 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Salazar v. Coastal Corp.6/20/1996
Reversed and Remanded and Opinion filed
June 20, 1996.
O P I N I O N
This appeal from a summary judgement in a suit arising from the termination of an agency relationship presents the questions of whether Texas law should be applied to govern the parties' agreement, whether material fact questions exist, and whether discovery was properly denied. Appellant, Carlos Salazar ("Salazar"), sued appellees, the Coastal Corporation ("TCC"), and its subsidiaries, Coastal States Trading, Inc. ("CSTI"), and Coastal Petroleum Marketing N.V. n/k/a Coastal Petroleum N.V. ("CPNV"), after CSTI terminated Salazar's agency relationship with it in Ecuador. The trial court granted summary judgment for appellees, and Salazar appeals in three points of error. We reverse and remand.
Salazar began acting as CSTI's legal representative in Ecuador in 1986. He entered into an agreement with Mobile Bay Refining Company ("Mobile Bay"), which acted as CSTI's general agent in Latin America. Mobile Bay's contract with CSTI expired in mid-1990. On July 9, 1990, CSTI and Salazar entered an agency agreement, executed in Miami, Florida, continuing Salazar's services for CSTI ("the agency agreement"). Salazar was to receive a monthly retainer of $1,500, to be recovered from commissions paid to him based on $.03 per barrel of crude or refined petrochemical products that were sold to or purchased from Ecuador's government-controlled oil company, PetroEcuador. CSTI notified PetroEcuador that Salazar would continue as its local representative in Ecuador.
The agency agreement provided for an initial term of six months, and it could be renewed from year to year or cancelled by either party on thirty days written notice. It is undisputed that no renewals were entered. It is also undisputed that after the initial six-month period, the parties continued to operate under the terms of the agency agreement with respect to Salazar's compensation. Both parties continued the agency relationship until February 18, 1992, when CSTI notified Salazar that it decided to "wind up its operations in Ecuador," and the agency relationship would terminate in thirty days. The day before, on February 17, TCC requested and received authorization from PetroEcuador for CPNV to be permitted to respond to PetroEcuador's tender offers on TCC's behalf. After Salazar's agency was terminated, TCC began doing business in Ecuador through CPNV. Salazar filed suit alleging breach of contract, quantum meruit, tortious interference, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, constructive fraud, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, conspiracy and promissory estoppel. He also claimed that all of the Coastal entities were alter egos of one another. Salazar alleged that the terms of his agreement were orally modified to include a promise that he would remain the agent for any and all of the Coastal companies so long as any Coastal company did business in Ecuador. He claimed that his termination was a "charade" to "dump" him and avoid compensating him for the value of his services. He contended that Coastal falsely told him none of its companies would be doing further business in Ecuador. Salazar asserted that approximately two months after his agency terminated, as a result of his efforts, CPNV obtained a contract with PetroEcuador for 12,000 barrels per day and appellees refused to pay the commissions owed to him.
Appellees moved for summary judgment, and Salazar requested the trial court to take notice of and apply Ecuadorian law. Responses to both motions were filed, and both motions were denied by Judge Eileen O'Neill on December 27, 1994. On January 12, 1995, shortly before the trial setting, the new presiding judge of th
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Texas Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|