Opinion ID: 441800
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Damages for Costs Incurred in Defending the Gerard Patent Suit

Text: 72 Handgards presented evidence that it expended $225,000 in attorneys' fees and $85,000 in executive time to defend against the Gerard patent infringement suit from 1962 to 1971. The attorneys' fees amount, however, included money spent to defend against both the Gerard and the Orsini patents. Because Ethicon eventually prevailed on the Orsini patent, the district court properly instructed the jury to award only the amount related to the Gerard patent defense. Handgards revised its attorneys' fees damage claim to $205,000 and the entire amount was awarded by the jury. On appeal, Ethicon argues that the amount allocated to the Gerard patent was unsupported by the evidence. We disagree. 73 It is true that Handgards only presented recently prepared schedules of the attorneys' fees to show that it had expended $20,000 of $225,000 on the Orsini patent issue. It did so because the actual time sheets were accidently destroyed by the patent counsel's widow. Ethicon argues that the destruction of the best evidence along with Handgards counsel's prior statements charging $180,000 to the Orsini patent require the district court to dismiss the damages claim. Handgards responded by alleging that its current estimates were based on previously prepared monthly statements. It was only the daily time sheets that were destroyed. And, it acknowledged that its new antitrust counsel, who was unfamiliar with the case, made prior estimates that were unfounded. To support its figures, Handgards argued that the Orsini patent issue was dropped before it got to the discovery stage during the patent litigation. 74 The district court viewed Ethicon's objection at trial as an attack only on the reliability of Handgards' evidence, not its admissibility. Therefore, the jury was instructed to weigh both Ethicon and Handgards' estimates to arrive at the proper figure. We believe that this approach was proper. Courts faced with similar issues have normally left the effect of the destruction up to the jury. McCormick on Evidence Sec. 273, at 809-10 (E. Cleary 3d ed. 1984). See generally Oesterle, A Private Litigant's Remedies for an Opponent's Inappropriate Destruction of Relevant Documents, 61 Texas L.Rev. 1185, 1221-39 (1983) (discussing sanctions imposed during affected litigation). Thus, we affirm the jury's verdict of damages awarded for defense of the Gerard patent suit.