Domjan v. Faith Regional Health Services

Summary

The Supreme Court of Nebraska reviewed a breach-of-contract dispute between Daniel Domjan, M.D., and Faith Regional Health Services involving recruitment, medical-direction, and promotional agreements. The court held that the jury instructions improperly characterized Domjan as an employee and applied an incorrect termination standard, creating prejudicial error. It reversed and remanded for a new trial on specified contract claims and the counterclaim, while leaving the Promotional Agreement judgment undisturbed.

Holdings

1. The jury instructions, taken as a whole, were misleading and confused the jury by incorrectly characterizing Domjan as an employee and by applying a good-cause employment-termination standard rather than the contractually agreed material-breach-or-default standard.
2. Faith Regional was entitled to a new trial on Domjan's claims for breach of the Recruitment Agreement and Director Agreement and on Faith Regional's counterclaim for breach of the Recruitment Agreement.
3. The court did not reach Domjan's assignments of error because the disposition of Faith Regional's cross-appeal was dispositive.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court abused its discretion by denying Faith Regional's motion for a new trial on Domjan's Recruitment Agreement and Director Agreement claims and Faith Regional's counterclaim.
2. Whether jury instructions using employment terminology and a good-cause employment-termination standard, rather than the parties' independent-contractor relationship and material-breach termination provision, were misleading and prejudicial.
3. Whether the court needed to reach Domjan's assignments concerning the damages retrial and attorney fees.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded