Ohio Veterans & Fraternal Charitable Coalition, Inc. v. Charitable Mgt. & Capital Group, L.L.C.

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 1191

Syllabus

Judgment affirmed in part; reversed in part. The parties' contract required appellee to pay appellant two percent of the income derived from electronic raffle machines operating \Raffle 3.0 or other legal upgraded charitable electronic games.\ The trial court did not err by finding the plain and unambiguous meaning of the term \legal\ in the contract meant conformance with statutory laws. Because the electronic raffle machines operating the Raffle 2.0 software did not comply with the charitable gaming laws in R.C. Ch. 2915, the Raffle 2.0 machines were not \legal\ charitable electronic games. Therefore, the two percent fee described in the contract did not apply to the machines operating Raffle 2.0. Appellee admitted it breached the parties' contract by failing to pay appellant two percent of its gross revenue from the machines operating the Raffle 3.0 software and claimed the damages resulting from the breach totaled $581.17. However, the evidence appellee presented demonstrated the damages resulting from the Raffle 3.0 machines totaled $2,375.89. As such, we found genuine issues of material fact regarding the damages resulting from appellee's admitted breach of contract and reversed, in part, the trial court's decision granting appellee's motion for summary judgment. Because the trial court did not address the parties' arguments regarding the meaning of a term in the contract, this court would not address the arguments in the first instance on appeal. The trial court did not err by granting appellee summary judgment on appellant's claim for an accounting.