Bailey v. St. Louis

268 So. 3d 197
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 28, 2018
DocketCase No. 2D17-895
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 268 So. 3d 197 (Bailey v. St. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey v. St. Louis, 268 So. 3d 197 (Fla. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

KELLY, Judge.

This is the second appeal from a final judgment entered in favor of the appellants/cross-appellees in an action against the appellees/cross-appellants for breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, defamation, slander per se, tortious interference, and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA). The factual background underlying this litigation is fully set forth in Bailey v. St. Louis, 196 So.3d 375 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016) ( Bailey I ), and repeating it here is unnecessary. In Bailey I, we affirmed the final judgment but reversed the damages awarded by the trial court. On remand, with the exception of adding an award for punitive damages, the trial court awarded the same damages this court had previously reversed. Again, we reverse those awards. As to the remaining issues raised in the appeal and in the cross-appeal, we affirm without further comment.

In Bailey I, the appellants had prevailed on claims for breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, slander per se, tortious interference, and violation of FDUTPA. We reversed the damages awarded for everything but slander per se because, as explained in our opinion, we could not square the awards with the evidence or the trial court's findings, which were quite limited with respect to damages. See 196 So.3d at 377. We also reversed the trial court's decision not to award monetary damages for the appellees' FDUTPA violations and not to award punitive damages. See id. We determined that the trial court incorrectly ruled that it could not award monetary damages under FDUTPA and that it also erroneously found that the facts did not support an award of punitive damages. See id.

There were two components to the total damage award of $1,600,000 at issue in Bailey I. The first was an award of *199$300,000 to Laserscopic Spine Centers of America, Inc. (Spine), for out-of-pocket damages for tortious inference. With respect to this award we stated, "In its order, the trial court accepted the calculations of only one of the experts 'as to out of pocket losses,' and it found that the expert testified that the Appellants suffered out-of-pocket damages of $6,831,172." 196 So.3d at 377 (footnote omitted). Yet, the total award of damages was only $1,600,000. The trial court offered no explanation as to how it ended up entering a total award that was less than one-fourth of the amount it cited for out-of-pocket damages alone, and the record provided no insight into the basis for the award.1

On remand, the trial court again awarded $300,000. By way of explanation, the court stated that it had rejected the appellants' expert's testimony as to out-of-pocket losses. However, as explained in Bailey I, the trial court had expressly accepted the expert's calculation regarding out-of-pocket losses. The court purports to explain how it determined that $300,000 was the proper award. Its reasoning, however, is nearly a verbatim repeat of the arguments the appellees unsuccessfully urged us to accept in Bailey I. Moreover, the court's explanation rests on the flawed premise that it had rejected the expert's calculations. Accordingly, we again reverse the trial court's award to Spine and remand for entry of an award in the amount of $6,831,172, which is the amount the trial court found was established by the appellants' expert's testimony.

The remaining $1,050,000 of the damage award was the second component at issue in Bailey I. Appellant Laserscopic Spinal Centers of America, Inc. (Spinal), was awarded damages for breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, and tortious interference, while appellant Laserscopic Medical Clinic, LLC (LMC), received an award on a claim for breach of fiduciary duty. The appellants had sought damages under various theories, including disgorgement. On appeal, the appellants argued that the trial court had awarded no disgorgement damages, while the appellees argued that the entire $1,050,000 was an award of "lost profits measured by the yardstick of [Laser Spine Institute's] allegedly ill-gotten profits, which [it] was similarly required to disgorge." Because of the way the trial court had prepared its order, it was not possible to determine with certainty whether all or a portion of the award was for disgorgement. What we could determine, however, was that if it was for disgorgement, it was "grossly insufficient." Id. at 378.

The appellants had sought disgorgement of approximately $264,000,000. This figure represented the value of Laser Spine Institute (LSI) in 2009 plus $77.5 million in distributions paid to the owners between 2005 and 2009.2 In their argument to the *200trial court, the appellees had taken the position that even if the court found some wrongdoing, any profits LSI earned were attributable solely to the efforts of management and not to any wrongdoing; therefore, the court should not award anything to the appellants.3 Because it was their position that the appellants were not entitled to any damages, the appellees did not put on any evidence as to what amount of LSI's profits short of $264,000,000 could be attributed to their wrongful conduct.

On appeal, and without explaining how the court might have arrived at $1,050,000 rather than $264,000,000, the appellees argued the award reflected the trial court's conclusion that only this portion of LSI's profits was attributable to the appellees' wrongdoing. In support of this, the appellees pointed to the "Damages" section of the trial court's order and specifically to the trial court's citation to Pidcock v. Sunnyland America, Inc., 854 F.2d 443, 447-48 (11th Cir.1988). The trial court cited Pidcock for the proposition that a plaintiff may only recover profits attributable to the underlying wrong and not profits attributable to a defendant's "special or unique efforts" and that "aggressive or enterprising" management activities "may break the causal chain" between the wrongdoing and the defendant's profits. This, according to the appellees, was the reason the trial court limited the award. We will not repeat our discussion of Pidcock here. Suffice it to say that we thoroughly analyzed its applicability to the facts as found by the trial court, and we concluded that the limiting principles Pidcock discusses were inapplicable. See Bailey I,

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Bluebook (online)
268 So. 3d 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-v-st-louis-fladistctapp-2018.