Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against defendant, a medical device manufacturing company, alleging that the defendant breached a distributorship agreement between the parties by failing to pay long-term commissions on its products, that defendant breached the distributorship agreement by re-branding products under a different name, and that the defendant refused to honor its obligation to pay long-term commissions. The trial court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on the latter two counts. It then denied the parties’ motions for summary judgment and allowed the first count to proceed to trial where the jury found in favor of the plaintiffs. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that the district court properly dismissed two counts of the distributors’ complaint, that summary judgment was not appropriate because the distributorship agreement was ambiguous, and that the trial record supported the jury’s verdict. (ROVNER and PRYOR, concurring)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Breach of Contract