Opinion ID: 196794
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency Of The Evidence On Lost Profits

Text: 80 Cambridge Plating had the burden of providing a reasonably certain basis to believe that Napco's wrongful conduct caused the loss of anticipated profits, cf. Augat, Inc. v. Aegis, Inc. (Augat I), 409 Mass.165, 565 N.E.2d 415, 421 (1991) (plaintiff must prove losses would not have occurred but for the wrongful conduct), and proving with sufficient certainty the amount of those anticipated profits. The nature of the business or venture upon which the anticipated profits are claimed must be such as to support an inference of definite profits grounded upon a reasonably sure basis of facts. Augat, Inc. v. Aegis, Inc. (Augat II), 417 Mass.484, 631 N.E.2d 995, 998 (1994) (internal quotations omitted). Because every calculation of lost profits has some element of uncertainty, a plaintiff need not calculate lost profits with mathematical exactness. Id. But they cannot be remote, speculative [or] hypothetical. Id. Napco argues that Cambridge Plating failed to establish the critical connection between the defective wastewater treatment system and Cambridge Plating's inability to do plating work. On this point Napco is wrong. 81 Cambridge Plating provided evidence of causation principally through three witnesses--Mssrs. Tosi, Moleux and Joseph Finn, Cambridge Plating's damages expert. Tosi testified that, in the plating business, customers insist on quick turn-around time. He also testified that because the wastewater treatment system was not working properly Cambridge Plating had to employ closed looping, which slowed down the amount of wastewater fed through the system, consequently slowing down the plating process. Moleux confirmed that closed looping required Cambridge Plating to either partially or totally shut down. Additionally, Tosi testified that the zinc plating operation closed because the system was unable to remove sufficiently the contaminants. Further, Debisschop directly linked the wastewater treatment system to a plating operation's profitability. 82 Finally, Finn testified that until 1985, the first full year the wastewater treatment system was operational, Cambridge Plating had generally experienced an increase in sales. He also testified that for the years following the installation of the system, Cambridge Plating's revenues decreased from approximately $6.2 million in 1985 to $4.8 million in 1989, and net income declined from approximately $284,000 in 1985 to a net loss of approximately $131,000 in 1989. During this time period, the plating industry as a whole averaged modest growth. 83 Cambridge Plating provided a simple before-and-after financial picture of an established company. It also provided testimony from people expert in plating and in wastewater treatment that the difference in profits was due to a slowdown in production and failure to meet effluent limitations, both of which could be traced back to the malfunctioning wastewater treatment system. Napco chose not to present an expert of its own to break the connection between the financial decline and the malfunctioning system. Instead, Napco was content to try to poke holes in Cambridge Plating's damages testimony. This [was] a risky strategy, and it failed. AMPAT/Midwest, 896 F.2d at 1046 (internal citation omitted). There was sufficient evidence of causation to support an award of lost profits.