Ventura v. Titan Sports, Inc.

65 F.3d 725
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 11, 1995
DocketNos. 94-3103, 9A-3235
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 65 F.3d 725 (Ventura v. Titan Sports, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ventura v. Titan Sports, Inc., 65 F.3d 725 (8th Cir. 1995).

Opinions

MAGILL, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises out of a match between wrestler/commentator Jesse “The Body” Ventura and Titan Sports, Inc., which operates “The World Wrestling Federation” (WWF). Titan appeals the district court’s judgment in favor of Ventura, arguing that (1) Ventura was not entitled to recovery under quantum meruit because an express contract covers the subject matter for which Ventura sought recovery; and (2) the district court erroneously admitted and relied upon the testimony of Ventura’s damages expert. Ventura cross-appeals the district court’s denial of prefiling interest. We affirm in all respects.1

I. BACKGROUND

During July 1984, Titan entered into a licensing agreement with L JN Toys authorizing L JN Toys to manufacture dolls using the images of WWF wrestlers. Titan also entered a “master licensing” agreement with DIC Enterprises that resulted in WWF T-shirts, trading cards, calendars, a computer game and numerous other items. In December 1984, Titan entered into a licensing agreement with A & H Video Sales (d/b/a [728]*728Coliseum Video) for the production of videotapes of WWF matches. Agreements with A & H and Columbia House resulted in the production of approximately ninety videotapes of WWF performances involving Ven-tura.

Ventura began wrestling for Titan in Spring 1984 under an oral contract with Vincent K. McMahon, Titan’s President and sole shareholder. In late 1984, Ventura suffered medical problems and ceased to work as a wrestler, although Titan continued to pay him during his convalescence. After Ventura recovered, he returned to work for Titan as a “color” or “heel”2 commentator under an oral agreement with Titan. He was paid a flat rate of $1000 per week and there was no discussion of videotape royalties or licenses. Shortly after returning to work for Titan, Ventura executed a ‘Wrestling Booking Agreement” (WBA) with an effective date of January 1, 1985. Ventura subsequently resumed wrestling for Titan, for which he was paid according to the terms of the WBA. In March 1986, Ventura terminated his relationship with Titan in order to pursue an acting career.

Ventura’s foray into movies was moderately successful, but in fall 1986 he returned to Titan as a commentator, again under an oral agreement that made no mention of videotape royalties or licenses. In fall 1987, Ven-tura hired Barry Bloom as his talent agent. Bloom negotiated on Ventura’s behalf with Dick Ebersol, Titan’s partner in producing the “Saturday Night’s Main Event” show. However, the negotiations quickly broke down, and as a result, the first show of the 1987-88 season aired without Ventura. A few weeks later, Titan’s Vice-President of Business Affairs, Dick Glover, contacted Bloom concerning Ventura and represented to Bloom that Titan’s policy was to pay royalties only to “feature” performers. Because Ventura was interested in working for Titan, Bloom thought it wise not to attempt to “break the policy.” Ventura returned to work for Titan under a new contract that waived royalties and continued to work as a commentator for Titan until August 1990. Since that time he has worked as a commentator for WCW, Titan’s main competitor.

In December 1991, Ventura filed an action in Minnesota state court seeking royalties for the use of his likeness on videotapes produced by Titan. The original complaint contained causes of action for fraud,3 misappropriation of publicity rights and quantum me-ruit. Titan removed the case to federal court, and the case was tried before a jury. Although only the quantum meruit claim was submitted to the jury, the jury was given a special verdict form concerning misrepresentation. Using this form, the jury found that Titan had defrauded Ventura and that $801,-333.06 would compensate Ventura for Titan’s videotape exploitation of his commentary. The jury also determined that Titan exploited Ventura’s name, voice or likeness as a commentator in other merchandise and concluded that $8,625.60 would compensate Ven-tura for this exploitation.

After the jury rendered its verdict, the district court concluded that Ventura was not entitled to a jury trial on his quantum meruit claim. Accordingly, the court vacated the jury verdict and entered findings of fact and conclusions of law that were consistent with the verdict. The court denied Ventura’s request for prefiling interest but granted prejudgment interest from the time the suit was filed. Titan appealed, and Ventura cross-appealed the denial of prefiling interest.

II. DISCUSSION

Titan raises three claimed errors on appeal. First, Titan argues that Ventura was not entitled to quantum meruit recovery of royalties for the videotape4 exploitation of his performance as color commentator during [729]*729the 1985-87 (pre-Bloom) period because Ven-tura provided his commentating services under an express contract. Second, Titan claims that the district court erroneously applied the law of quantum meruit when it rescinded an express contract and awarded Ventura royalties for the videotape exploitation of his performance as color commentator during the 1987-90 (post-Bloom) period. Third, Titan alleges that the district court abused its discretion in qualifying and relying upon Ventura’s expert witness in awarding damages. Ventura’s cross-appeal presents a single issue: whether the district court clearly erred when it denied Ventura’s request for prefiling interest. We address each of these issues in turn.

A. Is quantum meruit available during the pre-Bloom period?

Minnesota law determines the rights of the parties in this diversity action, and we review the district court’s interpretation of Minnesota law de novo. Salve Regina College v. Russell 499 U.S. 225, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 1221, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991). The basic contours of the law of quantum meruit, or unjust enrichment, are well settled under Minnesota law:

An action for unjust enrichment may be based on failure of consideration, fraud, mistake, and situations where it would be morally wrong for one party to enrich himself at the expense of another. However, a claim of unjust enrichment does not lie simply because one party benefits from the efforts or obligations of others, but instead lies where one party was unjustly enriched in the sense that the term ‘unjustly could mean illegally or unlawfully.

Hesselgrave v. Harrison, 435 N.W.2d 861, 863-64 (Minn.App.1989) (internal quotations and citation omitted). Although the applicable law is well settled, the facts of this case are rather unique and therefore require us to address some preliminary issues.

The first unique aspect of this appeal involves defining the benefit received (allegedly unjustly) by Titan. Titan makes much of the fact that Ventura provided no services for Titan other than pursuant to the Ventu-ra-Titan contracts. While it is true that the Ventura-Titan contracts governed all the services provided by Ventura (i.e., his acts of appearing at the wrestling match and commentating), the agreements do not necessarily address all the benefits created by Ventu-ra’s services. Ventura’s services created several varieties of intellectual property rights.

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Bluebook (online)
65 F.3d 725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ventura-v-titan-sports-inc-ca8-1995.