Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/321/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 05:45:58+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 401 › Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc.
the trial court was required to take into account any prejudice that Zenith would have suffered as a result, see Kanelos v. Kettler, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 136-137, n. 15, 406 F.2d 951, 954-955, n. 15 (1968); United States v. 7 Bottles, More or Less, 320 F.2d 564, 573-574 (CA3 1963); Caddy-Imler Creations v. Caddy, 299 F.2d 79, 84 (CA9 1962); 3 J. Moore, Federal Practice ¦ 15.08 (2d ed.1968), and here the prejudice to Zenith would have been substantial. Zenith's theory that all of its damages suffered during the four-year period were legally recoverable had been made quite clear during the trial, and Zenith had proved up its damages in accordance with that theory. Meanwhile HRI had neither pleaded its defenses, objected to Zenith's evidence, nor otherwise hinted that post-1959 damages caused by pre-1959 conduct were for any reason barred until long after the record had been closed. To have then sustained HRI's defenses would have been to deny Zenith the opportunity to prove its recoverable damages -- a denial that hardly comports with the letter or the spirit of Rule 15(a). At the very minimum, if the defense of limitations or release was to be entertained and deemed to bar that part of Zenith's damages resulting from the lingering consequences of past acts, Zenith would have been entitled to perfect its proof as to damage resulting from pool operations during the four-year period, as well as to prove, if it could, what damages it might have suffered in the future from those acts. To have permitted Zenith to perfect its proof would, of course, have required reopening of the record and a virtual retrial of the issue of damages.
Locklin v. Switzer Bros., 299 F.2d 160, 169-170 (CA9 1961); Gas Ridge, Inc. v. Suburban Agricultural Properties, Inc., 150 F.2d 363, 366, rehearing denied, 150 F.2d 1020 (CA5 1945); 6A J. Moore, Federal Practice ¦ 59-04 (2d ed.1966). But the record is clear that he refused to reopen with respect to damages in the Canadian market or otherwise to modify the Canadian judgment, and that he thereby rejected HRI's proffered defenses. Although we are not privy to his unexpressed thinking, and although his refusal can be read as a rejection of the defenses on the merits, it can also be read as a holding that the defenses were, in effect, waived by the untimeliness of their presentation, and hence that the pleadings would not be amended, except as a matter of form, and that the trial would not be reopened.

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