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Yearwood v. Southern Life Sys. Inc.

The defendant's former district manager was not entitled to receive continuing commissions on accounts he originated while working for the defendant.

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Southern Life Systems, Inc., was a distributor of medical equipment. When Southern’s customers bought certain reusable products, they became contractually obligated to make future purchases of disposable parts from Southern for a specified time period. Southern’s sales force was comprised of district managers. Under commission agreements with Southern, they were entitled to commissions based on the initial sale of the equipment and on later sales of parts. Brian Yearwood was a district manager. Following termination of his employment, Yearwood brought suit against Southern, complaining that it had converted commissions due him on sales of parts by selling its customer accounts to another company. Yearwood claims an entitlement to a pro rata share of the proceeds from the sale of the accounts.

Southern moved for summary judgment, arguing that Yearwood is not entitled to post-employment compensation because he was an at-will employee who was lawfully terminated. Yearwood moved for partial summary judgment on the question of whether the parties’ commission agreement entitled him to post-employment commissions. The trial court denied partial summary judgment to Yearwood and granted summary judgment to Southern, on the ground that Southern never promised or agreed to remit to Yearwood any monies received from the sale of the accounts.

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