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Health Call of Detroit v. Atrium Home & Health Care Services9/8/2005
and ability to exercise her judgment and continue the contractual-business relationship with plaintiff for her infant's care without having the relationship undermined by defendants' wrongful interference. The period of time beyond the date of termination during which defendant nurses continued to provide nursing care to Williams and Harris could reasonably serve as a measurement of damages with regard to lost profits, along with any other evidence eventually presented at trial that might support a damage award covering the same or a longer time period. Recall that in Environair, the panel would not allow recovery of more than nominal damages accruing beyond the date of termination of the Greenheck-Environair contract. Although Williams testified in her deposition that she was unhappy with one of plaintiff's owners and that she would have made the change in service providers regardless of whether defendant nurses continued providing the care, evidence showing that Williams made a specific request that care be continued by defendant nurses and the fact that there was a continuum of care thereafter minimally created a factual issue on the subject leaving resolution for trial. In light of the evidence, and considering the nature of this case and the need to somewhat estimate damages, "it is proper to place before the jury all the facts and circumstances which have a tendency to show" the amount of damages. Body Rustproofing, supra at 391. This case presents a clear example against a per se rule that only nominal damages are recoverable.
The dissent takes us to task, maintaining that we have established a rule "that in all actions arising out of or related to the termination of at-will contracts, juries will be allowed to speculate as to the amount of future lost profits based upon any evidence that might support a damage award for such lost profits." Post, slip opat 1 (emphasis in original). We first note that our opinion specifically indicates that this case presents a unique factual situation, and we foresee that in other cases involving tortious interference with at-will contracts, the plaintiffs may struggle to present evidence sufficient to proceed to trial on the issue of future damages, with nominal damages being the limit of any recovery. We do think it would suffice if a plaintiff presents documentary evidence in which the party who terminated an at-will contract specifically indicates that it was completely satisfied with the plaintiff's services under the contract and would have continued the contract indefinitely but for the wrongful interference. It will likely be the rare case that parallels the factual scenario here. The dissent's position effectively permits a party to tortiously interfere with at-will contracts whenever the party pleases and in whatever manner chosen without fear of financial repercussions.
The main thrust of the dissent is that our ruling will require a jury to engage in speculation and baseless conjecture because Williams could have terminated the home nursing contract at any point in time for any reason, or she may have continued the contract indefinitely; therefore, it is impossible to ascertain the amount of future lost profits with any certainty. We believe that the dissent demands absolute or too much certainty and seeks exactness; the law permits some level of uncertainty to be resolved by the trier of fact in the context of damage awards.
In Merkur Steel Supply, Inc v Detroit, 261 Mich App 116; 680 NW2d 485 (2004), the plaintiff tenant leased property adjacent to the city's airport and sued the city under a claim of inverse condemnation after it was unable to expand its operations on the property based on the city's actions relative to expanding
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