Court Opinion

ID: 9465647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:52:19.423998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:17.922014
License: Public Domain

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
As the majority recognizes, the written agreement of June 4, 1976 between Dollar Rent A Car Systems, Inc. and the Barn-harts established a condition precedent to the Barnharts obligation to make any performance under the contract. The condition precedent is that Dollar obtain concession rights for the Barnharts at the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport within 120 days of the signing of the agreement. The majority construes the jury’s answers to the special interrogatories as a finding that the parties orally modified the agreement so as to completely waive the condition precedent. Because I agree with the district court that the evidence does not support the finding that the agreement was modified to that effect, I dissent. Even if the evidence were to support the finding, I believe a remand would be necessary to determine whether, as a factual matter, Dollar relied to its detriment on the modification.
The only testimony pointed to by the majority to support the finding that the condition precedent was waived is that of Gary Paxton, Dollar’s representative. That testimony concerned a meeting in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport on June 17, *9201976 which was attended by Mr. Paxton, George Barnhart, James Flannery, airport manager of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport, and a Mr. Centini whose exact position is not apparent from the record.
Mr. Paxton stated:
[T]he meeting between Mr. Flannery, Centini, Barnhart and myself in Flannery’s office, this meeting lasted approximately, I would guess, an hour or an hour and a half, and the meeting wasn’t limited to those four walls where we are walking around the terminal building, through the whole thing looking for a place where we can put a counter.
Just after the roving discussion among the four men, Mr. Paxton testified that he spoke separately with Mr. Barnhart in the hall and told him that, based on what Mr. Flannery had said, the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport concession would not be available before September of that year and perhaps not until the spring of the following year. According to Mr. Paxton, “George’s response was he was starting July 1 in Allentown. He didn’t have much experience from the rent a car business, [sic] and it might be best to get that one going and then proceed in Wilkes-Barre.”
This last excerpt from Mr. Paxton’s testimony is the only evidence that the Barn-harts agreed to any modification of the prior written agreement. I believe that this testimony could support a finding that Mr. Barnhart agreed to give Dollar more time to obtain the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport concession than the 120 days allowed in the written agreement. I believe, however, that this testimony cannot support a finding that Mr. Barnhart agreed to waive the condition precedent entirely. Even according to Mr. Paxton’s testimony, it is clear that Mr. Barnhart contemplated operating a concession at both airports when he stated that “it might be best to get that one [Allentown] going and then proceed in Wilkes-Barre.” Nowhere in the record is there any indication that the Barn-harts agreed to waive the provision of the June 4, 1976 contract which makes the entire license agreement contingent upon Dollar’s obtaining concession rights at the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport. At most, the record supports an agreement to extend the time by which the concession may be obtained.1 An extension is not the equivalent of a waiver and I do not believe it is proper here to uphold the finding of the latter from evidence of the former. Therefore, I believe the court below properly held as a matter of law that Barnhart was not obligated to pay Dollar for the rent Dollar had paid at the Allentown Airport. The jury’s contrary finding, as expressed in its answer to Interrogatory No. 8, is not supported by any evidence and therefore should be rejected.
As the majority recognizes, even if there were an oral modification waiving the condition precedent, that modification would be of no effect unless it were supported by consideration or a substitute for consideration. The majority finds that Dollar relied to its detriment on this modification by passing up offers from other parties who wished to operate a Dollar Rent A Car concession at the Allentown Airport. Although there certainly is evidence to support such a finding, this finding was never made below. Where special interrogatories are submitted and no general verdict is rendered by the jury, the district court may make factual findings as to issues of fact not submitted to the jury. See F.R.C.P. 49(a). The issue of detrimental reliance was neither submitted to the jury nor resolved by the district court. Thus even if the finding of a waiver were adequately supported, a remand would be necessary for a factual determination as to whether Dollar relied to its detriment on the waiver.

. The jury, in its answer to Interrogatory No. 1, found that Dollar could not at any time have obtained such a concession for the Barnharts.