Today's Nevada Supreme Court Opinions - a Win for Wynn
Two published opinions today, one involving the tort of conversion, and the other addressing the Wynn tip distribution dispute:
In Winchell v. Schiff, , the Nevada Supreme Court held that damages for conversion of inventory may include not only the value of the converted property itself, but also resulting damages, such as the value of a lost business. In this case, the plaintiff’s stored inventory went missing. The loss of the inventory led to the demise of the business. The Court upheld the jury’s award that included damages for the lost business, as well as the value of the property itself.
In Baldonado v. Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn ran the table in the tip distribution dispute. The Nevada Supreme Court, sitting en banc, held
(1) NRS 608.160, which prohibits employers from taking employee tips, does not create a private cause of action to enforce its terms. The statute requires the Nevada Labor Commissioner to administratively resolve disputes arising under the statute and creates an adequate administrative remedy, , precluding a finding that the legislature intended to create a private cause of action.
(2) Employees who allege that the statute’s terms were violated by an employment policy do not have standing to seek declaratory relief to that effect, as, again, the statute creates an adequate remedy.
(3) A unilateral change to an employment policy does not give rise to a viable breach of contract claim absent an actual employment contract. The dealers were at-will employees, and therefore, the employer had the right to prospectively change the terms of the employment.
