Opinion ID: 480588
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Treble Damages Against The Estate of Arthur Wirtz

Text: 157 Defendants also argue that the trial court erred in trebling the antitrust damages assessed against Arthur Wirtz's estate. The district court noted that there were cases in other jurisdictions to the effect that the death of a defendant abated a plaintiff's claim for treble damages, but the court declined to follow them. Those cases, mostly quite old, are based on the notion that treble damages are exclusively penal in character and should not be assessed when the malefactor is no longer around to learn his lesson. However, as the district court noted, Damages Opinion, 594 F.Supp. at 892, treble damages in antitrust suits were provided in part for punitive purposes ... but also to make the remedy meaningful by counterbalancing 'the difficulty of maintaining a private suit....'  Bowl-O-Mat, 429 U.S. at 486 n. 10, 97 S.Ct. at 696 n. 10, quoting 21 Cong. Rec. 2456 (1890); see also American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Inc. v. Hydrolevel Corp., 456 U.S. 556, 574-76, 102 S.Ct. 1935, 1946-47, 72 L.Ed.2d 330 (1982); Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720, 746-47, 97 S.Ct. 2061, 2074-75, 52 L.Ed.2d 707 (1977). In view of these Supreme Court statements, we believe that the analysis of the district court was correct. The better rule is that, particularly under the precise circumstances before us, the award of treble damages did not abate upon the death of Arthur Wirtz.