Opinion ID: 1546173
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Was There Evidence To Support A Verdict For Plaintiff?

Text: We turn first, therefore, to the question whether the plaintiff made out a case for recovery on the evidence he offered. Only two grounds of alleged conspiracy were left open to him. One of these had to do with recovery of loss sustained from the operation of the arbitration clauses [2] in the standard contract then in effect between distributors and exhibitors of pictures. The other had to do with certain credit practices [3] on the part of distributors followed by these defendants. All the rest of the plaintiff's twenty grounds of complaint were ruled out by the District Judge because he held that the plaintiff was precluded from recovery upon them by the action of the court in the Oklahoma litigation previously referred to. We assume for the purpose of discussion under this point that the plaintiff was properly limited to these two grounds of complaint. Plaintiff's claim based on credit practices may be disposed of briefly. Those practices are involved in only two counts. [4] The evidence on both counts consists of testimony of the plaintiff to the effect that, had it not been for the arbitration and credit conspiracies, the receipts of these theaters would have been greater than they were. No part of the loss claimed was separately attributed to the credit conspiracy. Indeed, as will appear below, arbitration and credit practices were more often lumped with other causes which were not liability-creating. It is apparent, also, that the substance of plaintiff's claim in this part of the case is that threats of arbitration forced him to follow a course that ruined his business. The following discussion, therefore, is applicable to the credit practices where they are involved, although reference will be made only to arbitration practices. The plaintiff introduced in evidence twenty-one arbitration claims, totalling $10,332.35, made against him by the defendants. He never paid any of these claims, but rearrangements were worked out in each case settling the differences between the parties. No direct damage resulted, therefore, from these arbitration claims, for the plaintiff paid nothing and incurred no expenses in connection with them. Plaintiff does not controvert this, but he argues that many more than twenty-one claims must have been filed, and that he could not have been expected to remember them all. While this argument may justify an inference that the scope of the arbitration conspiracy was greater than twenty-one claims would indicate, it does not prove that other claims caused more loss than the samples produced, which showed no direct loss at all. No evidence appears in the record to show that these arbitration claims were presented to induce any of plaintiff's assignors to enter into disadvantageous obligations. From plaintiff's own account of conversations with representatives of defendants, nothing appears from which an intention to injure plaintiff's theaters may be inferred. The subject matter of the arbitration complaints consisted of disputes arising upon contracts already made and alleged to be broken and no prospective arrangements were involved. Nor did plaintiff offer evidence of a single prejudicial new obligation which any of his assignors undertook to escape an arbitration claim or threat. In the instances where there were settlements following arbitration disputes, there is no showing of injury caused by the rearrangement, but only a general charge that the pictures were undesirable. In reviewing specific disputes, the plaintiff was at a loss to remember whether any arrangements made were undesirable to him, and could only say broadly that some arrangements made were desirable and some undesirable. Indeed the settlement of the claims resulted in reduced rentals of films to the plaintiff. This is hardly proof of specific injury resulting from defendants' illegal practices. We turn, then, from the particularized to the more general aspects of this claim. Suppose we assume that the plaintiff did, contrary to what has been said above, incur large losses in trying to avoid the impact of the arbitration practices complained of. Is recovery for them permitted under the rules of law governing allowance of damages? The plaintiff claims that at least ten profitable theaters were reduced to operation at a loss and then were forced out of business entirely. The jury verdict would award him a sum, when trebled, approaching $1,000,000. We think he cannot recover any sum of that magnitude for two reasons. First, the substance of his present claim is that the arbitration machinery was used to force poor pictures and late bookings upon him. But the booking difficulties of the plaintiff's theaters were a major source of complaint in the Oklahoma litigation. It was there found that the defendants had not conspired with respect to the selection or timing of motion picture bookings. Damage from these sources is, therefore, not open to proof in this case if the res judicata rulings are correct, and for the discussion under this head, we assume that they are. Second, even if any claim were free of the estoppel rulings (and none appears to be) the plaintiff's course of conduct must be evaluated in the light of the threatened harm which he was seeking to avoid. So far as the record shows, that harm consisted specifically of approximately $10,000 in arbitration claims and generally, perhaps, of a number of additional claims not individually proved. The basis, then, of the plaintiff's claimed loss measured in the hundreds of thousands, must, under the estoppel rulings, be found in a claim against him of some $10,000. If plaintiff, without showing any specific intent of defendants to injure him or any specific damaging transaction, proceeded voluntarily to make business arrangements which caused damages running to one third of a million dollars, that conduct was too extravagant to be charged to defendants. The point is ably and fully discussed in the District Court's opinion, 72 F.Supp. 469, 476, 477. We approve what is said there, and see no need to review the question further. We come, then, to the important question of causation. The plaintiff shows that defendants have engaged in illegal practices. He shows also that his business deteriorated for several years and was eventually dissolved. Did defendants' practices cause the damage? What proof must plaintiff offer? What proof did he offer? The degree of certainty required of a plaintiff in proving causation of