Kemmerer

MEMORANDUM **

Plaintiff-Appellant Leslie Kemmerer appeals the grant of summary judgment to Defendant-Appellee Starwood Hotels Resorts & Worldwide, Inc. (“Starwood”). We affirm.

For purposes of summary judgment, this case concerns an oral contract made on May 7, 1997, between Plaintiff-Appellant Kemmerer and Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Defendant-Appellee Starwood. Kemmerer sought out Sternlicht to propose an acquisition idea. Before Kemmerer disclosed the idea, Sternlicht agreed to pay him a fee of 1% of the acquisition price should Starwood use the idea. Kemmerer then disclosed the idea that Starwood should acquire ITT Sheraton, which had been subject to a hostile takeover bid by Hilton five months earlier. Starwood eventually did acquire ITT Sheraton in November of 1997.

*2 In its motion for summary judgment, Starwood introduced evidence that it had been in discussions with ITT Sheraton about the possibility of combining the two companies since shortly after Hilton’s hostile takeover bid. Kemmerer introduced nothing to controvert this evidence. The district court, in granting Starwood’s motion for summary judgment, held that no genuine issue of material fact existed that would…