Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-5_15-cv-00982/USCOURTS-cand-5_15-cv-00982-2/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 490
Nature of Suit: Cable/ Satellite TV
Cause of Action: 47:553 Communications Act of 1994

---

1

Case No.: 5:15-cv-00982-EJD

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

SAN JOSE DIVISION

J & J SPORTS PRODUCTIONS, INC.,

Plaintiff,

v.

ISMAEL OCAMPO, a/k/a ISMAEL 

OCAMPO-GOMAR

Defendant.

Case No. 5:15-cv-00982-EJD 

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S 

MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND 

JUDGMENT

Re: Dkt. No. 19

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff J & J Sports Productions, Inc. (“Plaintiff”) alleged in this case that Defendant 

Ismael Ocampo (“Defendant”), also known as Ismael Ocampo-Gomar and doing business as El 

Chiloko Restaurant, illegally intercepted and broadcasted a sports event without obtaining a 

license from Plaintiff. On September 20, 2015, the court entered a default judgment against

Defendant in the total amount of $2,650. Plaintiff now moves to alter or amend the default 

judgment, in part, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e). Dkt. No. 19. Plaintiff contends

the court was either “clearly in error” or failed to consider material facts when it granted relief. 

Post-judgment motions like this one have become routine in these cases. Their number 

does not correlate with their success, however. In the end, Plaintiff’s arguments constitute nothing 

more than a complaint about the amount of damages awarded in the default judgment. Such a 

complaint does not justify relief under Rule 59(e). This motion will therefore be denied. 

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) may be granted on the following 

grounds: “(1) if such motion is necessary to correct manifest errors of law or fact upon which the 

Case 5:15-cv-00982-EJD Document 20 Filed 03/07/16 Page 1 of 5
2

Case No.: 5:15-cv-00982-EJD

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

judgment rests; (2) if such motion is necessary to present newly discovered or previously 

unavailable evidence; (3) if such motion is necessary to prevent manifest injustice; or (4) if the 

amendment is justified by an intervening change in controlling law.” Allstate Ins. Co. v. Herron, 

634 F.3d 1101, 1111 (9th Cir. 2011). 

A successful Rule 59(e) motion is an exception, not the norm, because it “offers an 

extraordinary remedy, to be used sparingly in the interests of finality and conservation of judicial 

resources.” Kona Enters., Inc. v. Estate of Bishop, 229 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2000). Indeed, 

“[a] motion for reconsideration under Rule 59(e) ‘should not be granted, absent highly unusual 

circumstances, unless the district court is presented with newly discovered evidence, committed 

clear error, or if there is an intervening change in the controlling law.’” McDowell v. Calderon, 

197 F.3d 1253, 1255 (9th Cir. 1999) (en banc) (quoting 389 Orange St. Partners v. Arnold, 179 

F.3d 656, 665 (9th Cir. 1999)). 

III. DISCUSSION

Plaintiff believes the court committed error when it (1) awarded damages under 47 U.S.C. 

§ 553 rather than 47 U.S.C. § 605, and (2) awarded statutory damages of $1,450 because, in 

Plaintiff’s opinion, that amount is “insufficient,” does not “address the necessity of deterrence,”

and does not “comport with the suggestion of the Ninth Circuit.” These arguments, made 

previously by similar plaintiffs, are still unpersuasive.

A. § 553 v. § 605

Plaintiff argues it should have been awarded damages under §605, which applies to 

satellite interceptions, rather than § 553, which applies to cable interceptions, based on what it 

terms the “Northern District approach” to these circumstances. According to Plaintiff, “where a 

violation of section 605 is limited to satellite and a violation of section 553 is limited to cable, an 

allegation of a violation of section 605, by definition, alleges a satellite interception,” which the 

court should just accept as true when upon defendant’s default. 

Whether or not they constitute some sort of “approach” in this district, the rulings of other 

district judges will not suffice to meet Plaintiff’s burden to show clear error under Rule 59(e),

Case 5:15-cv-00982-EJD Document 20 Filed 03/07/16 Page 2 of 5
3

Case No.: 5:15-cv-00982-EJD

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

particularly when the court addressed the issue now raised on reconsideration. Here, the court

explained in the order granting Plaintiff’s motion for default judgment why damages would be 

awarded under § 553 instead of § 605. Claims under both sections were pled in the Complaint, yet 

Plaintiff could only be awarded damages under one. See J & J Sports Prods. v. Ro, No. 09-CV02860, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21425, at *8, 2010 WL 668065 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 19, 2010). And 

Plaintiff notably failed to provide any information supporting its contention that Defendant 

intercepted a satellite transmission rather than a cable transmission. In fact, Plaintiff conceded that 

its investigator was unable to determine the exact means of interception at El Chiloko Restaurant. 

In recognition of the law and the facts presented to it, the court chose the statute that best fit the 

circumstances described in the material supporting Plaintiff’s motion rather than basing the

decision on unadorned allegations in a pleading. 

