Schleicher v. TA Operating Corporation ( 2009 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 08-1212
FRED SCHLEICHER, JR.,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
TA OPERATING CORPORATION; BRAD ERKSON,
Defendants - Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of West Virginia, at Wheeling. Frederick P. Stamp,
Jr., Senior District Judge. (5:06-cv-00133-FPS)
Submitted: February 20, 2009 Decided: March 23, 2009
Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Ronald William Kasserman, KASSERMAN LAW OFFICES, PLLC, Wheeling,
West Virginia, for Appellant. C. David Morrison, Jill O.
Florio, STEPTOE & JOHNSON PLLC, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for
Appellees.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Fred Schleicher, Jr. (“Schleicher”), appeals the
district court’s adverse grant of summary judgment, following
discovery, and dismissal of his civil action against his former
employer, TA Operating Corporation (“TA”) and Brad Erkson
(“Erkson”), in which he alleged fraudulent inducement relative
to a job at which Schleicher worked for one day before quitting.
The facts surrounding the interview process and events leading
up to Schleicher’s leaving the job are well known to the
parties, were set forth in detail by the district court in its
memorandum opinion and order, and thus will not be recounted
here. On appeal, Schleicher claims the district court erred in
its dismissal of his complaint on summary judgment, asserting
that there existed genuine issues of material fact concerning
the nature of his job title and/or duties and whether he would
have any weekends free to exercise visitation with his son.
We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment
de novo, construing the facts in the light most favorable to the
nonmoving party. Holland v. Washington Homes, Inc., 487 F.3d
208, 213 (4th Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 955 (2008).
Summary judgment “should be rendered if the pleadings, the
discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits
show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and
that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
2
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). “[T]here is no issue for trial unless
there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a
jury to return a verdict for that party. If the evidence is
merely colorable, or is not significantly probative, summary
judgment may be granted.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477
U.S. 242, 249-50 (1986). With these standards in mind, we have
reviewed the parties’ briefs and the record, and find no
reversible error.
As a preliminary matter, the district court properly
held that, under West Virginia law, Schleicher was required to
prove his fraudulent inducement claim by clear and convincing
evidence. See Tri-State Asphalt v. McDonough Co., 182 W. Va.
757, 762, 391 S.E.2d 907, 912 (1990) (quoting Calhoun County
Bank v. Ellison, 133 W. Va. 9, 54 S.E.2d 182 (1949)). 1 It is
insufficient to establish fraud based on promissory statements
or statements of intention, and actionable representation must
constitute more than “mere broken promises, unfulfilled
predictions or expectations, or erroneous conjectures as to
1
To prevail on a claim for fraudulent inducement under West
Virginia law, a plaintiff must show: “(1) that the act claimed
to be fraudulent was the act of the defendant or induced by him;
(2) that it was material and false; (3) that [the] plaintiff
relied upon it and was justified under the circumstances in
relying upon it; and (4) that [the plaintiff] was damaged
because he relied upon it.” Lengyel v. Lint, 167 W. Va. 272,
276-77, 280 S.E.2d 66, 69 (1981). See also Kidd v. Mull, 215 W.
Va. 151, 156, 595 S.E.2d 308, 313 (2004).
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future events . . . even though a party acted in reliance on
such promise.” Janssen v. Carolina Lumber Co., 137 W. Va. 561,
570, 73 S.E.2d 12, 17 (1953). A presumption always exists in
favor of honesty and innocence in any given instance, and the
burden is on the individual alleging fraud to prove it by “clear
and distinct evidence.” White v. National Steel Corp., 938 F.2d
474, 490 (4th Cir. 1991).
While Schleicher takes issue with the title, duties,
and conditions of the position to which he was hired, none of
the acts of which he complains meet the essential elements for
fraudulent inducement under West Virginia law. Specifically,
Schleicher admits that he was to report to the Jessup, Maryland
location until his training in Virginia began. While he
complains of the tasks he was given, the schedule he was to
work, and the lack of training he received on his first day of
work, he terminated his employment prior to anyone having the
opportunity to discuss his concerns with him, or to rectify any
misunderstandings or miscommunications that may have occurred.
The evidence reveals that a multi-stage, detailed and
comprehensive General Manager training program lasting at least
two months was planned for Schleicher, which program had not yet
been communicated to Schleicher prior to his quitting his job.
