Quantum Cooking Concepts, Inc. v. LV Associates, Inc.

Appellants LV Associates, Inc., Royal Range of California, Inc., and Laxminarasimhan Vasan (collectively LV Associates), appeal from a judgment awarding $1 million damages to Quantum Cooking Concepts, Inc., and Philip Gonzales (sometimes collectively Quantum), and from orders denying motions for a new trial and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. We affirm.

*929 Background

Quantum’s operative pleading alleged causes of action seeking damages from LV Associates based on breach of contract, fraud, and a dozen other theories of contract and tort liability. Quantum’s theory of the case was that while working at Royal Range of California, Inc. (a company that he had helped to found with his ex-wife’s husband), Gonzales had designed and developed a new type of barbeque grill and a commercial vertical broiler. 1 He planned to leave the company, which was then struggling for survival, in order to start his own business and to obtain certification for his products, all with the cooperation of the company’s then owner, Mr. Robert Spenuzza.

When LV Associates, Inc., took over Royal Range of California, Inc., in 2003, its new owner, Mr. Vasan, acknowledged Gonzales’s rights…