 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Magill v. Nelbro Packing Co.8/31/2001
No. 5459
I. INTRODUCTION
Fishers and a fish packing company discussed a possible arrangement for compensating the fishers for roe herring they were to deliver to the packing company. When the fishers sued for damages, the superior court found for the packing company. Did the superior court clearly err in finding that the parties did not have an agreement with "terms that [were] specific enough to be enforced"? We conclude that it did not. We also affirm the superior court's finding that the fishers were not underpaid and its award of attorney's fees based on the packing company's successful offer of judgment.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Nelbro Packing Company is a Washington corporation which owns and operates seafood processing plants in Southeast Alaska and Bristol Bay. Frederick (Rick) Magill, Donald Kalk, and Robert Pries (sometimes "the Magill group") own or operate three herring seine boats, and annually engage in the Togiak herring fishery in Bristol Bay.
The Magill group caught 348 tons of herring during the 1995 Togiak herring fishery and sold it to Nelbro. Nelbro paid the Magill group according to the industry standard. The Magill group received an advance price of $600 per ton plus $60 per point, and the group received another payment of $200 per ton and $20 per point in January 1996, bringing the total payment to $800 per ton and $80 per point. Nelbro's ultimate $80 per-point-formula was based on estimates -- from early samples of the Magill group's herring -- that the fish contained an average of 11.4% roe. Nelbro later determined that the average roe percentage for the entire catch was 12.43%. Nelbro did not adjust its point payments. On average, Nelbro paid the Magill group $915 per ton; according to unrebutted expert testimony, that was a fair price in the industry.
Magill, Kalk, and Pries filed suit against Nelbro in May 1998 seeking damages for breach of contract, conversion, and unjust enrichment. The complaint alleged that Nelbro should have paid the plaintiffs the adjusted grounds price for the herring based on a 12.43% roe content, and should have paid them a share of its profits. After learning that Nelbro made only a $27.56 per ton profit due to its unprofitable deviation from ordinary industry practice in shipping the herring to China to be stripped of roe before being sold, the plaintiffs amended their complaint. The plaintiffs now claimed that the allegedly unconventional Chinese transaction, undertaken without notice to the plaintiffs, breached fiduciary and contractual duties; the plaintiffs sought damages in the amount of profits the group would have been paid under the profit sharing arrangement if Nelbro had sold all of the Magill group's herring whole frozen F.O.B. Bristol Bay.
At trial, the Magill group offered evidence to establish that the contracting parties intended to enter into an agreement that included profit sharing. Nelbro offered evidence disputing Rick Magill's characterization of the agreement. Sitting as the trier of fact, Superior Court Judge Fred Torrisi concluded that the plaintiffs had not met their burden of establishing an agreement to share profits. The court also concluded that Nelbro did not owe the additional $27,840 sought by the plaintiffs based on the actual 12.43% roe content. The court denied the plaintiffs' Motion for Entry of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Motion for Reconsideration and entered an amended final judgment, awarding Nelbro attorney's fees of $129,727.87 and costs of $15,797.51, against the Magill group.
III. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
We review questions of fact -- such as wh
Page 1 2 3 4 Alaska Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|