-odd Dollars to defendant, and that in March, 1977 defendant failed to perform the conditions of the contract on his part in that he failed and continued to fail to make the agreed upon payments due thereon. Accordingly, it demanded judgment in the sum of Eleven Thousand-odd Dollars, together with interest and costs. There are also attached to the complaint a copy of defendant’s acceptance of the agent’s contract, and another page entitled “Success Unit Financing Agreement for Salesmen” (emphasis ours).
Defendant’s notice of motion, although self-described as a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), F.R.Civ.P., claiming the complaint fails to state a claim against defendant upon which relief can be granted, adds this sentence: “This motion will be based on this notice, the attached memorandum of points and authorities, an affidavit of Douglas Knobelauch, and the file, records and pleadings in this action.” The district court order, on the stationery of defendant’s counsel, is as follows:
“After full consideration of the moving and responding papers, all supporting papers, plaintiff’s complaint on file herein and the oral arguments of counsel, and good cause appearing therefor,
IT IS ORDERED that defendant Douglas Knobelauch’s motion to dismiss be granted.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the complaint and action herein be dismissed and that judgment be entered for defendant Douglas Knobelauch.”
This Court’s factual statement is derived in a large measure from defendant’s affidavit and memorandum submitted with the motion. As a result, the amalgam of facts to be applied to test the sufficiency of the complaint is laden with facts dehors it.
It is common ground that on such a motion “unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which will entitle him to relief, the complaint cannot be dismissed.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).
The Court, in addressing the conflicts of law issue as required by Erie Railroad Company v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), states: “The parties agree that California law controls.” We find no such agreement in any brief submitted to this Court or to the district court, although both parties, in the main, rely on California cases. Our submission is that there is absolutely no way of telling, or even guessing, from the face of the complaint, what foreign law is applicable, whether Utah, or California, or some other state’s conflict of laws rule.
In addition, the California law relied upon by this Court and the defendant in his motion, Cal.Bus. and Prof.Code § 16600, relates to advances made to an employee. The contract upon which plaintiff sues states:
“11. AGENT IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE.
Nothing herein shall be construed to create the relationship of employer and employee between the Company and the agent. The agent shall be free to exer*398cise Ms own judgment as to the persons from whom he will solicit insurance and the time and place of solicitation.”
Further, nowhere in the contract is there any statement or requirement as to where the defendant was to work soliciting insurance, nor is there any allegation in the complaint where, in fact, he did work. The only reference to California in the complaint relates to defendant’s citizenship and residence, and that in the present tense. Nor is there any allegation in the complaint that the defendant disassociated himself from the plaintiff and became employed by some other insurance company, or that he did such in the state of California.
The contract has no reference to the obligations of either party in the event the plaintiff makes advances to an agent other than in its paragraph numbered 3. Such paragraph relates only to “Commissions Charged Back,” which in turn refers to the agent’s performance as compared to the average of all other agents during a quarter of the year.
The Court also states as a fact that the “employment contract incorporated a ‘SUCCESS UNIT FINANCING PLAN,”’ and then refers to paragraph 6 of the “SUCCESS UNIT FINANCING AGREEMENT” (emphasis ours).
What is attached to the complaint is a copy of the “Success Unit Financing Agreement for Salesmen” and not the “SUCCESS UNIT FINANCING PLAN” which is referred to in that Agreement (emphasis ours). It is obvious that the “SUCCESS UNIT FINANCING PLAN” consists of many pages, since the page reference on the bottom of the one-page Agreement for Salesmen indicates the pages run from 14-42. In appellant’s reply brief and on oral argument it was appellant’s contention that such a Plan should be before the Court in order to understand the complete arrangement re advancements.
In sum, without the additional facts outside the complaint gleaned from defendant’s affidavit and memorandum in support of the Rule 12(b)(6) motion, this Court and the district court have, and had no basis for dismissing a complaint that states a simple, garden variety claim for money had and received. The order appealed from should be reversed.