Opinion ID: 772978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Appellants' Motion for a New Trial or to Amend the Judgment

Text: 59 The appellants contend that the district court erred in denying their motion for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(a) or to amend the judgment pursuant to Rule 52(b). The appellants raised several grounds before the district court for revising the judgment, including the discovery of allegedly new evidence regarding the initial use of the trademark and an assertion that the appellees' attorney had committed misconduct and submitted false testimony. To establish that the district court abused its discretion in denying their motion for a new trial based on the newly discovered evidence, the appellants must show that they discovered the evidence after trial, that they could not have discovered the evidence sooner through the exercise of reasonable diligence, and that the new evidence is of such magnitude that it would likely have changed the outcome of the case. See Defenders of Wildlife, 204 F.3d at 929. 60 On appeal, the appellants identify two pieces of new evidence as sufficient to justify amending the judgment or permitting a new trial. First, the appellants presented evidence to the district court that Far Out Productions was not incorporated until October 1969. The district court properly rejected that argument, both procedurally, since the appellants could have obtained that evidence sooner, and substantively, because the precise date of Far Out Productions' incorporation is immaterial given that Goldstein could have owned the mark through his personal efforts or through the 1987 settlement contracts. See Diocese of Winona v. Interstate Fire & Cas. Co., 89 F.3d 1386, 1397 (8th Cir. 1996) (noting that a party seeking to amend a judgment under Rule 52(b) cannot raise arguments that could have been raised prior to the issuance of the judgment); Wallis v. J.R. Simplot Co., 26 F.3d 885, 892 n.6 (9th Cir. 1994) (noting that a trial court is under no obligation to consider evidence that was either in the parties' possession at the time of summary judgment or could have been discovered with reasonable diligence). 61 The other piece of new evidence is an article, apparently not presented to the district court, describing WAR's first commercial performance in June 1969. In the appellants' view, the article is documentary proof that the group made first commercial use of the mark before Far Out Productions was incorporated, thereby vesting the members of the band, not the appellees, with ownership of the mark. 62 Like the appellants' new evidence of Far Out Productions' incorporation date, the article is insufficient to establish that the district court abused its discretion in denying the appellants' motion for a new trial. As a procedural matter, it is not clear that the appellants may properly raise the article as new evidence. They have not shown that they discovered the evidence after trial or that they could not have discovered the evidence sooner through the exercise of reasonable diligence. Indeed, the appellants could have submitted declarations of their own describing the group's first commercial use of the name WAR to support their claim to first use. 63 Moreover, the article is simply immaterial. The article, which labels the group as Eric Burdon's War, merely describes the group's performance. The article is consistent with Goldstein's declaration regarding the early formation and management of the group and does not call into question the appellees' claim that the band members were hired as employees to serve as backup for Burdon. The article might be pertinent if there were two competing groups claiming that they were the real WAR and the article identified which group first made commercial use of the mark. However, since this dispute is between individuals who used the name together, the article is of little significance in resolving which party owns the trademark, let alone of such magnitude that its production would have changed the outcome of the case. Moreover, the article does not (and could not) say anything about the subsequent contracts in which the band members assigned their interests in the trademark to Far Out Productions. 64 The district court therefore did not err in denying the appellants' motion for a new trial. The appellants' other asserted bases for a new trial--attorney misconduct and false testimony--have no support in the record submitted on appeal.