Runyon v. Kubota Tractor Corp.

653 N.W.2d 582, 8 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 471, 2002 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 239, 2002 WL 31519684
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 14, 2002
Docket01-0711
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 653 N.W.2d 582 (Runyon v. Kubota Tractor Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Runyon v. Kubota Tractor Corp., 653 N.W.2d 582, 8 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 471, 2002 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 239, 2002 WL 31519684 (iowa 2002).

Opinions

NEUMAN, Justice.

This dispute is over a $3979 deduction taken from an employee’s bonus check. The question is whether Iowa Code chapter 91A (1999), our wage payment collection law, governs the controversy and, if so, whether the deduction violated section 91A.5(2)(c), which prohibits deductions for “[ljosses due to ... default of customer credit.”

The district court determined, as a matter of law, that chapter 91A applies to this dispute. So the factual debate over the nature and purpose of the deduction was submitted to the jury. But, relying on this court’s holding in Dallenbach v. Mapco Gas Products, Inc., 459 N.W.2d 483 (Iowa 1990), the court decided that in no event were liquidated damages recoverable by the employee.

The employer now appeals the judgment entered on the jury’s verdict for the employee, and the employee cross-appeals on the liquidated damages issue. Finding no error warranting reversal, we affirm on both appeals and remand for an award of appellate attorney fees.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

The pertinent facts are largely undisputed but the inferences to be drawn from them are hotly contested. Because this case was tried at law, “we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party in whose favor the verdict was rendered.” Condon Auto Sales & Serv., Inc. v. Crick, 604 N.W.2d 587, 593 (Iowa 1999). We are not bound, of course, by the district court’s legal rulings. With these principles in mind, we turn to the record before us.

In 1977 the plaintiff, Jake Runyon, was hired by the defendant, Kubota Tractor Corporation, as a regional sales manager. Kubota, a California corporation, manufactures high-quality compact tractors.

Runyon, who resided in Des Moines when he was hired, was assigned to a territory covering Iowa, Nebraska, and northern Missouri. He moved to Missouri in 1982 but has retained responsibility for the performance of nine dealerships in Iowa. He regularly visits the dealerships, keeps in contact by telephone, and attends trade shows here.

[584]*584Runyon’s compensation package with Kubota includes a fixed annual salary, a guaranteed commission based on sales, and a discretionary “Management by Objective” (MBO) bonus. Roughly seventy percent of Runyon’s commissions are based on sales in Missouri, with the remaining thirty percent resulting from sales to Nebraska and Iowa dealers. As a Missouri resident, Runyon files and pays his income taxes there.

Kubota’s financial relationship with its dealers is pertinent to the parties’ dispute over Runyon’s bonus for 1999. Essentially, Kubota extends credit to its dealers to finance the cost of all tractors and inventory on hand at the dealerships. The dealer “owns” the products but is not required to advance the cost to Kubota until a customer makes a purchase. Once the dealer receives payment, it must pay Kubota the dealer cost. When a tractor is sold but the dealer either cannot or will not pay Kubo-ta, the product is considered “sold out of trust” (SOT). Kubota regards SOTs as a serious threat to asset management and thus considers them when calculating bonuses due under its MBO compensation plan.

In January 2000, Kubota issued Runyon a check for his 1999 MBO bonus of $19,895. The record reveals that Runyon would have been entitled to a bonus of $26,526 but for two deductions, only one of which is at issue here. Not in controversy is a reduction of $2653 for Runyon’s low market share in the sale of small-horsepower tractors. At issue is a $3979 deduction for four SOTs occurring at dealerships in Iowa and Missouri. The sum represents a fifteen percent reduction in the bonus to which Runyon would have otherwise been entitled.

Runyon sued Kubota for breach of contract and violation of the Iowa Wage Payment Collection Law, Iowa Code chapter 91A. Following discovery, he dismissed his breach of contract claim. By motion for summary judgment, and again at trial, Ku-bota asserted that it was not an “employer” and Runyon was not an “employee” as those terms are defined in section 91A.2. The district court rejected the argument, holding the statute applied to the issue in controversy. The court further held, over Kubota’s objection, that a jury question existed as to whether its deduction for SOTs in Runyon’s territory stemmed from “[ljosses due to ... default of customer credit,” a deduction prohibited by section 91A.5(2)(e). The jury found in Runyon’s favor on this point and the court rendered judgment against Kubota for $3979 plus attorney fees and costs totaling $30,004.64. This appeal by Kubota, and cross-appeal by Runyon followed.

Further facts will be detailed as they pertain to the issues on appeal.

II. Issues on Appeal.

A. Constitutional claim. At the outset Kubota claims the court committed an error of constitutional magnitude when it applied chapter 91A to “non-Iowa employers, such as Kubota, and non-Iowa employees, such as Plaintiff.” Kubota fails to mention, however, how or where this constitutional claim was raised in the trial court. See Iowa R.App. P. 6.14(l)(f) (requiring reference in the brief to “how the issue was preserved for review ... [and] places in the record where the issue was raised and decided”). Although Kubota’s and Runyon’s, status as persons governed by chapter 91A is an important statutory issue on appeal, the record convinces us that Kubota’s constitutional challenge has not been preserved for our review. We deem the issue waived and, accordingly, give it no further consideration. See Martin v. Raytheon Co., 497 N.W.2d 818, 820 [585]*585(Iowa 1993) (constitutional arguments waived if not urged in trial court).

B. Applicability of Iowa’s Wage Payment Collection Law. The real question is whether Runyon is entitled to the protection and enforcement of Iowa Code chapter 91A. Kubota asserts that “[p]lain-tiff is not a statutory ‘employee’ and Kubo-ta is not a statutory ‘employer’ under the Wage Payment Collection [Law].” Its argument rests on the straightforward assertion that “[s]urely the legislature did not intend for the Act to apply to employees when the employer is not located in Iowa, the employee does not reside in Iowa, and the employee is not paid in Iowa.” Runyon counters that the governing statute, section 91A.2, renders irrelevant the criteria cited by Kubota. He frames the question this way: “Did the Iowa Legislature intend for employees who were hired in Iowa and required by their employers to work in Iowa on a regular, ongoing, and substantial basis to be unprotected by the Wage Payment Collection Law?”

Like the district court, we are convinced that Runyon has the better argument. We have observed that the purpose of chapter 91A is to “facilitate collection of wages by employees.” Condon Auto Sales, 604 N.W.2d at 596. A bonus meets the statutory definition of “wages.” Dallenbach, 459 N.W.2d at 488. The statute defines “employee” as “a natural person who is employed in this state for wages by an employer.” Iowa Code § 91A.2(3).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
653 N.W.2d 582, 8 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 471, 2002 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 239, 2002 WL 31519684, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/runyon-v-kubota-tractor-corp-iowa-2002.