Opinion ID: 464876
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: evaluation of the general verdict

Text: 68 Having decided that the district court should have granted Syufy judgment n.o.v. on two of the four AMC claims submitted to the jury, we must now decide whether the jury verdict should nonetheless be upheld on the strength of either of the two surviving claims. As a rule, a general jury verdict will be upheld only if there is substantial evidence to support each and every theory of liability submitted to the jury. Sunkist Growers, Inc. v. Winckler & Smith Citrus Products Co., 370 U.S. 19, 29-30, 82 S.Ct. 1130, 1135-36, 8 L.Ed.2d 305 (1962). In Brocklesby v. United States, 767 F.2d 1288 (9th Cir.1985), this court was faced with a case submitted to the jury on three theories of liability: strict liability, breach of warranty, and negligence. Citing Sunkist, we held that the judgment must be reversed if any of the three theories is legally defective. 767 F.2d at 1294. Nevertheless, this court has also held that when one but not all of the theories submitted to the jury lacks evidentiary support, the reviewing court has discretion to construe a general verdict as attributable to another theory if it was supported by substantial evidence and was submitted to the jury free from error. Traver v. Meshriy, 627 F.2d 934, 938 (9th Cir.1980). We need not resolve this apparent conflict, because the general verdict in this case does not survive the test enunciated in Traver. 69 The factors to be weighed in exercising discretion were outlined in Traver as follows: 70 In deciding whether to exercise this discretion, the reviewing court should determine the potential for confusion of the jury which may have resulted from an erroneous submission of a particular claim or cause of action, whether privileges or defenses of the losing party apply to the count upon which the verdict is being sustained so that they would have been considered by the jury with reference to the count, the strength of the evidence supporting the count being relied upon to sustain the verdict, and the extent to which the same disputed issues of fact apply to one or more of the theories in question. 71 627 F.2d at 938-39. 72 Initially, we note that potential for confusion of the jury in the instant case was great. The jury was confronted with a complex case involving four distinct antitrust claims and multiple legal theories. Although many of the claims shared common issues of fact, each claim also involved distinctive legal and factual components. We believe there was a substantial risk of jury confusion resulting from the erroneous submission of the leverage theory and conspiracy to monopolize claim. 73 The next relevant factor under Traver v. Meshriy is the strength of the claims that were properly submitted to the jury. This factor also weighs against the exercise of our discretionary power to attribute the general verdict to one of the two claims--monopolization and attempted monopolization of the hardtop major film exhibition market--that were supported by substantial evidence. Our review of the evidence leads us to conclude that AMC's case against Syufy was marginal even with respect to these two theories. AMC relied almost exclusively on the conclusory opinion testimony of its own film buyer, Daniel Marks, to fill in crucial gaps in their evidence. Marks's conclusory testimony that Syufy was buying excessive clearances is hardly strong evidence of Syufy's willful maintenance of monopoly power. Moreover, his testimony that AMC suffered causal antitrust injury from excessive clearances was vague as well as conclusory. In fact, it barely qualifies as substantial evidence to support a jury finding on this critical element of AMC's case. Especially given the lack of supporting data with respect to specific theaters and films, we conclude that AMC did not present to the jury a strong case of either monopolization or attempted monopolization. Accordingly, we hold that this is not an appropriate case under Traver v. Meshriy for exercising our discretion to attribute the jury verdict to one of the two AMC claims that were properly submitted to the jury. 74