Wall Street Network, Ltd. v. New York Times Co.

In the underlying action for breach of contract and misrepresentation by appellant Wall Street Network Ltd. (WSN), the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of respondents New York Times Company (NYT), NETexponent, Chris Kramer, Jason Lerman, and Michael Keenan, and issued an award of attorney fees to respondents. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

There are no material disputes about the following facts: WSN is the assignee of Click2Boost, Inc. (C2B), which entered into an Internet marketing agreement with NYT dated May 10, 2002. Respondent Michael Keenan, who is NYT’s Web product manager, executed the agreement on behalf of NYT. Respondents Chris Kramer and Jason Lerman are employees of respondent NETexponent, which acted as NYT’s agent regarding the agreement. The agreement contained a provision entitling the prevailing party in litigation arising out of the agreement to an award of attorney fees and costs.

Under the agreement, C2B was to solicit subscribers for home delivery of The New York Times newspaper by means of “pop up ads” at Internet Web sites with which C2B maintained “[m]arketing [alliances.” According to C2B’s description of the Internet…