Crestwood Farm Bloodstock v. Everest Stables, Inc.

751 F.3d 434, 2014 WL 1856697
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 9, 2014
Docket13-5688, 13-5689
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 751 F.3d 434 (Crestwood Farm Bloodstock v. Everest Stables, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crestwood Farm Bloodstock v. Everest Stables, Inc., 751 F.3d 434, 2014 WL 1856697 (6th Cir. 2014).

Opinions

SUTTON, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which McKEAGUE, J., joined, and WHITE, J., joined in part. WHITE, J. (pp. 447-50), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

SUTTON, Circuit Judge.

In this breeders’ quarrel between two thoroughbred horse operations — Everest Stables and Crestwood Farm Bloodstock— the parties dispute the terms of various arrangements between them to reproduce, care for and sell racehorses. The district court granted summary judgment for Crestwood on its breach of contract claim and against Everest on its assortment of claims. We affirm.

I.

When this dispute began, Jeffrey Nielsen owned Everest, a Minnesota corporation that breeds and races thoroughbreds, and Pope McLean, Sr., owned Crestwood, a thoroughbred farm in Kentucky’s horse country. The two businesses began working together in 1993, when Everest boarded several horses at Crestwood. The relationship continued for fifteen years and included various boarding, breeding and selling arrangements.

One arrangement concerned an Everest horse named “Petionville,” a stallion that had won the Louisiana Derby, the Ohio Derby and the La Jolla Handicap. Crest-wood agreed to board Petionville in 1996. Consistent with a “protocol” letter written by Nielsen, the arrangement required Crestwood to contact Nielson with all requests for Petionville’s breeding services, to supply information about the mare’s “pedigree, race record, [etc.],” and not to sign any breeding “contract ... without [Nielsen’s] approval.” R. 152-6 at 1. The letter said little else.

The parties entered a more definite arrangement in November 2008, when Everest and Crestwood agreed to sell Everest’s horses. According to the agreement, Everest would transfer ownership of more than 100 horses to Crestwood, Crestwood would take responsibility for the horses’ day-to-day costs (including boarding, veterinary services and preparation for sale), and Crestwood would sell the horses at a public auction or in a private sale. The agreement added that the parties “shall sell” the subject horses, e.g., R. 152-4 at 2, [439]*439and prohibited Crestwood from setting a “reserve” on any horse — a price floor below which the seller refuses to go, id. at 3. The agreement allowed Crestwood to keep twenty-five to fifty percent of the proceeds from each horse’s sale as payment for its services.

The agreement included more specific provisions about two horses: Island Fashion and its unnamed filly. As with the other horses in the agreement, Island Fashion and its filly would be boarded at Crestwood’s farm. And as with the other horses, they would be sold at auction by Crestwood’s agents. But in contrast to the other horses, they remained Everest’s property. These were special horses in Nielsen’s eyes — Island Fashion had won over $2 million — and Nielsen had high hopes in selling them.

Consistent with this arrangement, Crestwood tried to sell several Everest horses at auction, including the Island Fashion filly. Interested buyers placed two bids for the filly, one for $850,000, the other for $875,000. Everest wasn’t satisfied. It planted a separate agent at the auction (without Crestwood’s knowledge), who tried to drive the selling price higher by placing a $900,000 bid for the filly on Everest’s behalf — a move that effectively set a reserve of at least — $900,000 on the horse. In the absence of any non-Everest bids at or exceeding $900,000, the sale failed, and the auction house published the transaction as “R.N.A.” — reserve not attained. After learning what Everest had done, Crestwood kept a portion of Everest’s proceeds from selling other horses at the auction — $219,513.89, to be exact, which was twenty-five percent of the failed high bid for the filly (plus auction fees), what amounted to the commission Crest-wood otherwise would have earned but for Everest’s conduct.

Everest sued Crestwood in response, claiming that Crestwood breached a stable of contractual and other duties. Crest-wood counterclaimed, arguing that Everest breached the November 2008 contract and that Crestwood should be allowed to keep the disputed money. The district court granted summary judgment to Crestwood. It denied Everest leave to file a fourth amended complaint. And it saddled Everest with $272,486.30 in attorney’s fees.

II.

Everest challenges the district court’s rejection of several of its claims. Each argument is unconvincing.

Everest’s breach of contract claim arising from an alleged management agreement. Kentucky law, as the parties agree, governs this dispute. Under Kentucky law, as under the law of other States, a contract must “contain definite and certain terms” to be enforceable. Kovacs v. Freeman, 957 S.W.2d 251, 254 (Ky.1997). Invoking this principle, the district court determined that no agreement existed between Everest and Crestwood regarding Petionville’s “management.” Crestwood might have offered Petionville a place to stay, but that does not mean it agreed to manage Petionville’s retirement — advertising him, choosing breeding partners for him and the like.

A fresh look at the record supports the district court’s decision. The key document offered to support this claim — the “protocol” letter that Nielsen sent McLean in 1996 — shows that Crestwood never agreed to manage Petionville’s stud career. Under the protocol, Everest retained final authority over Petionville’s breeding partners, and Crestwood lacked authority to accept any breeding contract without Everest’s approval. So far as the written record shows, Crestwood’s only job was to forward breeding requests for Petionville [440]*440to Nielsen for his review — hardly a management task.

In the alternative, Everest contends that it entered into an oral agreement with Crestwood to manage Petionville. Yet even an oral contract, even one that we will assume for now would not violate the statute of frauds, must contain “clear and definite” terms. In the absence of something concrete, no one could determine whether a party breached the agreement or how to measure damages. Quadrille Bus. Sys. v. Kentucky Cattlemen’s Assoc., 242 S.W.3d 359, 364 (Ky.Ct.App. 2007) (rejecting oral contract claim as a matter of law due to lack of “definite and certain” terms). Everest cannot meet that requirement on this record. All that Everest has is the deposition testimony of Nielsen, who alleges that Crestwood agreed to “aggressively” market Petionville’s breeding services. R. 159-3 at 13. The what, when, where and how of this marketing are never explained. Nor does Everest show how all of this would create a management agreement. Nielsen’s hopes and Crestwood’s puffery do not a definite and enforceable contract make.

Everest insists that Crestwood conceded the existence of a Petionville management contract. Not so. The cited statements concede nothing of the sort, and indeed say just the opposite. One says that, “[d]espite standing PETIONVILLE at Crestwood, Everest did not enter any stallion management agreement with Crest-wood.” R. 152-1 at 2 (emphasis added). The other says that “Nielsen controlled all aspects of PETIONVILLE’s management.” Id. at 15 (emphasis added). Crestwood, true enough, admitted that it reached some agreement regarding Petionville.

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751 F.3d 434, 2014 WL 1856697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crestwood-farm-bloodstock-v-everest-stables-inc-ca6-2014.