Source: https://openjurist.org/494/f2d/16
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 10:37:59+00:00

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HOUSEHOLD GOODS CARRIERS' BUREAU et al., Defendants-Appellants.
May 15, 1974, Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied June 18, 1974.
Melville C. Williams, Chicago, Ill., Jay H. Brown, Will G. Barber, Austin, Tex., for defendants-appellants.
Jack N. Price, Longview, Tex., Fred B. Werkenthin, Austin, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before GEWIN, GOLDBERG and INGRAHAM, Circuit Judges.
This odyssey began a decade ago when appellee John J. Terrell filed a private antitrust suit against appellant Household Goods Carriers' Bureau and ten of its individual carrier members charging violations of sections one and two of the Sherman Act and seeking treble damages under section four of the Clayton Act.1 Terrell complained that a conspiracy to restrain and monopolize commerce between the defendants and Rand McNally and Company, not named as a party, had destroyed his business of computing and selling national mileage guides. Their arduous and acrimonious journey has carried the adversaries through one libel and two antitrust trials, and now for the second time to this Court. Here, hopefully, their peregrinations will end.
Most of the details of this voyage have been previously logged,2 and need not be repeated here. The libel trial ended inconclusively with a hung jury and a settlement. The first antitrust trial resulted in a $375,000 jury verdict against both the Bureau and the individual carriers; the trial court entered judgment on the verdict against the Bureau and judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of the individual carriers. On appeal, a majority of the original panel vacated the judgment against the Bureau and remanded the case for a new trial.3 Upon rehearing en banc, a majority of this court affirmed the trial court's judgment against the Bureau on the issue of liability, but reversed for a new trial on the issue of damages. The subsequent trial on damages resulted in a jury verdict against the Bureau for $300,000, which the district court trebled. The Bureau appeals, and we affirm.
Given the length and bitterness of this controversy over the manufacture and sale of national mileage guides, it is certainly not surprising that the parties would disagree on nearly everything about it. For purposes of this appeal, however, they disagree most significantly, and most vehemently, over how to read the road map provided by this Court's previous en banc decision.
Appellant Bureau maintains that the en banc Court affirmed the initial jury determination that the Bureau had violated the Sherman Act, but commanded retrial on the twin issues of causation and the amount of damages. At the subsequent trial, appellant argues, the evidence on the issue of causation was insufficient to support the jury's verdict in favor of the plaintiff, and therefore the trial court erred in refusing the Bureau's motion for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
the 'law of the case' rule is based on the salutary and sound public policy that litigation should come to an end. It is predicated on the premise that . . . it would be impossible for an appellate court 'to perform its duties satisfactorily and efficiently' and expeditiously 'if a question, once considered and decided by it were to be litigated anew in the same case upon any and every subsequent appeal' thereof.
White v. Murtha, 5 Cir. 1967, 377 F.2d 428, 431.
The reach of the law of the case doctrine is not limitless. The better view, for example, is that even when applicable, the doctrine does not carry the same consequences as the rule of res judicata. See 1B Moore's Federal Practice P0.404(1) at 405-06 (2d ed. 1974). Thus the law of the case rule applies only to issues that were decided, and 'does not include determination of all questions which were within the issues of the case and which, therefore, might have been decided.' Id. at P0.404(10) p. 572, quoting from Connett v. City of Jerseyville, 7 Cir. 1940, 110 F.2d 1015, 1028. Nevertheless, the doctrine does mean that the duty of a lower court to follow what has been decided at an earlier stage of the case comprehends things decided by necessary implication as well as those decided explicitly. Id. at 573.
We have also made it clear that the doctrine is not an inexorable command that rigidly binds the court to its former decisions, but rather is an expression of good sense and wise judicial practice. White v. Murtha, supra, 377 F.2d at 431; Poster Exchange, Inc. v. National Screen Service Corp., 5 Cir. 1966, 362 F.2d 571, 574. See 1B Moore, supra, at 573-74. Some circumstances may warrant a re-examination of the earlier decision. For example, the evidence at a subsequent trial may be substantially different, of the controlling authority, in this instance the em banc court or the Supreme Court, may have made a contrary decision on the applicable law. White v. Murtha, supra, 377 F.2d at 432. Nevertheless, the general rule that an appellate court's decision of issues must be followed in all subsequent trial or intermediate appellate proceedings in the same case is waived for only the most cogent of reasons and to avoid manifest injustice. Id; Poster Exchange, supra; 1B Moore, supra, at 573-74; 9 Moore, supra, at 275.
