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Sullivan v. Aslanides1/6/2005
14 of the employment agreement.
Expenses of Enforcement of Covenants. In the event that any action, suit or proceeding at law or in equity is brought by either party to this Agreement to enforce the covenants contained in this Agreement or to obtain money damages for the breach thereof, the successful party shall be entitled, upon demand, to reimbursement from the losing party for all and any expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees and disbursements) incurred in connection therewith.
Indeed, because Sullivan prevailed at the trial court level, the judgment that was entered included reimbursement for all of his counsel fees. Clearly, by that point, he had suffered no damages.
Within the course of its opinion, the trial court also discussed the expert report and testimony proffered by Sullivan in the Szwed lawsuit. The trial court expressed the view that this was sufficient to put Sullivan on notice that defendants may have been negligent in drafting 7(e). In light of the characterization by the Chancery Division judge of the expert's report and testimony as confusing and unpersuasive, we decline to adopt such a finding.
We note, for the sake of completeness, that defendants also contend they were entitled to summary judgment because any alleged negligence on their part could not have been a proximate cause of any loss by Sullivan. The trial court declined to rule on this argument and, accordingly, so do we.
III.
We turn now to the claim that the trial court erred in imposing sanctions on Sullivan's attorney for discovery violations. We do not consider it necessary to burden this opinion with the details of the history of the discovery process in this litigation. We deem it sufficient to note that we have reviewed the record with care and are satisfied that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in entering the order of August 1, 2003, making plaintiff responsible to reimburse defendants for the reasonable fees and expenses of their counsel and expert in responding to plaintiff's late expert report nor in entering the order of November 24, 2003, which refused to vacate the earlier provision and ordered plaintiff to pay $24,416.13 to defendants within three weeks. Anything further is unnecessary in our view because it would have no precedential value. R. 2:11-3(e)(1)(E).
The orders under review are affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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