Marlite, Inc. v. Alvin Eckenrod , 537 F. App'x 815 ( 2013 )

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
Nos. 13-10225; 13-10347
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:10-cv-23641-FAM
MARLITE, INC.,
individually,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
ALVIN ECKENROD,
individually,
Defendant - Third Party Plaintiff - Appellee,
JAMES ROBBINS,
JERRY DAGAN,
Third Party Defendants - Appellees,
MODULAR WOOD SYSTEMS INC.,
individually,
Defendant.
________________________
Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(August 15, 2013)
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Before CARNES, Chief Judge, WILSON, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Marlite, Inc. sued Alvin Eckenrod alleging that he breached their non-
competition agreement.1 After a trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of
Eckenrod. Marlite moved for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, for a
new trial, which the court denied. Marlite appeals those denials. Eckenrod signed
the non-competition agreement as part of Marlite’s purchase of Precision Wood
Products, a company that Eckenrod partially owned.2 At the time of the
agreement, Eckenrod also owned Modular Wood Systems. Both companies sold
slatwall, with Precision focusing its business in Florida and Modular focusing
along the east coast.
We review de novo the district court’s denial of a motion for judgment as a
matter of law, applying the same standard as the district court. Pensacola Motor
Sales, Inc. v. Eastern Shore Toyota, LLC, 684 F.3d 1211, 1226 (11th Cir. 2012).
“That standard is heavily weighted in favor of preserving the jury’s verdict,” and
1
Marlite’s complaint asserted six other claims against Eckenrod and his business,
Modular Wood Systems. The only claim at issue in this appeal is the one against Eckenrod for
breach of the non-competition agreement.
2
Eckenrod sued the other two owners of Precision for indemnity. The district court
granted summary judgment to those third-party defendants. Eckenrod cross-appealed that
decision “purely on a protective basis” in case Marlite prevailed in its appeal. Because we
conclude that Marlite is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, we need not
decide whether summary judgment on the third-party claim was properly granted, and we
dismiss the cross-appeal as moot.
2
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“guided by the principle that credibility determinations, the weighing of the
evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury
functions, not those of a judge.” Id. (quotation marks and alteration omitted).
Judgment as a matter of law should not be granted if “there was any legally
sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to find in favor of the nonmoving party.” Id.“We review a District Court’s ruling on a motion for new trial for abuse of
discretion.” Rosenfeld v. Oceania Cruises, Inc., 682 F.3d 1320, 1325 (11th Cir.
2012).
I.
Marlite first argues that the district court should have found, as a matter of
law, that Eckenrod’s operation of Modular in Florida breached a provision of the
non-competition agreement that Eckenrod signed, which required that Eckenrod
not “[e]nter into or engage in any business which competes with [Marlite’s]
business as currently conducted or as it is conducted after the Closing Date of the
Asset Purchase Agreement.” That provision also contained an exemption for
Modular: “Notwithstanding the above, [Eckenrod] . . . may after the Closing Date
of the Asset Purchase Agreement continue to own, operate and conduct in
competition with [Marlite] and as conducted as of the Closing Date of the Asset
Purchase Agreement, the following businesses owned by [Eckenrod]: Modular
Wood Systems, Inc. and Interlam, Inc.”
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Marlite argues it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the
evidence showed that all but one of Modular’s Florida clients at the time the asset
purchase agreement was signed were clients it shared with Precision, and Modular
sold to more than that one Florida client after the agreement was signed. Eckenrod
testified at trial that before the agreement, Modular made sales to ten Florida
clients that it shared with Precision. And he testified that after the agreement was
signed, Modular continued to sell to eight of those clients even though the alliance
with Precision no longer existed.
Marlite argues that the clients Modular originally got through its alliance
with Precision were not covered by the exemption. But the plain language of the
exemption does not require such a finding. A reasonable jury could find that
because Modular already did business with those clients at the time the agreement
was signed, the exemption covered any business it continued to do with them after
the agreement was signed. There was a legally sufficient basis for a jury to find
that Modular did not violate the non-competition agreement by doing business with
Florida clients because that conduct fit within the exemption.
