Opinion ID: 450368
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fact versus Opinion.

Text: 123 Ven-Fuel asserts that it represented no false facts, but at most included in its permit application incorrect opinions. And, by analogy to tort law, the appellant argues that the mere expression of opinion, though ill-founded, cannot constitute a false misrepresentation. See 37 Am.Jur.2d, Fraud and Deceit, Sec. 45 (1968). Ven-Fuel characterizes the palpably untrue portions of its application as being no more than the sum of Arellano's opinions and interpretations. This line of defense is, however, doubly flawed. 124 We have scrutinized the record below, and find no sign that the appellant raised this point in any manner before the district court. Under our consistent practice ... a new game [cannot] be started at this date. Cohen v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 729 F.2d 59, 60-61 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 233, 83 L.Ed.2d 161 (1984). Except under the most extraordinary circumstances (not present here), we have regularly eschewed initial consideration at the appellate level of theories alien to the record, United States v. Kobrosky, 711 F.2d 449, 457 (1st Cir.1983), and we hew to that line in this instance. The failure of the appellant to ignite this blaze below extinguishes the ustulation for purposes of this proceeding. Cohen, supra; Kobrosky, supra; Eagle-Picher Industries v. Liberty Mutual Insurance, 682 F.2d 12, 22 n. 8 (1st Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1028, 103 S.Ct. 1280, 75 L.Ed.2d 500 (1983); Johnston v. Holiday Inns, 595 F.2d 890, 894 (1st Cir.1979). 125 In any event, whatever embers remain of the appellant's argument are quickly doused by an examination of the application itself. Assuming arguendo that expressions of opinion are held to a more lenient standard than statements of fact for purposes of 19 U.S.C. Sec. 1592 (a proposition which it is not necessary for us to decide in the case at bar, and as to which we offer no view), it is starkly apparent that the application called for expressions of fact and that Ven-Fuel was obligated to respond in a factual manner. Ven-Fuel had neither a deepwater terminal under its operational control nor a throughput agreement with a deepwater terminal operator; it was, therefore, ineligible for the largesse of a fee-free license. Arellano was fully apprised of all of the relevant factual elements of the situation. Ven-Fuel was ineligible for an allocation and fee-exempt license to import residual fuel oil into the United States; the district court so found and the appellant concedes as much. When Arellano, acting for Ven-Fuel, certified that the corporation was eligible for the fee-free license, that certification was, in our opinion, utterly false as a matter of fact. 13 126