Opinion ID: 406814
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility of Dr. Ozanne's Testimony

Text: 45 Monsanto claims that because Dr. Ozanne admitted he was not an expert in all the fields of study on which he relied in preparing his damage testimony, the district court erred in permitting him to testify as an expert. 46 An expert must be qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education. Rule 702, Fed.R.Evid. The district court is vested with broad discretion to determine whether a proffered expert is qualified to testify. We will reverse the court's ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony only upon a clear showing of abuse of discretion. United States v. West, 670 F.2d 675 (7th Cir. 1982); United States v. Dellinger, 472 F.2d 340 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 970, 93 S.Ct. 1443, 35 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973). Monsanto has failed to make such a showing. 47 Dr. Ozanne is qualified as an expert. He is a recognized marketing expert. Greene v. General Foods Corp., 517 F.2d 635, 660 (5th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 942, 96 S.Ct. 1409, 47 L.Ed.2d 348 (1976). He testified that he obtained his doctorate in business administration from Indiana University in 1967; his major was marketing and his minors were economics, management, and international business. He has published articles concerning procedures for computing business damages. He has consulted concerning forecasting sales, expenses, and profits, and he has testified about these subjects in other cases. Although Dr. Ozanne is not an expert in computers, regression analysis, statistics, economics, econometrics, or cost accounting, he is trained to use these methods. Moreover, he testified that marketing analysts constantly use these methods. Tr. at 3005-07. The fact that Dr. Ozanne is not an expert in all the fields of studies on which marketing analysts regularly rely does not make him obviously unqualified in light of his other credentials and experience. California Steel & Tube v. Kaiser Steel Corp., 650 F.2d 1001, 1003 (9th Cir. 1981). 48 Monsanto claims that the district court erred in admitting Dr. Ozanne's testimony because his opinion was not based on facts as required by rule 703 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Dr. Ozanne testified that Spray-Rite's damages were caused by Monsanto's conspiracy to fix the resale price of Monsanto products and to boycott Spray-Rite. He testified that the conspiracy was the only event of substance that affected Spray-Rite's business after 1968. He admitted, however, that any other events of substance necessarily would have affected the accuracy of his damages projection if they had occurred. Monsanto claims that the evidence at trial indicated that other events of substance did occur after 1968, including an industry increase in interbrand and intrabrand competition. Monsanto argues that Dr. Ozanne's damage opinion is not based on facts because he failed to consider the effect of these other events of substance, and, thus, his testimony should have been excluded. Moreover, Monsanto argues that Dr. Ozanne's testimony should have been excluded because he improperly included in his damages calculation Spray-Rite's post-1972 loss of customers who never purchased Monsanto products. 49 Several herbicide distributors, including Donald Yapp, testified that a distributor needed to carry all brands of herbicides because dealers and farmers wanted to buy all their herbicides from one seller. Monsanto, of course, disagrees. Nevertheless, this was a fact in evidence upon which Dr. Ozanne could properly base his damage calculation. Similarly, Dr. Ozanne could properly conclude that no other events of substance occurred and rely on the causes of damage he cited. Dr. Ozanne's failure to consider the effect of factors Monsanto argued he should have considered reflects on his credibility, but it does not make his testimony inadmissible. 50 Finally, Monsanto argues that the district court should have excluded Dr. Ozanne's testimony because Spray-Rite cannot recover damages for the destruction of its entire business. Monsanto relies on Trabert & Hoeffer, Inc. v. Piaget Watch Corp., 633 F.2d 477 (7th Cir. 1980), in which we noted that (t)he favored method of ascertaining damage in antitrust litigation is to consider only that product line or market in which the plaintiff suffered injury rather than plaintiff's entire business. Id. at 483 (citations omitted). In Trabert & Hoeffer, however, the plaintiff's entire business was not destroyed by the defendant's unlawful termination of Trabert & Hoeffer's Piaget distributorship. If the defendant's unlawful conduct causes the plaintiff to go out of business, the plaintiff is entitled to recover the full amount of that loss. Shor-line Rambler, Inc. v. American Motors Sales Corp., 543 F.2d 601 (7th Cir. 1976). 11