Schleicher also claims he was fraudulently induced to
accept a job other than the General Manager in training job he
4
was promised. However, the evidence demonstrates that
Schleicher had, in fact, been hired as a General Manager in
training, as expressed in the employment offer letter he was
given by TA, that he was being compensated as such, and that the
training program for which he was scheduled was set up to train
him as a General Manager. To support his claim of fraudulent
inducement, Schleicher points to the facts that Spencer, the
existing General Manager of the Jessup location, gave him menial
duties his first day and believed that he had been hired as her
assistant. 2 However, the evidence demonstrates that these
actions were not directed by TA or Erkson, and Schleicher did
not discuss these concerns with Spencer or give Erkson or TA the
opportunity to rectify Spencer’s misunderstandings. 3 Such
2
As Schleicher was under the impression that he eventually
was going to be replacing Spencer as the General Manager of the
Jessup location, he could not have relied upon her
characterization of his job, his title, or the duties of his
employment to support any claim that he relied upon a material
and false act.
3
Schleicher admits he received and failed to return
Erkson’s return telephone call on what would have been
Schleicher’s second day of work, in which Erkson intended to
discuss with Schleicher the concerns he raised in his call to
Erkson the evening before.
Moreover, while Schleicher contends that a legitimate
mistake does not negate a cause of action for fraud, citing Kidd
v. Mull, 215 W. Va. 151, 157, 595 S.E.2d 308, 314 (2004), a case
involving commercial real estate, Kidd, as well as the other
cases relied upon by Schleicher in his Appellate Brief, are
distinguishable because they involve commercial sales. As this
(Continued)
5
misunderstandings by Spencer do not establish fraud by TA or
Erkson. 4 See Janssen, 137 W. Va. at 570, 73 S.E.2d at 17.
Further, with regard to the fact that Spencer had
prepared a schedule for Schleicher that had him working on
Saturdays, that schedule was inconsistent with the schedule
prepared by the training manager, and more importantly, was not
inconsistent with Erkson’s promise to Schleicher that TA would
court noted in White, where plaintiffs allege fraud by their
employers by failing to inform them of various material facts
affecting their employment, there is “no indication that West
Virginia would have [the Court] adopt a legal doctrine developed
in the context of commercial sales and apply it within
employment relationships in such a way that non-disclosure on
the part of an employer operates as constructive fraud and
disclosure operates as a binding unilateral contract.” White,
938 F.2d at 490.
4
Nor can Erkson’s hope to make Schleicher a “Co-General
Manager” at some indeterminable point in the future be said to
constitute fraud, as the district court correctly found. The
record evidence established, though Schleicher’s own admissions,
that the subject of Schleicher being made a Co-General Manager
never came up in any of his discussions with Erkson prior to
September 19, 2005. Moreover, there is no dispute that, at the
time Erkson hired Schleicher, there was no such position as a
“Co-General Manager,” nor was there any program approved by TA
for placing two general managers in one location. Hence,
Schleicher cannot establish that a material and false
representation was made by Erkson relative to the Co-General
Manager title, especially given the fact that Schleicher
concedes that the first time he heard anything about the
possibility that there might be two General Managers at the
Jessup site was during his unemployment compensation hearing on
December 15, 2005, nearly three months after he left his job
with TA.
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“work with” Schleicher to allow him to have some free weekends. 5
Schleicher provided no evidence whatsoever that TA or Erkson
ever promised that he would have every weekend, any specific
weekend, or even the first weekend off from work so he could
visit his son. Nor did the one day Schleicher worked provide
TA, Erkson, or even Spencer with the opportunity to “work with”
Schleicher on his schedule.
Hence, we find no error by the district court in its
determination that Schleicher failed to establish, by clear and
convincing evidence, that any of TA or Erkson’s actions were
intended to fraudulently induce Schleicher to accept the job
with the company. As the district court held, what is clear is
that the parties may have experienced a number of
misunderstandings, miscommunications, and confusion regarding
Schleicher’s training and employment conditions, but these do
not constitute fraudulent inducement under the applicable law.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s grant of
summary judgment and the dismissal of Schleicher’s complaint.
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
5
This promise was included in the stipulation of facts
submitted to the district court prior to its ruling on the
summary judgment motion.
7
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the
court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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