Citations
- 113 F. Supp. 2d 709
Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM
VANASKIE, Chief Judge.
Remaining pending in this action is the claim of P.C. Data Centers, Inc. (“P.C.Data”) that Federal Express Corporation (“FedEx”) breached its alleged contractual obligation to provide airbills to P.C. Data for entry into a computer database. The premise for P.C. Data’s breach of contract claim is the assertion that the parties’ written agreements required FedEx to provide a certain volume of airbills. P.C. Data claims that its damages should be calculated as follows: price to be paid by FedEx per airbill minus labor costs per airbill saved by P.C. Data multiplied by the alleged shortfall in guaranteed airbills, plus an expenditure of $950,000 made by P.C. Data for hardware and software needed to process FedEx airbills.
FedEx has moved for partial summary judgment, asserting that under Tennessee law, which governs the parties’ contractual relationship, damages for breach of contract are limited to “net profits,” so that P.C. Data’s indirect costs, or overhead, and the $950,000 expenditure must be eliminated from P.C. Data’s damage calculation. P.C. Data opposes the summary judgment motion, asserting that it is entitled to recover both the $950,000 expenditure and the damages calculated by taking the price per airbill less only the direct labor costs per airbill multiplied by the alleged airbill shortage.
Having carefully considered the record and the applicable law, I find that P.C. Data is entitled to claim the fixed overhead actually incurred and subsumed within its damage calculation, but is not entitled to recover as a separate item of damages the $950,000 expenditure for hardware and software purportedly devoted exclusively to the processing of FedEx airbills. Accordingly, the FedEx motion for partial summary judgment will be granted in part and denied in part.
Also pending before the Court is P.C. Data’s motion for a jury trial pursuant to Fed.R.CivJP. 39(b). Because P.C.Pa. properly demanded a jury trial and did not effectively withdraw its jury trial demand, P.C. Data is entitled to rely on that jury trial demand. Even if P.C.Pa. had effectively withdrawn its jury trial demand, discretion would be exercised under Fed. R.Civ.P. 39(b) to allow P.C. Data a jury trial. Accordingly, its motion for a jury trial will be granted.
1. BACKGROUND
It is undisputed that FedEx and P.C. Data are parties to a Data Entry Services Agreement (the “Agreement”) pursuant to which P.C. Data was to perform data entry services for FedEx. Under the Agreement, P.C. Data was paid a certain amount per airbill processed. FedEx terminated the Agreement in 1996. P.C. Data contends that the Agreement required FedEx to provide P.C. Data a certain volume of airbills for data entry services. P.C. Data alleges that FedEx breached the Agreement by failing to provide the guaranteed amount of airbills.
For the period May, 1993 through December, 1993, P.C. Data estimates a shortfall of 16 million airbills. It claims damages of 3.6