CASUAL MALE RETAIL GROUP, INC. v. Yarbrough

527 F. Supp. 2d 172, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94669, 2007 WL 4465459
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedOctober 17, 2007
DocketCivil Action 05-12049-NMG
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 527 F. Supp. 2d 172 (CASUAL MALE RETAIL GROUP, INC. v. Yarbrough) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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CASUAL MALE RETAIL GROUP, INC. v. Yarbrough, 527 F. Supp. 2d 172, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94669, 2007 WL 4465459 (D. Mass. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

GORTON, District Judge.

A motion for sanctions, a renewed motion for oral argument, and seven post- *176 trial motions are pending following the conclusion of an eight-day trial in this case in June, 2007. The plaintiffs have filed motions: 1) for sanctions, 2) for an oral argument, 8) to reach and apply, 4) for a permanent injunction, 5) to amend the judgment to include an award of prejudgment interest, and 6) to alter and amend the judgment to hold the defendants jointly liable. The defendants have filed separately two renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law, and one defendant has filed a motion for a new trial.

I. Background

A. The Parties

Plaintiff Casual Male Retail Group, Inc. (“CMRG”) is a retailer of big and tall men’s apparel. Plaintiff Casual Male RBT, LLC (“RBT”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Casual Male that operates 22 Rochester Big & Tall stores as well as a catalog and internet business. (Collectively CMRG and RBT are hereinafter referred to as “the plaintiffs” or “Casual Male.”)

The defendants are Robert H. Yar-brough (‘Yarbrough”) and his company, RKC Maü LLC, (“RKC”) (collectively “Yarbrough/RKC”), and Westport Big & Tall, LLC (“Westport”). RKC, which also conducted an internet sales business under the name Mile Post Four, operates call centers and provides catalog and internet fulfillment services for retaüers of men’s apparel. Westport is a direct competitor of Casual Male in the men’s big and tall retail apparel market and also recently launched a catalog and internet sales business.

B. Factual Background

In February, 2002 Rochester Big & Tall (“Rochester”) hired Yarbrough/RKC to maintain a call center, provide catalog and internet fulfillment services and create, develop and maintain Rochester’s catalog and internet business. The contract imposed certain obligations on Yar-brough/RKC to maintain the confidentiality of Rochester’s business information and contained a clause prohibiting Yar-brough/RKC from competing with Rochester during the term of the contract and for two years thereafter. When Rochester was acquired by Casual Male in October, 2004, Yarbrough/RKC entered into an Agreement for Independent Contractor Services with Casual Male (“the Independent Contractor Agreement”) which assigned the Rochester contract to Casual Male.

In late 2004, a representative of West-port, a small retail company at the time, contacted Yarbrough to inquire whether Yarbrough/RKC could provide Westport with services similar to those it was already providing to Casual Male. The current litigation arose out of the ensuing relationship between Yarbrough/RKC and Westport. Casual Male alleged in its complaint that Yarbrough/RKC provided Westport with proprietary information related to Casual Male’s business and violated the non-competition clauses of their contracts. Casual Male also alleged that Westport induced some of its employees to leave Casual Male to work for Westport and that those employees subsequently used certain of Casual Male’s confidential information in order to compete with it.

C.Outcome at Trial

On June 25, 2007, after an eight-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Casual Male. The jury found that defendants Yarbrough/RKC breached the restrictive covenants of the contract with Casual Male, intentionally interfered with advantageous business relations, and misappropriated the trade secrets or confidential business information of Casual Male. *177 The jury assessed Yarbrough/RKC with damages in the amount of $1,080,000 for breach of contract, $1 for tortious interference and $1 for misappropriation. The jury also found Westport liable for intentional interference with contractual relations in the amount of $400,000. On July 6, 2007, the Court entered judgment in favor of Casual Male against the defendants in the amounts awarded by the jury.

II. Legal Analysis

A. Plaintiffs’ Motion for Sanctions against Defendants

On June 17, 2007, during trial, Casual Male moved for sanctions against defendants Yarbrough/RKC and Westport for the defendants’ alleged “outrageous and misleading scheme to distract Casual Male” during trial. This Court deferred resolution of the motion until after trial was concluded. On July 18, 2007, the defendants filed a joint motion for leave to file opposition to plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions and simultaneously filed their opposition.

The motion for sanctions arises out of events and a subsequent order that occurred during the course of trial. On June 12, 2007, the second day of trial, Westport announced to this Court that the defendants had recently learned that Casual Male’s Rochester catalogue had experienced internal problems with its mail plan in the Fall of 2006. Arguing that Casual Male should have produced that information during discovery because of its bearing upon potential damages, Westport sought immediate discovery pursuant to a trial subpoena. This Court sanctioned the subpoena and, when Casual Male produced numerous documents the defendants claimed never to have seen before, allowed the defendants to take limited depositions in preparation for the examination and reexamination of witnesses.

Casual Male moves for sanctions claiming that the defendants knew of the cata-logue mailing issue and the documents pertaining to it well before trial. In support of its motion, it points to certain documentation, deposition ■ testimony and reports which the defendants had well before trial. Casual Male also contends that the defendants knew of the mailing problem as early as November, 2006, but failed to make a timely request for relevant documents during discovery and, instead, did nothing until trial. Casual' Male further argues that the defendants strategically made their announcement to this Court at trial in order to disrupt Casual Male’s presentation of its case. It seeks the imposition of sanctions in the amount of costs and attorney’s fees associated with the production of the documents- and the taking of the depositions.

Casual Male makes its motion from a precarious position. There may be some question about when the defendants first learned of the documents relating to the internal mailing issue but not even Casual Male argues that it produced the documents in question. By Casual Male’s own admission, at some point during discovery, Westport requested:

“[a]ll documents reflecting, relating to, or concerning the lost profits that Rochester allegedly incurred, including, but not limited to, financial statements ... internal communications ... and e-mail messages.”

An independent problem with respect to the mailing of the catalogue would certainly be relevant to a damages claim for lost profits but Casual Male did not produce such documents. Had it done so, the short-notice discovery issue would have been alleviated. Because Casual Male did not produce the documents prior to trial, its request for sanctions will be denied.

*178 B. Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for Oral Argument

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527 F. Supp. 2d 172, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94669, 2007 WL 4465459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casual-male-retail-group-inc-v-yarbrough-mad-2007.