Opinion ID: 458572
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Twin Disc's Motion for Judgment N.O.V.

Text: 21 In its cross-appeal, Twin Disc alleges that the district court erred in denying its motion for judgment n.o.v. based on insufficient evidence that Big Bud's losses were caused by Twin Disc's late delivery of transmissions. The Wisconsin standard for granting judgment n.o.v. on grounds of insufficient evidence 4 is codified at Wis.Stat. Sec. 805.14(1), which provides that 22 [n]o motion challenging the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of law to support a verdict, or an answer in a verdict, shall be granted unless the court is satisfied that, considering all credible evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is made, there is no credible evidence to sustain a finding in favor of such party. 23 See also Robison v. Lescrenier, 721 F.2d 1101, 1103 (7th Cir.1983) (applying Wisconsin standard). Twin Disc claims that there was no credible evidence that Twin Disc's delayed delivery of transmissions caused Big Bud to lose any sales because Big Bud always had a sufficient number of completed tractors to sell to its retail customers. Even if Big Bud did lose sales, Twin Disc argues that there was no evidence that Twin Disc caused the lost sales because the decline in Big Bud's sales was due to other factors such as the recession in the farm equipment market, high interest rates, inflation, President Carter's grain embargo, and Big Bud's internal personnel problems and bad manufacturing practices. Twin Disc also alleges that the jury's award of $1.1 million in damages was not supported by the evidence. 24 With regard to whether Big Bud lost any sales at all, we believe that there was credible evidence that Big Bud suffered some lost sales in 1979 and 1980. In addition, there was evidence that Twin Disc's delays were a substantial factor in causing those lost sales despite the evidence that other factors may have also contributed to or exacerbated Big Bud's problems. See Reiman Associates, Inc. v. R/A Advertising, Inc., 102 Wis.2d 305, 320-22, 306 N.W.2d 292, 300-01 (Wis.App.1981) (standard for causation is that the party seeking to recover for breach of contract must show that the breach was a substantial factor in causing that party's losses). There was also credible evidence supporting the amount of the jury's award. In sum, our review of the record and the briefs in this case leads us to conclude that, considering all of the credible evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to Big Bud, there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict and award of damages. We therefore affirm the district court's denial of Twin Disc's motion for judgment n.o.v.