Gould v. Ochsner

2015 WY 101, 354 P.3d 965, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 117, 2015 WL 4640416
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 5, 2015
DocketNo. S-14-0228
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2015 WY 101 (Gould v. Ochsner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gould v. Ochsner, 2015 WY 101, 354 P.3d 965, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 117, 2015 WL 4640416 (Wyo. 2015).

Opinion

HILL, Justice.

[T1] James Gould, IV, his wife, and their two children, brought an action against Daniel Ochsner and his related ranch entities, asserting claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, conversion and fraud. Plaintiffs' claims stemmed from promises Defendant Daniel Ochsner allegedly made during Plaintiffs' several-year tenure living and working on Defendants' Flying River Ranch. Following a bench trial, the district court denied all of Plaintiffs' claims and Defendants' counterclaims. Plaintiffs appeal, contending that the district court erred in denying their claims to a number of cattle and a cattle brand and in denying their W.R.C.P. 15(b) motion to amend their complaint to conform to the evidence and to add promissory estoppel claims. Plaintiffs also challenge the district court's denial of their motion to confirm an alleged settlement agreement between the parties. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

ISSUES
[12] There are four issues on appeal.
1. Whether the district court erred when ruling against the Goulds on their claims related to the disputed cattle ownership.
2. Whether the district court erred when ruling against the Goulds on their claims related to the disputed cattle brand.
3. Whether the district court erred in denying the Goulds® W.R.C.P. 15(b) motion to amend their complaint to conform to the evidence and add promissory estoppel claims.
4. Whether the district court erred in finding the parties did not have an enforceable settlement agreement.

FACTS1

[13] James Frank Gould, IV (Mr. Gould) grew up on the Gould Ranch, located west of Meeteetse, Wyoming. The Gould family owned and operated the Gould Ranch for five generations, since 1870, and Mr. Gould continued to live on the ranch as an adult along with his wife, Erin Gould, and their two children, James Frank Gould, V (Frank) and Jasmine Gould.

[T4] In 2001, Daniel Ochsner entered into a lease agreement to lease the Gould Ranch. At that time, Mr. Ochsner owned [967]*967and operated a limited liability company, YU Land and Cattle, LLC, which operated three other ranches. In 2002, Mr. Ochsner purchased the Gould Ranch and renamed it the Flying River Ranch (Ranch). Mr. Ochsner retained Mr. Gould as ranch manager pursuant to an oral agreement by which Mr. Gould would receive, among other compensation, a monthly salary of $2,000.00, free housing for him and his family, and a $1,000,000.00 bonus if Mr. Gould profitably managed the ranching operation for seven years.

[T5] In February 2004, Mr. Gould was in a work-related vehicle accident and sustained severe injuries, including "a traumatic brain injury with residual cognitive difficulties, headaches and sleep apnea," as well as injuries to his cervical and lumbar spine, and right ankle, knee, wrist and shoulder. Mr. Gould received workers' compensation medical and disability benefits as a result of these injuries, and he underwent multiple surgeries and remained on full temporary total disability (TTD) benefits until March 2005. In March 2005, Mr. Gould entered into an approved light duty work agreement with the Ranch, whereby eighty percent of Mr. Gould's salary was covered by TTD benefits and the remaining twenty percent was paid by the Ranch. This arrangement continued until February 26, 2007, at which point Mr. Gould had received the maximum 86-month allowance of TTD benefits.

[16] After Mr. Gould's accident in 2004, Mr. Ochsner had informed Mr. Gould that he wished to sell the Ranch, and in a subsequent conversation in 2007, Mr. Ochsner informed Mr. Gould that he was going to sell his cattle and get out of the cattle business because he had enough on his plate without the ranching operation. In early 2008, Mr. Gould proposed to Mr. Ochsner that he lease the Ranch to Albert and Rainy Renner, who Mr. Gould knew were looking for grass on which to graze their cattle.2 Mr. Ochsner agreed to the lease arrangement, which he described as follows:

A. * * * And then [Mr. Gould] came to me and said, Dan, Albert and Rainy and I would like to lease the ranch.
T said, Jim, what are you thinking?
He said, Albert and Rainy, théy can do all the work or most of the work, and it will allow me to also go to Bairoil and work my little oil field down there.
And I said, okay, I'll think about it.
And I thought about it for a while.
Then I said, okay, I will enter into that lease. And I said, if you keep the property in pristine condition because I'm trying to sell this property, I would have a much better chance of selling the property if it was in pristine condition.
What I did was I gave them a lease for $12,000, and that was an incredible lease.
Q. Let me stop you there. Who's the "they" in that?
A. Oh, okay, okay. Jim, Albert and Rainy.
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A. * * * And then what I did was I liquidated the cows that I had, some of them to another party, and then I-Jim said, you know, that he needed to make money, so I decided to give Jim Gould 60 head of cows. I offered him the rest of my cows, 89 head.
And I said, Jim, what would be a good price? He said, $350 a head.
And I-all I wanted to do was get out of the cattle business. So Jim said he wasn't interested in those cows, those 39 head, but Albert and Rainy might be interested.
So I said, okay, I will sell Albert and Rainy those 89 cows, which they did purchase.

[T7] The Renner/Gould lease of the Ranch ended on November 1, 2008, after a dispute arose concerning the equipment to be used in working the Ranch property. As that lease was ending, the Goulds signed a bill of sale, dated October 8, 2008, which [968]*968returned fifty-seven head of cattle to the Ranch.

[T8] After the Renner/Gould lease ended, Mr. Ochsner focused on selling the ranch. At that time, Mr. Gould approached Mr. Ochsner with the idea of partnering with a potential investor by the name Tom Eldrich. Mr. Ochsner reached an agreement with Mr. Gould and Mr. Eldrich whereby the Ranch would purchase a couple hundred head of cattle, and Mr. Eldrich would make a $200,000.00 contribution that would allow him to receive half of the proceeds from the future sale of any yearlings. Mr. Ochsner described the arrangement:

Q. What was Mr. Gould's agreement involving you and Mr. Eldrich?
A. Jim was going to work for Mr. Eld-rich, and the responsibilities for Mr. Eld-rich was to pay all the expenses, pay Jim's salary, and my contribution to provide all-provide the ranch.
@. And who was going to own the cattle?
A. Flying River Ranch was going to own all the cattle.

[19] The arrangement with Tom Eldrich ended by the end of 2009, after Mr. Gould expressed concerns to Mr. Ochsner that Mr. Eldrich was not paying him regularly or fulfilling his other obligations. Mr. Ochsner ended the arrangement by returning Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 WY 101, 354 P.3d 965, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 117, 2015 WL 4640416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gould-v-ochsner-wyo-2015.