Opinion ID: 1519009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the damages submission

Text: The jury found that 3M committed an independent breach of warranty with respect to each plaintiff in this suit. But the trial court's single damages submission, Question 13, did not distinguish the amounts the Nishika Plaintiffs should recover individually. Instead, Question 13 asked the jury to award one lump sum as damages for all four Nishika Plaintiffs. In our certification to the Minnesota Supreme Court, we inquired whether the Nishika plaintiffs could recover damages jointly as a single economic unit. The court held that the Nishika plaintiffs could not jointly recover damages for lost profits under Minnesota law, but acknowledged that Texas courts could better determine whether altering the damages award or a new trial is appropriate. Indeed, Texas procedural law governs our decision whether to render or remand this case. See Penny v. Powell, 162 Tex. 497, 347 S.W.2d 601, 602 (1961). In this connection, 3M contends that the Nishika Plaintiffs' failure to segregate their damages individually in the charge entitles it to a take-nothing judgment against all plaintiffs. Before we decide this question, however, we must discuss the Nishika Plaintiffs' argument that 3M waived its complaint.
As discussed in the Court's previous opinion, 3M objected to the form of the damages question, arguing that some of the Nishika Plaintiffs were prohibited as a matter of law from recovering and that the trial court would be unable to ascertain which plaintiffs would be entitled to an award. See 955 S.W.2d at 855. Contesting the Nishika Plaintiffs' single-economic-unit theory of recovery, 3M then specifically argued that the lump-sum damages question should be broken out as to each of the Nishika/LenTec plaintiffs. The court of appeals held that 3M waived any error because [t]he objection is not distinct. 885 S.W.2d at 623. However, from our review of the record, 3M repeatedly complained to the trial judge that American 3D and Nishika Manufacturing, the two plaintiffs who never dealt directly with or bought any products from 3M, had no standing to recover for breach of warranty. 3M's complaint, both in the trial court and in this Court, essentially was that no evidence supported a finding that American 3D and Nishika Limited could recover damages under Minnesota law. 3M's objection pointed out distinctly the nature of 3M's complaint about the damage question's form. Therefore, the objection was sufficient on its face to preserve error. See TEX.R.CIV.P. 274.
Because of the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision, we have agreed with 3M that Nishika Manufacturing and American 3D cannot recover damages under Minnesota warranty law. Accordingly, we render judgment that those two plaintiffs take nothing. But 3M asserts that we should also render judgment against Nishika Limited and LenTec, the plaintiffs who purchased and used 3M's goods, because no evidence supports the damages element of their warranty claims. In reviewing this complaint, we consider only the evidence and reasonable inferences supporting the jury's damages finding. Havner v. E-Z Mart Stores, Inc., 825 S.W.2d 456, 458 (Tex.1992). If more than a scintilla of evidence favors it, 3M's legal sufficiency challenge must fail. See Orozco v. Sander, 824 S.W.2d 555, 556 (Tex.1992). 3M does not dispute the jury's specific findings that it breached a warranty to both Nishika Limited and LenTec. Instead, 3M argues that the Nishika Plaintiffs' evidence that they lost $97 million in profits collectively as a result of this breach cannot support a damage award to any of the four businesses individually. Given the structure of the damages question, we cannot differentiate the amounts, if any, that Nishika Limited and LenTec should recover. But even though we agree that each plaintiff should recover only its own damages, 3M's rendition argument is inconsistent with this Court's recent authority. In Stewart Title Guaranty Co. v. Sterling, 822 S.W.2d 1 (Tex.1991), the trial court's charge did not segregate attorney's fees according to the costs of suing each individual defendant. As in this case, the court submitted the charge over Stewart Title's objection on the failure to segregate. Sterling, 822 S.W.2d at 10. Analyzing the argument for rendition, we noted that several court of appeals decisions supported this view. Nonetheless, we rejected the rationale for these decisions: that evidence on total attorney's fees without segregation is no evidence of segregated attorney's fees. Id. at 11. After concluding that the attorney's fees at issue were capable of segregation, we held that [e]vidence of unsegregated attorney's fees is more than a scintilla of evidence of segregated attorney's fees, i.e. what a reasonable attorney's fee would be for the entire case indicates what the segregated amounts should be. Id. at 12. Consequently, we remanded the issue to the trial court for further consideration. See also International Sec. Life Ins. Co. v. Finck, 496 S.W.2d 544, 546-47 (Tex.1973) (holding that attorney's-fee award erroneously based on evidence of unsegregated fees compels remand). In Texarkana Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Murdock, 946 S.W.2d 836 (Tex.1997), we applied the Sterling rule to remand a case involving unsegregated actual damages. There, the jury awarded the plaintiff $500,000 for past medical expenses, even though her evidence did not link that damage amount specifically to the defendant hospital's negligence. On appeal, the defendant raised a legal sufficiency challenge to the jury's damage award. After concluding from the evidence that the defendant caused at least some of the plaintiff's damages, we determined that the appropriate amount could be measured and proved with certainty by medical expert testimony. Id. at 840-41. Guided by Sterling, we remanded the cause to allow the plaintiff the chance to do just that. See id. at 841 (citing Sterling, 822 S.W.2d at 11). Applying Sterling and Murdock here, we conclude that remand is both appropriate and necessary. 3M expressly contends that the Nishika Plaintiffs' evidence of their total damages is no evidence of segregated damages, an argument we considered and rejected in Sterling. Under the rationale of that case, confirmed in Murdock, evidence of unsegregated damages among claims or parties is more than a scintilla of evidence of segregated damages. See Sterling, 822 S.W.2d at 12; see also Murdock, 946 S.W.2d at 841. Thus, although Nishika Manufacturing and American 3D cannot recover from 3M, the remaining Nishika Plaintiffs have carried their burden under the no-evidence standard of review. When supported by legally sufficient evidence, an unsegregated damages awardwhether in the form of attorney's fees or actual damages ordinarily requires a remand. Cf. Spencer v. Eagle Star Ins. Co., 876 S.W.2d 154, 158 (Tex.1994) (ordinarily, reversal for error in the charge requires a remand). Moreover, 3M has contended throughout this litigation that most of the $97 million in damages are attributable to two of the four Nishika Plaintiffs. This argument admits that the individual plaintiffs' damages are capable of segregation, a factor we also emphasized in remanding both Sterling and Murdock. The unsegregated damages that the jury awarded merely represent what the four Nishika Plaintiffs might have received collectively if they all could recover under Minnesota warranty law. Because the Nishika Plaintiffs presented legally sufficient evidence that 3M's breach of warranty caused them damages, Nishika Limited and LenTec should be afforded the opportunity to develop their specific damages evidence further. See Murdock, 946 S.W.2d at 841; Sterling, 822 S.W.2d at 11; see also Redman Homes, Inc. v. Ivy, 920 S.W.2d 664, 668-69 (Tex. 1996) (remanding case for new trial, even though jury charge did not distinguish between market value of real property and personal property, because plaintiffs presented legally sufficient evidence that they incurred some loss). A remand for a new trial solely on the damages issue is not appropriate in this case. Our rules provide that a separate trial on unliquidated damages alone shall not be ordered if liability issues are contested. TEX. R.APP.P. 81(b)(1). 3M has contested its liability to Nishika Limited and LenTec throughout this litigation. The damages these plaintiffs suffered, if any, are unliquidated. Remand of both liability and damages is mandatory under these circumstances. See TEX.R.APP.P. 81(b)(1); Redman Homes, 920 S.W.2d at 669 (Tex.1996).