COPELAND CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHOICE FABRICATORS INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee., 345 Fed. Appx. 74

Summary

Plaintiff and defendant entered into a three-year contract in which defendant would be the sole supplier of steel parts that plaintiff used in its products. A dispute arose after defendant sought to surcharge the parts sold to reflect increased costs. Plaintiff filed a lawsuit for breach of contract, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of defendant finding on a special verdict that there had been a valid modification to the contract. The district court denied plaintiff's motion for judgment as a matter of law under Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b). The court rejected plaintiff's assertion that the Ohio Uniform Commercial Code Statute of Frauds, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 1302.04, barred modification of the contract so that judgment as a matter of law was warranted. The court found that the evidence of record supported a finding that the parties had modified their agreement and the modifications comported with § 1302.04, based in part on e-mail correspondence between the parties that referenced an...