The distinction between the fact of damage and the amount of damage is especially important in a case such as the one sub judice in which the injury to plaintiff may have been attributable to several factors, not all of which can be the basis for liability on the part of the defendant. In such a case the plaintiff need not prove that the defendant's wrongful actions were the sole proximate mate cause of the injuries suffered. He must show only, as a matter of fact and with a fair degree of certainty, that defendant's illegal conduct materially contributed to the injury.7 Once the important causal link between the actions of the defendant and the injury to the plaintiff has been established, the plaintiff may enter the more uncertain realm of evaluating the portion of the injury that may be attributed to the defendant's wrongful conduct.
Terrell showed the existece of the monopoly, the vigorous efforts of Household and Rand McNally to preserve that monopoly, that Terrell's directory, so often on the verge of success, was destroyed by his competitors and the monopoly remains intact to the disadvantage of the shipping public.
Household Goods Carriers' Bureau v. Terrell, 5 Cir. 1971, 452 F.2d 152, 160. The Court did, however, express its concern that in calculating the amount of Terrell's damages the jury might have been swayed by improper considerations and might have included elements of injury for which Terrell could not recover from the Bureau.
At the first antitrust trial Terrell attempted to show that certain wrongful actions of the Bureau and the co-conspirators had destroyed his business by preventing him from securing important government business and by causing Rocky Ford Van Lines, a former Bureau affiliate carrier who had switched to Terrell's guide, and the Oil Field Haulers Association (OHA), Terrell's first customer, to return to Bureau guides. A portion of Terrell's case rested on a letter, the subject of the libel suit, in which thr Bureau's executive secretary Wyche questioned the reliability and authenticity of Terrell's guides, intimated that use of the new guides might adversely affect the moving industry, and threatened to file a complaint and request for investigation with the I.C.C.
The trial court and the en banc Court agreed that the res judicata effect of the libel settlement barred Terrell from recovering any damages for the libelous nature of the Wyche letter. They also agreed that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine8 precluded recovery of damages for business lost as a result of attempts to influence the government officials in the Finance Center of the Department of Defense and the Defense Traffic Management Service. The en banc Court concluded, however, that the trial court's prophylactic measures, including a pretrial order and jury instructions, were inadequate 'to alleviate (the) very real danger that the jury would apply an improper measure of damages.' 452 F.2d at 157-158. After examining the size of the jury verdict and the other evidence on amount of damages, the Court was unable to overcome its feeling that the jury very possibly assessed damages for libel and the loss of the government business. In short, the Court was concerned, not with the fact of damage, but with the extent of damages where there were several contributing factors.
Our conclusion is that the en banc decision affirming the finding of liability was, and is, the law of the case on those issues.11 Appellant may not now complain of the insufficiency of the evidence on the issue of causation.
The scope of our inquiry on this appeal thus narrowed, we turn to the second phase of appellant's attack on the judgment below. Assuming arguendo that causation was proved, Bureau contends, the trial court erred in admitting the testimony and exhibits by which plaintiff sought to establish lost profits as a measure of damages12 because the expert evidence was based on assumed facts shown to be untrue and hence was too speculative. Terrell denies that the expert testimony was based on facts shown to be untrue, and argues that the court acted quite properly in admitting the challenged evidence.
Obviously Terrell's task of proving sales that he never made as a means of calculating his damages was a difficult one. Yet as we have already noted, the plaintiff's burden of establishing the amount of damages is less severe than his burden of proving the fact of damage. Very often the nature of the wrong makes ascertainment of the damages difficult; but the Supreme Court has emphasized that 'in such (a) case, while the damages may not be determined by mere speculation or guess, it will be enough if the evidence show(s) the extent of the damages as a matter of just and reasonable inference, although the result be only approximate.' Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Parchment Paper Co., 1931, 282 U.S. 555, 563, 51 S.Ct. 248, 250, 75 L.Ed. 544, 548. 'The jury may make a just and reasonable estimate of the damage based on relevant data . . .. In such circumstances 'juries are allowed to act on probable and inferential as well as (upon) direct and positive proof." Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., 1946, 327 U.S. 251, 264, 66 S.Ct. 574, 580, 90 L.Ed. 652, 660.
