Entertainment USA, Inc. v. Moorehead Communications, Inc.

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In 2006, Entertainment USA sold cellular telephones and service contracts in central Pennsylvania through a network of retail dealers. Moorehead, an Indiana company, sought to break into that geographic market by offering dealers the chance to sell Verizon products and services. Without counsel, the two companies signed a two‐page “referral agreement” connecting Moorehead with several Entertainment USA dealers. The agreement promised a “referral fee” for every Verizon activation or upgrade that resulted. Six years later, Entertainment alleged that Moorehead breached the agreement by discontinuing the referral payments. The district court agreed but found that Entertainment failed to prove the amount of its damages with reasonable certainty and awarded no damages. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Neither side’s estimate of damages contained citations to the docket or trial record, making verification of the underlying methods nearly impossible. Since the court’s liability findings did not accord with the assumptions built into any of the calculations, the parties left the court without reliable guidance in finding a supportable figure somewhere between $20,600 and $2.28 million. View "Entertainment USA, Inc. v. Moorehead Communications, Inc." on Justia Law