## Facts

- Dominic Quinn, a radio personality, entered a written employment agreement with Straus Broadcasting Group, Inc., owner of station WMCA, to host a weekday morning talk show in New York City.
- The contract provided a $50,000 first-year salary and contemplated renewals at higher amounts.
- Quinn began performing, but the station informed him that the program would cease being broadcast and that his services would no longer be needed after an announced end date, effectively terminating him before the contract term ended.
- Straus asserted it offered to pay Quinn the remaining balance of the first-year salary; Quinn rejected the offer.
- Quinn sued in diversity for $1.5 million total: (1) $500,000 for breach of the employment contract, (2) $500,000 for loss of professional opportunity from lost public exposure, and (3) $500,000 for reputational harm and public ridicule.

## Issues

1. Whether, under New York law, a $500,000 damages demand for breach of an employment contract with a $50,000 first-year salary is improper and subject to being struck under Rule 12(f).
2. Whether claims seeking additional damages for loss of professional opportunity and for injury to reputation and public ridicule state claims for relief in a wrongful-discharge action sounding in contract under New York law.

## Decision

- The court granted the Rule 12(f) motion in part, striking the first cause of action’s damages demand to the extent it sought recovery beyond legally permissible contract damages.
- The court granted the Rule 12(b)(6) motion and dismissed the second cause of action for loss of professional opportunity.
- The court granted the Rule 12(b)(6) motion and dismissed the third cause of action for reputational harm and public ridicule.
- The case could proceed, if at all, only on the first cause of action for traditional contract damages subject to mitigation.

## Legal Principles

- Under New York law, damages for breach of an employment contract are generally limited to the agreed wages and benefits for the contract period, reduced by amounts the employee earned or could have earned with reasonable diligence.
- Consequential damages in the form of generalized “loss of opportunity” to build a career or public reputation are not recoverable as separate items in a contract-based wrongful-discharge claim absent special circumstances.
- Damages for reputational injury, humiliation, or public ridicule are ordinarily not recoverable for breach of an employment contract; such harms, if actionable, typically require an independent tort theory.
- Rule 12(f) permits striking an excessive or legally unauthorized damages demand, and Rule 12(b)(6) permits dismissal where pleaded claims seek relief unavailable as a matter of law.

## Conclusion

The court applied New York’s contract-damages limits to a wrongful-discharge claim, confining potential recovery to the contract’s compensation (less mitigation) and rejecting standalone claims for lost professional opportunity and reputational injury as unavailable in a contract action.


Quinn v. Straus Broad. Grp., Inc., 309 F. Supp. 1208 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)