Matrix Business Consulting, Inc. v. Gregory Manufacturing Company

Case Summary: 12-cv-00119

Plaintiff Matrix Business Consulting, a Colorado corporation, is suing Defendant Gregory Manufacturing Company, an Iowa corporation, in the Southern District of Iowa for breach of contract. Plaintiff claims federal jurisdiction based on diversity of the parties and seeks monetary damages.

In April 2010, Defendant’s building, which was insured against loss by a third party insurance company, suffered fire damage. Defendant contracted with Plaintiff for public adjusting services related to the resulting claim. The contract provided that Plaintiff would not receive a fee unless the total claim exceeded $1 million. Defendant eventually recovered $989,062 for the fire loss. According to Plaintiff, Defendant voluntarily accepted less than the $1 million threshold to avoid paying the contract fee and therefore violated the written contract and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the court should decide, as a matter of law, that Defendant did not violate the written contract or covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The court granted the motion in part, entering summary judgment dismissing the claim of written contract breach. But the court found that genuine fact issues on the good faith claim require jury trial on that issue alone.

This video shows the November 14, 2013 hearing on Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

Case Highlights

• Complaint filed 9/28/2012 (Doc #1)
• Defendant filed Motion for Summary Judgment 09/16/2013 (Doc #9)
• Plaintiff’s Response to Motion for Summary Judgment 10/10/2013 (Doc #10)
• Motion hearing held 11/14/2013 (Doc #16)
• Order granting in part and denying in part the motion 11/15/2013 (Doc #15)

Case-related documents, including those referenced above, are available via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service. For more information, visit Pacer.gov.