Mcgrath v. Zenith Radio Corp‪.‬

This case arises out of the July 1972 acquisition by Zenith Radio Corporation (Zenith or Zenith Radio) of the H. R. Basford Company (Basford), an electronic products wholesaler, and the November 1972 firing of plaintiff, Robert E. McGrath, Basford's vice-president. Alleging breach of contract, fraud, and violations of the securities laws, McGrath argued in the district court that his termination was wrongful because defendants had failed to fulfill a promise to appoint him president of the Zenith subsidiary upon the retirement of the then-current top executive. A six-person jury returned a verdict in plaintiff's favor for one million dollars in compensatory damages against all defendants and, in addition, returned separate verdicts against each defendant for punitive damages totaling another million dollars. On appeal to this court, defendants claim primarily that the evidence was insufficient under each of the three counts and that the respective measures of damages were inappropriate. While we reject the challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and find certain alleged errors not preserved for appellate review, we conclude that since there was no testimony as to how long it was probable that McGrath would continue as president of the subsidiary or would occupy a similar position with another company, the jury's award of compensatory damages for loss of future earnings was in part speculative. Plaintiff shall therefore have the option of accepting $1,300,000 in damages ($300,000 compensatory, $1,000,000 punitive) or submitting to a new trial on the question of damages only. Facts The defendants in this case are two corporations, Zenith and its subsidiary, Zenith Distributing of Northern California (Zenith Distributing), and two individuals, Amile J. Forni and Walter C. Fisher.