Opinion ID: 663081
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Of Damages.

Text: 32 Contending that he is entitled to the jury's award of damages in the total amount of $714,480, Conway cross-appeals from the decision of the district court, made after a post-trial motion by Icahn, limiting the principal amount of the judgment to $357,240. In response to interrogatories, as noted previously, the jury found damages in favor of Conway on the negligence claim in the sum of $687,000 but reduced that sum to $357,240 to account for Conway's contributory negligence; damages also were assessed at $357,240 on the fiduciary duty claim. The district court held a colloquy with the foreperson of the jury after the verdicts were reported, and the foreperson indicated that the jury intended to make an award of $714,480. 33 Regardless of the jury's intentions, it is clear that the separate awards were duplicative and therefore impermissible as a double recovery. Where a plaintiff seeks recovery for the same damages under different legal theories, only a single recovery is allowed. See Wickham Contracting Co. v. Board of Educ., 715 F.2d 21, 28 (2d Cir.1983) (separate recoveries under Sherman Act and Labor Management Relations Act for economic harm arising from unfair labor practices impermissible); cf. Hughes v. Patrolmen's Benevolent Ass'n, 850 F.2d 876, 882 (2d Cir.) (alternate tort theories may be submitted to jury but only single recovery allowed), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 967, 109 S.Ct. 495, 102 L.Ed.2d 532 (1988). Conway sought damages arising from the sellout of his account without notice on two different theories--negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. His theories of recovery were based on a single set of facts, and the economic loss sustained was predicated on those unitary facts. Under such circumstances, the verdicts should be identical and a single recovery allowed. Wickham, 715 F.2d at 28. 34 Moreover, the amount awarded on the breach of fiduciary duty claim can only be explained as a duplication of the amount awarded on the negligence claim because the latter represented a loss reduced by an allocation for Conway's contributory negligence. A full award for breach of fiduciary duty could not be reduced for contributory negligence, and it therefore seems clear that the negligence award simply was carried over to the fiduciary claim and an improper duplication resulted. 35 Gentile v. County of Suffolk, 926 F.2d 142 (2d Cir.1991), relied upon by Conway, is distinguishable. In that case, involving a brawl between plaintiffs and police, the jury awarded damages of $150,000 for each plaintiff--$75,000 on a state claim for malicious prosecution and the same amount on a federal claim brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. In upholding the awards, we found it conceivable for the jury to conclude that each plaintiff suffered $150,000 worth of discrete, unduplicated injuries as a result of the County's violations of law, and merely split the total amount equally between the state and federal causes of action in announcing their award to the court on the form submitted to it. Id. at 154. In the case at bar, we do not find it conceivable that the jury split Conway's sellout losses between the two claims submitted to it. Finally, in Gentile, there was substantial evidence of multiple injuries from the violations of state and federal rights. Id. at 153. There was but one injury suffered by Conway and that injury gave rise to a single item of damages. 36