Opinion ID: 432296
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Complex Damage Computation

Text: 17 The district court held that in light of the confused history of the present case, [a]n accurate computation of damages by a jury hearing a consumers' claim ... would be a computational nightmare. Shamrock fleshes the argument out stating the problem as attempting to sort out what portion of the retail price was caused by a wholesale conspiracy, what portion by a retail conspiracy, and what portion by other factors. 18 The consumers point out, however, that they have abandoned any attempt to prove a wholesale price-fixing conspiracy against Shamrock. Indeed, they offer to prove that there were no wholesale overcharges at all, thus removing at least one of the complicating factors. We believe that the concern in Illinois Brick was tracing a wholesale overcharge through an intermediary and allocating the retail price between an unlawful wholesale overcharge and market forces. These are not the concerns in the present case. Confronted with a similar situation, the court in In re Mid-Atlantic Toyota stated: 19 The principal of these policy factors, avoidance of tracing complexities, is inapposite when a dealer/distributor co-conspiracy is alleged. The injury suffered by the automobile purchasers through the effectuation of a voluntary co-conspiracy such as this can be determined by computing the retail price of a Toyota automobile but-for the alleged price fix, and subtracting that total from the actual purchase price. No other damage calculation would appear to be necessary on these allegations and no apportionment of passed-through overcharges is required. While such a calculation would appear to be a simple one, even if it is complex it would not be the type of complexity that the Illinois Brick Court was concerned with. 20 516 F.Supp. at 1295. 21 Thus, there is no need in the present case for the complicated allocation of an illegal overcharge sought to be avoided in Illinois Brick for the same reason that there is no risk of duplicative recovery. The consumers confine their claim for damages for dairy products purchased from grocery stores solely to that overcharge resulting from a retail level price-fixing conspiracy. There is no need to apportion that overcharge because it was not passed on to the consumers through any other level in the distribution chain. We hold that the policy considerations identified in Illinois Brick do not apply to the consumers' allegations of a conspiracy between the grocery stores and Shamrock to fix the retail price of those products. We must now address, however, whether the district court correctly concluded that the consumers are estopped from relying on such a conspiracy.