damage is necessarily elastic. It varies with the nature of the case. Particularly in an anti-trust suit, covering as it must many imponderables, rigid standards of precise proof would make a plaintiff's task practically hopeless. We are not without guidance in this matter from the opinions of the Supreme Court. In Bigelow v. R.K.O. Radio Pictures et al., 1945, 327 U.S. 251, 66 S.Ct. 574, 90 L.Ed. 652, an exhibitor was permitted to recover treble damages on a showing of conspiracy to discriminate against him in the release of films, and proof of loss of earnings in comparison with his own pre-conspiracy earnings and the post-conspiracy earnings of a comparable competitor not subject to the discrimination. In Eastman Kodak Co. v. Southern Photo Co., 1927, 273 U.S. 359, 47 S.Ct. 400, 71 L.Ed. 684, and Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Co., 1931, 282 U.S. 555, 51 S.Ct. 248, 75 L.Ed. 544, verdicts were sustained on a similar comparison of pre-conspiracy and post-conspiracy conditions of plaintiff's business. [5] But the significant point in this case is emphasized by the statement of the Supreme Court in the Bigelow case, 327 U.S. 251, 264, 66 S.Ct. 574, 579, 90 L.Ed. 652:    the jury could conclude as a matter of just and reasonable inference from the proof of defendants' wrongful acts and their tendency to injure plaintiffs' business, and from the evidence of the decline in prices, profits and values, not shown to be attributable to other causes, that defendants' wrongful acts had caused damage to the plaintiffs. In the cases just cited, the illegal practices of defendants constituted the only active cause of plaintiff's injuries. Defendants did not show that other factors were substantially contributing causes. On such facts, plaintiffs in those actions, having shown harm to them from defendant's liability-creating conduct were not to be deprived of recovery by hair-splitting requirements that they prove damages exact in amount. The case before us is different. There are a number of factors acknowledged by plaintiff to have contributed to his injury. But the usual rule in tort is that a plaintiff may recover for loss to which defendant's wrongful conduct substantially contributed, notwithstanding other factors contributed also. Restatement, Torts § 431 (1934). However, the defendant's contribution must be substantial and it must be shown by the evidence. All this is hornbook law and no one would dispute it. The new problem in this case, however, grows out of the earlier litigation of matters here involved. In an original claim for injury allegedly caused by a number of practices in violation of the anti-trust laws, there would be no need for the plaintiff to particularize the injury caused by each illegal practice. All the practices would be responsible for all the injury, and the portion of loss due to each would be immaterial. In this case, however, the plaintiff has already litigated the issues involved in the twenty business practices charged as illegal. It was decided in the earlier lawsuit that in only two of these respects had defendants conspired as charged. If the res judicata rulings in this case are correct, the plaintiff is now in the position of having his shotgun replaced by a rifle. He can no longer spread his fire over the whole range of the defendants' business practices. He must concentrate on two. And if the res judicata rulings are to be given full effect, the injury alleged must be allocated to the illegal practices in some manner that can be reasonably measured. To put it another way, if the plaintiff in his first lawsuit seeks to collect a total loss due to all of the allegedly illegal practices of the defendants, and the court in that case finds only two practices illegal, a verdict for the plaintiff in a second lawsuit on the same grounds cannot stand without proof that the two illegal practices caused the loss. Otherwise the defendants would be obliged to pay losses caused by conduct which was determined not to be liability-creating in their particular case. What did the plaintiff show? On all but two counts, the plaintiff offered no specific evidence at all as to the damages attributable to the arbitration conspiracy. As we have already noted, he showed no direct damage from the twenty-one arbitration claims submitted, which he did not pay, and no specific disadvantageous obligation undertaken to avoid arbitration. He said only, in effect, that his future business arrangements were made to avoid threats of arbitration, that those arrangements were undesirable, and that his business was ruined. This is obviously insufficient evidence to support a jury verdict and the trial court correctly so held. On two counts (7 and 8), the plaintiff testified that a stated percentage or amount of loss was due to arbitration practices. If there were any specific information in the record to support this opinion testimony, we would agree that he had made out a supportable claim. But we can find no shred of specific proof which would permit a jury to infer that the plaintiff's opinion was reasonably based upon fact. On a reading of this part of the record, we reluctantly conclude that plaintiff's testimony was at best a guess in response to prodding questions directing his attention to the arbitration conspiracy. It is obvious, also, that plaintiff was attributing to the arbitration practices his losses from booking difficulties, which claims were foreclosed to him by the estoppel rulings. To sum up: It is well appreciated that a plaintiff has a difficult task in an anti-trust suit and that adherence to strict requirements of proof as to exact quantity of damage may deprive him of the substance of his rights. The law has gone far to ease that burden by permitting proof of losses which border on the speculative, in order to implement the policy of the antitrust laws. But a fair degree of certainty is still essential to show the causative relation of defendants' misconduct and plaintiff's injury. Especially must this be so where a number of causes exist, and because of earlier litigation, recovery cannot be had for losses due to most of them. Moreover, a general assertion of injury will not suffice when plaintiff's own testimony fails to specify whether any of the business arrangements mentioned by him were or were not disadvantageous. The District Court properly ruled, therefore, that there was not sufficient evidence to support a verdict for plaintiff on the issues open in the case. We pass then to the question whether the res judicata rulings unduly restricted the issues.