The indirect type of proof may include estimates based on assumptions, at least so long as the assumptions rest on adequate bases. Hobart Brothers Co. v. Malcolm T. Gilliland, Inc., 5 Cir. 1973, 471 F.2d 894, 902; Locklin v. Day-Glo Color Corp., 7 Cir. 1970, 429 F.2d 873, 879, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1020, 91 S.Ct. 584, 27 L.Ed.2d 632; Herman Schwabe Inc. v. United States Shoe Machinery Corp., 2 Cir. 1962, 297 F.2d 906, cert. denied, 369 U.S. 865, 82 S.Ct. 1031, 8 L.Ed.2d 85 (1962). Appellant complains that Bowles' expert testimony violated this stricture in several respects. First, Bowles incorrectly assumed that Rocky Ford Van Lines had been unable to use Terrell's guide competitively, and that had it been able to do so other household carriers would have bought Terrell's guide in order to compete effectively. Bowles was also ignorant of Terrell's lack of success in selling his guide to other rate bureaus, and therefore erroneously assumed these bureaus were Terrell's prime market. Finally, Bowles mistakenly assumed that Terrell could market at least twice as many guides every other year as the quantity revealed by the evidence.
Appellant has made a spirited attack on Bowles' testimony, and we have read the arguments with great care. Nevertheless, our reading of appellee's responses and our study of the record convinces us that the Bureau has not identified 'facts upon which Bowles based his testimony (that) have been proved by undisputed evidence to be untrue.' Brief for Appellant at 35. Rather, appellant has demonstrated that Bowles rested his estimates in part on facts that, though in dispute, could from the evidence be found in favor of Terrell and would support the assumptions on which Bowles' opinion evidence was based. See Autowest, Inc. v. Peugeot, Inc., 2 Cir. 1970, 434 F.2d 556, 566.
You should consider such expert opinion and should weigh the reasons, if any, given for it. You are not bound, however, by such an opinion. Give it the weight to which you deem it entitled, whether that be great or sleight, and you may reject it, if in your judgment the reasons given for it are unsound.
Under these circumstances we conclude that Bowles' expert testimony and the exhibits reflecting it were not impermissibly suggestive and were properly admitted by the trial court. Appellant has pointed to no persuasive reason for upsetting the jury's action, and we cannot find that the findings relating to damages are 'beyond the pale of sane judgment.' Hobart Brothers, supra, 471 F.2d at 903.
Despite the massive assault mounted by appellant, our review of the judgment below has been necessarily limited by the law of the case established previously by this court sitting en banc and by the weight that we must accord a jury's exercise of its responsibilities. Within the narrow field of vision allowed us, we have been unable to detect any significant flaws in the proceedings below. We emphasize that once the causation hurdle has been overcome, the expert on damages need not be armed on the right hand with a slide rule, on the left hand with a computer. He is allowed some economic imagination so long as it does not become fantasy. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
The case sub judice is altogether different. The first antitrust trial was not bifurcated, and the court's judgment was in no sense interlocutory. The en banc decision cast no doubt on the portion of the trial judgment imposing liability on appellant. Even if we were to conclude, which we most certainly do not, that the jury findings in the trial below on the fact of damage, or causation, were inconsistent with the earlier decision on liability, we could hardly decide that the en banc decision was subject to later revision, especially when nothing in that decision suggested a need to re-evaluate the issue of causation. And neither explicitly nor implicitly did the en banc Court indicate that appellant on re-trial would be free to show that its wrongful conduct caused no harm to Terrell.
We find nothing to the contrary in the principal cases cited by appellant in support of the 'going concern' argument. In Albrecht v. Herald Co., 8 Cir. 1971, 452 F.2d 124, for example, the court held that an antitrust plaintiff could not recover both the full present going concern value of his business and loss of future profits because the latter would be included in determining the former. The court also explicitly suggested that where there was no other clear evidence of the value of the business as a going concern, expected future profits might be the only reliable method of computing damages.

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