Barnett

MEMORANDUM *

Cigna Health Plan of Arizona (“Cigna”) dismissed Doctor Francis Barnett pursuant to a clause in the employment agreement which Cigna believed allowed it to terminate Barnett without cause with 120 days’ notice. Barnett sued for breach of contract (and federal causes of action not at issue in this appeal) arguing that the employment agreement incorporated Cigna’s physician tenure policy which only allowed Cigna to terminate tenured physicians for cause.

The district court concluded that the contract was ambiguous, and that a reasonable fact finder could conclude that Cigna had breached the contract with Barnett. The jury found that Cigna had breached the contract. Cigna appeals, arguing that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, that one of the jury instructions was erroneous and that the law of the case required the district court to hold that Barnett could be fired without cause.

Whether a party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law is a question of law reviewed de novo. Lawson v. Umatilla County, 139 F.3d 690, 692 (9th Cir. 1998). When the district court exercises pendant jurisdiction over state claims the court applies substantive state law.…