Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. v. Marsh

977 F. Supp. 2d 890, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147545, 2013 WL 5603931
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedOctober 11, 2013
DocketNo. 1:09-cv-00458-SEB-TAB
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 977 F. Supp. 2d 890 (Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. v. Marsh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. v. Marsh, 977 F. Supp. 2d 890, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147545, 2013 WL 5603931 (S.D. Ind. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER ON PARTIES’ MOTIONS TO ALTER COURT’S ORDER ON POST-TRIAL CLAIMS

SARAH EVANS BARKER, District Judge.

This cause comes before the Court on three motions brought by the parties in response to the Court’s Order on Post-Trial Claims [Docket No. 294], issued on July 29, 2013, 2013 WL 3895228.1 These motions, which attempt to re-argue legal issues already settled by this Court as well as raising some new issues for our consideration, are titled as follows: (1) Defendant/Counterclaimant Don E. Marsh’s Motion for Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50(b) [Docket No. 310]; (2) Defendani/Counterclaimant Don E. Marsh’s Motion to Amend Judgment pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59(e) [Docket No. 312]; and (3) Plaintiff/Counterclaim-Defendant Marsh Supermarkets’ Motion to Amend Order on Post-Trial Claims and Final Judgment, also pursuant to Rule 59(e) [Docket No. 314].

We resolve the majority of the arguments raised in these motions in this Order, but we reserve discussion of arguments on the issue of attorneys’ fees and costs — raised in these and other motions by the parties — for separate consideration.

Procedural Background

We have outlined the facts of this case in numerous previous orders. See, e.g., Docket No. 136 (“Order Denying Motion for Summary Judgment”); Docket No. 294 (“Order on Post-Trial Claims”). We therefore present here only a brief introduction to the litigation’s current status.

Because this case involves issues of both law and equity, it was resolved partly by a jury verdict on the legal issues and partly by our post-trial order on the remaining equitable questions. See Docket No. 226. At the conclusion of a two-week trial, the jury returned a verdict on February 15, 2013, finding for Plaintiff Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. (“the Company”) on its claims for breach of contract and fraud against Defendant Don E. Marsh (“Mr. Marsh”) and awarding damages of $1,400,000 and $800,000, respectively. Docket No. 251 (Verdict), at 2-8. The jury also rejected Mr. Marsh’s counterclaim for fraudulent tax filing. Id. at 9.

[893]*893After briefing of the issues remaining post-trial by the parties, we resolved their claims and counterclaims in our July 29, 2013 Order, Docket No. 294, denying the Company’s claim for equitable relief by which it sought to avoid its contractual obligations to Mr. Marsh pursuant to ERISA § 502(a)(3), while granting Mr. Marsh’s counterclaim under ERISA § 1132(a)(1) for the full measure of his “salary continuation benefits” and other components of his ERISA plan.2 Id. at 32-33. We also ruled in Mr. Marsh’s favor on his counterclaim for breach of contract against the Company based on its failure to pay him the benefits owed under the contract. Id. at 33. Finally, we awarded attorneys’ fees: we allowed Mr. Marsh to recover the fees relating to his successful ERISA claim, and the Company to recover the fees relating to its successful breach of contract and fraud claims. Id. Both parties dispute nearly every aspect of the post-trial Order, and both, in particular, continue to dispute tenaciously our disposition of the mirror-image ERISA claims.

Legal Analysis

Standard of Review

1. Under Rule 50(b)

Mr. Marsh has renewed his motion for judgment as a matter of law on the Company’s breach of contract and fraud claims. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the Company on both claims.

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50 permits a court to issue judgment as a matter of law when “a party has been fully heard on an issue during a jury trial and the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue.” Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 50(a). Where, as here, the court elects to send an issue to the jury rather than grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the moving party is permitted to renew the motion in a timely fashion after the jury has reached its verdict. Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 50(b); see Neely v. Martin K. Eby Const. Co., 386 U.S. 317, 321, 87 S.Ct. 1072, 18 L.Ed.2d 75 (1967). The standard governing a Rule 50(b) motion “mirrors that employed in evaluating a motion for summary judgment” under Rule 56. Winters v. FruCon, Inc., 498 F.3d 734, 745-746 (7th Cir.2007). Thus, “the court construes the evidence strictly in favor of the party who prevailed before the jury and examines the evidence only to determine whether the jury’s verdict could reasonably be based on that evidence.” Passananti v. Cook County, 689 F.3d 655, 659 (7th Cir.2012) (citing Tart v. Ill. Power Co., 366 F.3d 461, 464 (7th Cir.2004)).

2. Under Rule 59(e)

A motion to amend or alter judgment under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59(e) can succeed only when it is established that the court had previously made a “manifest error of law or fact,” or newly discovered evidence mandates a different disposition than the one previously reached by the court. See Blue v. Hartford Life & Acc. Ins. Co., 698 F.3d 587, 598 (7th Cir.2012); Bordelon v. Chi. Sch. Reform Bd. of Trustees, 233 F.3d 524, 529 (7th Cir.2000). A Rule 59(e) motion is not “a vehicle for a party to undo its own procedural failures, and it certainly does not allow a party to introduce new evidence or advance arguments that could and should have been presented to the [894]*894district court prior to the judgment.” Moro v. Shell Oil Co., 91 F.3d 872, 876 (7th Cir.1996). Although the power to grant motions to amend or alter judgment lies within the Court’s sound discretion, “reconsideration of a prior order is an extraordinary remedy” that “must of necessity be used sparingly.” Taylor Woodrow Const. Corp. v. Sarasota/Manatee Airport Auth., 814 F.Supp. 1072 (M.D.Fla.1993).

Discussion

The crucial task before us here, as it has been throughout the long life of this litigation, is to identify the boundary between the rightful consequences of Mr. Marsh’s misconduct and the powerful statutory guarantees of ERISA. The parties’ arguments in opposition to the final post-trial order are poles on the continuum of which our ruling represents a considered balancing point. The Company presents us with a variation on the theme that has dominated its arguments for years — that in addition to recovering from Mr.

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977 F. Supp. 2d 890, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147545, 2013 WL 5603931, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marsh-supermarkets-inc-v-marsh-insd-2013.