II.
Marlite argues that even if it is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law, it
is entitled to a new trial because the jury’s verdict in favor of Eckenrod was against
the great weight of the evidence. “Because it is critical that a judge does not
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merely substitute his judgment for that of the jury, new trials should not be granted
on evidentiary grounds unless, at a minimum, the verdict is against the great––not
merely the greater––weight of the evidence.” Lipphardt v. Durango Steakhouse of
Brandon, Inc., 267 F.3d 1183, 1186 (11th Cir. 2001) (quotation marks omitted).
At trial the parties presented conflicting evidence about whether the business
Modular did with its Florida clients after the agreement was signed fit within the
non-competition exemption. Given that conflicting evidence and the opposing
inferences that could be drawn from it, the district court did not abuse its discretion
in refusing to grant Marlite a new trial. See Cavic v. Grand Bahama Development
Co., Ltd., 701 F.2d 879, 887 (11th Cir. 1983) (“[G]iven the conflicting evidence
and the hotly contested inferences drawn therefrom, denial of the defendant's
motion for a new trial was not an abuse of discretion.”).
Marlite also argues that it should be granted a new trial on the ground that,
over Marlite’s objection, Eckenrod was permitted to present inadmissible
testimony. A new trial should be granted if inadmissible evidence is presented to
the jury only if that evidence affects a party’s substantial rights. See Ad-Vantage
Telephone Directory Consultants, Inc. v. GTE Directories Corp., 37 F.3d 1460,
1465 (11th Cir. 1994) (holding that the judge abused his discretion in failing to
grant a new trial after erroneously permitting highly prejudicial testimony about an
expert witness’s unrelated bankruptcy, forgery accusation, and censure). To show
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that an evidentiary ruling affected its substantial rights, the complaining party
“bears the burden of proving that the error probably had a substantial influence on
the jury’s verdict.” Proctor v. Fluor Enterprises, Inc., 494 F.3d 1337, 1353 (11th
Cir. 2007).
Marlite argues that testimony from Robert Milne, the attorney who
negotiated the non-competition agreement and one of Eckenrod’s witnesses,
violated the district court’s order granting Marlite’s motion in limine. That order
prevented Milne from testifying “as to the meaning of the non-competition
agreement at issue in this case.” At trial, Milne testified that “the final version of
the exemption language . . . didn’t touch Modular Wood’s business” and that
“Modular was a free agent to do what it wanted.” Marlite argues that Milne’s
testimony misled the jury about how broad the exemption was. Even if some of
Milne’s testimony was inadmissible, it is unlikely that that testimony had a
substantial influence on the jury’s verdict. The jury was given the language of the
exemption and heard testimony from both sides about what the exemption
covered. 3 The only evidence Marlite offers to show that Milne’s testimony
3
Marlite also argues that the testimony of Eckenrod and statements of his attorney are
grounds for a new trial because they included statements that were inconsistent with the district
court’s interpretation of the exemption as explained in the district court’s order denying both
parties summary judgment. There was, however, no order barring other witnesses or counsel
from making statements about the exemption’s coverage. The order limited only the testimony
of Milne. When the district court denied the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, the
issue of whether Modular’s business dealings in Florida fit within the non-competition
exemption became a question of fact left to the jury to decide, regardless of the district court’s
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affected its substantial rights is the fact that the jury decided against it. But, as we
have already discussed, the jury was presented with sufficient evidence to find that
Modular’s business dealings in Florida were covered by the exemption even if the
exemption was not as broad as Milne said it was. The court did not abuse its
discretion in concluding that Marlite was not entitled to a new trial on the basis of
that testimony.
AFFIRMED.
interpretation of the exemption at the summary judgment stage. Cf. Pensacola Motor Sales, 684
F.3d at 1219–20 (“[A] party may not appeal an order denying summary judgment after there has
been a full trial on the merits.”).
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