Filed: Sep. 10, 2014
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 13-2445 DAVID C. MARTIN, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. NAES CORPORATION, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Lynchburg. Norman K. Moon, Senior District Judge. (6:12-cv-00058-NKM-RSB) Submitted: August 29, 2014 Decided: September 10, 2014 Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Mary M. Spangler, LAW OF
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 13-2445 DAVID C. MARTIN, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. NAES CORPORATION, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Lynchburg. Norman K. Moon, Senior District Judge. (6:12-cv-00058-NKM-RSB) Submitted: August 29, 2014 Decided: September 10, 2014 Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Mary M. Spangler, LAW OFF..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 13-2445
DAVID C. MARTIN,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
NAES CORPORATION,
Defendant - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western
District of Virginia, at Lynchburg. Norman K. Moon, Senior
District Judge. (6:12-cv-00058-NKM-RSB)
Submitted: August 29, 2014 Decided: September 10, 2014
Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Mary M. Spangler, LAW OFFICE OF M.M. SPANGLER, Alexandria,
Virginia, for Appellant. Alison N. Davis, LITTLER MENDELSON,
P.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
David C. Martin filed suit in state court against his
employer, NAES Corp. (“NAES”), alleging breach of contract and
discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
(“ADEA”). NAES removed the action to federal court. The
district court initially granted summary judgment to NAES on
Martin’s ADEA claim but denied summary judgment on Martin’s
breach of contract claim. After completion of discovery,
however, the court granted NAES’s renewed motion for summary
judgment on the remaining breach of contract claim. Martin now
appeals, challenging the district court’s reliance on a transfer
letter as dispositive of his breach of contract claim. Finding
no reversible error, we affirm.
Martin worked as a technician at NAES, an energy
company that contracted with Dominion Power to provide services
at a power station located in Altavista, Virginia. Martin was
informed that his employment would be terminated, but was
offered severance. Martin was subsequently offered a job at
NAES’s Pittsylvania plant. The offer letter unequivocally
provided that by accepting the offer of transfer, previously
provided severance documents would become null and void. Martin
accepted both the transfer offer and the severance package on
the same day, noting that his acceptance of the transfer order,
requiring him to forgo his severance, was “under duress.”
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Martin subsequently filed suit claiming breach of contract and
seeking enforcement of the severance offer. In granting summary
judgment to NAES, the district relied heavily on the transfer
letter signed by Martin, finding that NAES’s offer of a transfer
to Pittsylvania specifically excluded Martin from eligibility
for the severance.
On appeal, Martin challenges the district court’s
reliance on the transfer letter on four grounds: (1) he was not
given an opportunity to respond to the district court’s finding
that the transfer letter was a separate contract, a claim not
raised by either party; (2) the court erred in treating it as a
stand-alone contract rather than a personnel action; (3) if the
letter is correctly viewed as a new contract, his notations
should be deemed a counteroffer and therefore there was no
meeting of the minds; and (4) the court erred in relying on a
letter that “has never been offered into evidence, has never had
a proper foundation for its introduction into evidence, and will
likely not withstand objections to its introduction.”
This court reviews the district court’s grant of
summary judgment de novo, viewing the facts and the reasonable
inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the
nonmoving party. See Robinson v. Clipse,
602 F.3d 605, 607 (4th
Cir. 2010). Summary judgment is appropriate when “the movant
shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact
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and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The relevant inquiry on summary judgment
is “whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to
require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that
one party must prevail as a matter of law.” Anderson v. Liberty
Lobby, Inc.,
477 U.S. 242, 251-52 (1986). An otherwise properly
supported summary judgment motion will not be defeated by the
existence of some factual dispute; however, only disputes over
facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the
governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary
judgment.
Id. at 248. Indeed, to withstand a motion for
summary judgment, the non-moving party must produce competent
evidence sufficient to reveal the existence of a genuine issue
of material fact for trial. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); see Thompson
v. Potomac Elec. Power Co.,
312 F.3d 645, 649 (4th Cir. 2002)
(“Conclusory or speculative allegations do not suffice, nor does
a mere scintilla of evidence in support of [the non-moving
party’s] case.”) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Under these standards, we have examined each of
Martin’s claims and conclude that they are meritless. The
district court correctly applied Virginia law to conclude that
the transfer letter constituted a superseding contract and that
no counteroffer existed. We further conclude that the transfer
letter was admissible evidence and was therefore properly
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considered by the district court in granting summary judgment to
NAES.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment.
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before
this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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