Moreover, this court has already explained why programming distributors like Plaintiff

should not rely on DirecTV, Inc. v. Webb, 545 F.3d 837 (9th Cir. 2008), to bolster the position 

that unsubstantial, one-size-fits-all allegations in a skeletal complaint should be deemed true on 

default. See Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Lorenzana, No. 5:13-cv-05925 EJD, 2014 U.S. Dist. 

LEXIS 154973, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 31, 2014). While it is correct that Plaintiff “need not 

directly prove the means of surreptitious interception in the face of ‘sufficiently persuasive’

circumstantial evidence,” no such “sufficiently persuasive” evidence was presented in this case. 

Id. All that Plaintiff submitted was a declaration from an investigator who, understandably after 

spending only seven minutes in El Chiloko Restaurant, was unable to provide any information

about the means of interception. That is simply not enough, even when a defendant defaults. 

Furthermore, Plaintiff could have made this exact argument in its motion for default 

judgment, but did not. It is not entitled to do so now. See Kona Enters., Inc., 229 F.3d at 890 (“A 

Rule 59(e) motion may not be used to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when 

they could reasonably have been raised earlier in the litigation.”).

For this case, awarding damages under § 553 was not a manifest error of law or fact. 

Case 5:15-cv-00982-EJD Document 20 Filed 03/07/16 Page 3 of 5
4

Case No.: 5:15-cv-00982-EJD

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

B. Amount of Damages

Plaintiff argues the amount of statutory damages awarded will not serve to deter signal 

piracy, which it deems a “primary goal.” Plaintiff reasons that “[a] total statutory damages award 

of $1,450, which represents a premium of $250 over the actual cost of the Program is not an 

effective deterrent.” This court has previously rejected similar arguments. See Lorenzana, 2014 

U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154973, at *5-6; see also Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Munoz, No. 5:13-cv05926 EJD, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8100, at *3-4, 2015 WL 351378 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 23, 2015). It 

rejects it again here. 

For this case, the court awarded Plaintiff total statutory damages of $1,450, which 

amounted to $250 under § 553(c)(3)(A)(ii) and $1,200 under § 553(c)(3)(B). The court explained 

that only the minimum amount permitted by § 553(c)(3)(A)(ii) was justified “because Plaintiff did 

little if anything to develop the record.” It also found that $1,200 for enhanced damages under § 

553(c)(3)(B), which represented the value of the commercial license, “properly account[ed] for the 

broadcast’s impact on Plaintiff and is sufficient [to] deter future conduct by Defendant and other 

similarly situated establishments.” 

Given the fact the court explicitly considered the judgment’s deterrent effect as well as the 

value of Plaintiff’s loss when ordering statutory damages, the instant argument is merely a 

disagreement with the decision. It does not warrant relief under Rule 59(e). United States v. 

Westlands Water Dist., 134 F. Supp. 2d 1111, 1131 (E.D. Cal. 2001) (“A party seeking 

reconsideration must show more than a disagreement with the Court’s decision . . . . To succeed, a 

party must set forth facts or law of a strongly convincing nature to induce the court to reverse its 

prior decision.”). No error has been shown, let alone one that requires reversal. 

Nor is the default judgment inconsistent with dicta from Kingvision Pay-Per-View Ltd. v. 

Lake Alice Bar, 168 F.3d 347 (1999). While the Ninth Circuit mentioned “five figure judgments”

in Lake Alice Bar, it did not mandate or approve such awards in every case. To the contrary, that 

case more importantly teaches that the “range in the statutory award might allow for a sanction 

that deters but does not destroy.” 168 F.3d at 350. The court heeded that instruction in this action. 

Case 5:15-cv-00982-EJD Document 20 Filed 03/07/16 Page 4 of 5
5

Case No.: 5:15-cv-00982-EJD

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

Finally, the court must comment on Plaintiff’s opinion that only sizeable judgments in 

signal piracy cases provide sufficient compensation or have a deterrent effect. Aside from the fact 

that no supporting evidence was submitted outside of statements from other district court orders, 

this opinion demonstrates some degree of blindness to who Plaintiff sued in this case and others. 

Defendant is not a national chain but a local restaurant that was little more than half full when 

Plaintiff’s investigator visited. As the court observed, there was no evidence that Defendant 

displayed the program for commercial or private financial gain. In light of these characteristics, 

the court simply cannot accept that the amount of damages ordered against Defendant creates a 

disincentive for him and other comparable small businesses to comply with the law. No matter 

how Plaintiff may argue the point, compliance is still much less costly for those similarly situated

to Defendant. 

IV. ORDER

The Motion to Alter or Amend the Judgment is DENIED. The hearing scheduled for 

March 10, 2016, is VACATED. 

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: March 7, 2016

______________________________________

EDWARD J. DAVILA

United States District Judge

Case 5:15-cv-00982-EJD Document 20 Filed 03/07/16 Page 5 of 5