Beverage Distributors, Inc. v. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.

893 F. Supp. 994, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10676, 1995 WL 447220
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 13, 1995
DocketNo. CIV-90-482-D
StatusPublished

This text of 893 F. Supp. 994 (Beverage Distributors, Inc. v. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beverage Distributors, Inc. v. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp., 893 F. Supp. 994, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10676, 1995 WL 447220 (W.D. Okla. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER

DAUGHERTY, Senior District Judge.

Before this Court is the Motion For Summary Judgment Or Alternative Motion For Declaratory Judgment of Defendant The Jolt Company, Inc. (“Jolt”) against Defendant Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation (“Clearly Canadian”) and the Motion Of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation For Summary Judgment Or In The Alternative Declaratory Judgment against Defendant Jolt. Both Motions are based on the Cross-Claims of the Defendants Clearly Canadian and Jolt against each other, both of which were filed herein on March 3, 1994, in which both parties are primarily seeking indemnification and to be held harmless against the other for damages incurred as a result of this lawsuit brought against them by Plaintiff Beverage Distributors, Inc. (“BDI”).

This case has had a lengthy and complex history, much of which is not directly relevant to the limited issues now before this Court. This in part is because the Defendants and Cross-Claimants Jolt and Clearly Canadian failed and neglected to advise their attorneys handling this case of a pertinent and controlling agreement they made in Canada in 1989.

The facts pertinent to the issues presented in the Cross-Motions of the Defendants and Cross-Claimants Jolt and Clearly Canadian for summary judgment against each other are as follows: Jolt and Clearly Canadian entered into an Exclusive Territorial Licensing Agreement (the “Oklahoma Agreement”) on October 15,1986, in which Clearly Canadian was granted the exclusive right by Jolt to sell Jolt Cola in Oklahoma. Clearly Canadian and Plaintiff BDI then executed a sublieensing agreement under the Oklahoma Agreement on November 13, 1986, with the approval of Jolt, which sublicense agreement also provided that the sublicensee BDI would have the exclusive right to sell Jolt Cola in Oklahoma.

In early 1987, it was discovered that Jolt Cola made by A.J. Canfield Beverage Company (“Canfield”), also named as a Defendant herein by BDI, which had an exclusive Jolt Cola license from Jolt for territory other than Oklahoma, was being shipped into Oklahoma for resale. BDI claimed this was in violation of the exclusive license provisions of both the original Oklahoma Agreement between Jolt and Clearly Canadian and the sublicense thereunder between Clearly Canadian and Plaintiff BDI. Because of the alleged violation of its exclusive license for Oklahoma, BDI filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in September 1989 claiming breach of its exclusive Jolt Cola license for Oklahoma, naming Jolt and Clearly Canadian as defendants and alleging that each violated its promise to BDI for exclusive Jolt Cola rights in Oklahoma. The BDI lawsuit in Texas was transferred to this Court in March of 1990. Plaintiff BDI’s First Amended Complaint filed in Texas includes separate counts against Clearly Canadian and Jolt specifically asserting that each party breached its express and implied obligation to maintain BDI’s exclusive right to distribute and sell Jolt Cola within the State of Oklahoma.

On November 9, 1992, Clearly Canadian filed its first Cross-Claim against Jolt seeking indemnification and to be held harmless from Jolt pursuant to the mutual indemnity and hold harmless provision in the Oklahoma Agreement. On November 30, 1992, Jolt filed its first Cross-Claim against Clearly Canadian in which Jolt also sought indemnifi[996]*996cation and to be held harmless under the same provision in the Oklahoma Agreement. At this time the attorneys for Jolt and Clearly Canadian did not know of the Canada agreement their clients had made in 1989.

Subsequent to the filing of the early Cross-Claims, which by stipulation of the Cross-Claimant parties have been withdrawn by the Cross-Claimants, the attorneys for the parties discovered the said Canada agreement with an addendum thereto (“Canadian Agreement”) which had been executed by Jolt and Clearly Canadian in Canada in 1989. Upon this discovery, both Cross-Claimants agreed that the Canadian Agreement was controlling in this litigation and agreed that the Oklahoma exclusive license agreement they had previously relied on in their Cross-Claims in this case had been superseded and had been declared null and void or no longer valid by the Canadian Agreement between Jolt and Clearly Canadian. The Canadian Agreement is an Exclusive Territorial License Agreement for Jolt Cola between Jolt and Clearly Canadian for Canada and was executed under date of January 1, 1989. This agreement includes a later Hold Harmless Addendum executed by Jolt and Clearly Canadian in May 1989 and the Canadian Agreement was followed by a settlement agreement regarding the same executed on December 20, 1989 by Jolt and Clearly Canadian, and mutual releases thereafter executed by them pursuant to the settlement agreement.1 The parties are in accord that the Canadian Agreement and its Hold Harmless Addendum supersedes and [997]*997renders the 1986 Oklahoma Agreement null and void or no longer valid, and they so stipulated at the February 1,1995 hearing on their Motions for Summary Judgment.

In February 1994, ■ after discovery that their reliance on the mutual indemnity provision in the Oklahoma Agreement was in error and such mutual indemnity and hold harmless provision was not available to them as they had declared it to be null and void or no longer valid, Jolt and Clearly Canadian filed a Joint Motion herein for leave to amend their pleadings and withdraw previously filed summary judgment motions on their earlier Cross-Claims which were based solely on the Oklahoma Agreement.2 Such leave was granted and their Amended Cross-Claims, based on the Canadian Agreement and its Hold Harmless Addendum, were filed on March 3, 1994 by each of the parties. A hearing was conducted on the Motions for Summary Judgment on these Cross-Claims on February 1, 1995.

Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that summary judgment shall be granted if the relevant documents “show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” The Supreme Court has stated that entry of summary judgment is mandated “against the party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s ease and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). That Court further held that “there is no issue for trial unless there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a jury to return a verdict for that party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). This Court will evaluate the Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment of Jolt and Clearly Canadian in accordance with the above-quoted standards.

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893 F. Supp. 994, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10676, 1995 WL 447220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beverage-distributors-inc-v-clearly-canadian-beverage-corp-okwd-1995.