Ladd

Defendant and appellant Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (Warner), appeals a judgment on a jury verdict awarding plaintiffs and appellants Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter, L-K Producers Corporation, Ketram Corporation and Kanter Corporation (collectively, Ladd) $3,190,625 in damages. Warner also appeals the trial court’s orders denying its four motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV).

Ladd cross-appeals from the judgment, insofar as the trial court granted Warner’s motions for nonsuit on certain claims by Ladd.

Warner licensed packages of movies to broadcast television and cable networks. Ladd’s movies were included in those packages. In a practice known as “straight-lining,” Warner allocated the same share of the licensing fee to every movie in a package, regardless of its value to the licensee. The gravamen of Ladd’s action against Warner is that by allocating the same portion of the licensing fee to every movie in a package without regard to the true value of each movie, Warner deprived Ladd of a fair allocation of the licensing fees to which Ladd was entitled as a profit participant.

We hold that under the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,…