Opinion ID: 414451
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Belated Jury Findings

Text: 46 After eight days of deliberation, the jury found AT & T guilty of monopolization and an attempt to monopolize the relevant product market. In response to special interrogatories the jury specifically found three AT & T practices--opposition to certification, delay in providing interface devices, and conduct in connection with the sale of inside wiring--anticompetitive and predatory. Because the jury found that AT & T's monopolization was the proximate cause of Litton's injury, it entered an award for Litton as both a competitor and customer of AT & T. The jury initially failed, however, to reach unanimity on three matters: (1) whether the attempted monopolization proximately caused Litton's injury, and whether either (2) the original filing of the interface tariff or (3) delay in effecting cutover from AT & T to Litton equipment was anticompetitive or predatory. The trial judge asked the jury to attempt to reach a unanimous result one way or the other on the remaining issues and the jury indicated its willingness to do so. After deliberating a short while, the jury returned with affirmative answers favorable to Litton on all three questions. AT & T makes an extensive argument that these belated findings were coerced and therefore should be set aside. Although the verdict on the monopoly charge can be sustained, and the damage award affirmed, if there is support for each of the initial three findings made pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 49, see Northeastern Telephone Co. v. AT & T, 651 F.2d 76, 94-95 (2d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 943, 102 S.Ct. 1438, 71 L.Ed.2d 654 (1982), disposition of the threshold claim that these later findings must be set aside will enable us to consolidate our discussion of the more difficult Noerr-Pennington issues AT & T raises. 47 It was, of course, completely appropriate to submit special interrogatories to the jury, particularly in a case as complex and protracted as this one. 19 In asking the jury to specify whether it found each of the alleged predatory practices to have been proved, the trial court was merely following Berkey Photo, Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 603 F.2d 263, 299 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1093, 100 S.Ct. 1061, 62 L.Ed.2d 783 (1980). For whatever reason, the jury did not agree unanimously on two interrogatories and the proximate cause component of the attempted monopolization charge. There was nothing unusual, much less erroneous, in the trial court's resubmission of these questions. See, e.g., Turchio v. D/S A/S DEN NORSKE AFRICA, 509 F.2d 101, 105 (2d Cir.1974) (if the jury fails to answer interrogatory it is appropriate to resubmit the interrogatory a second and third time to obtain answers to the unanswered questions). 20 48 AT & T's contention that the jury was somehow coerced into rendering answers favorable to Litton upon resubmission cannot be squared with the facts. The jury did not indicate that it was deadlocked on these questions; it indicated that it was divided. That the jury took its task seriously and deliberated conscientiously is manifest; before rendering its initial verdict the jury requested guidance from the court as to whether it could continue if it was divided on a question. AT & T can hardly argue that the jury was predisposed to find in Litton's favor given the fact that it found against Litton on two out of four theories of liability and divided on a third. 21 AT & T's argument that the jury had no incentive to find against Litton on the unresolved proximate cause question because the initial verdict would stand in any event is pure speculation. Even if we were to concede AT&T's premise that the jury was likely to shirk its duty conscientiously to reconsider these questions--a premise we find highly questionable given that the jury served over five months without a single absence and deliberated for eight days 22 --the conclusion that it was likely to resolve these questions in Litton's favor simply does not follow. 23 49 Nor do we find anything coercive in the trial judge's instructions. The jurors were informed that their answers to the questions were important and that they should listen to the views of their fellow jurors without abandoning their own conscientiously held views. Far from being coercive, this instruction was completely in keeping with the recognition that: 50 A system which requires the unanimous verdict of a jury ... can function satisfactorily in most cases only because most jurors are reasonable ... and after a certain amount of discussion has produced a large majority in favor of one view, those in the minority may be willing to join the majority in the belief that if so many other reasonable people have a contrary view, the views of the minority may well be mistaken. Instructions ... in both state and federal courts stress the importance of jurors listening to the views of one another and making allowance for the fact that there can be a reasonable difference of opinion. 51 Grace Lines, Inc. v. Motley, 439 F.2d 1028, 1033 (2d Cir.1971) (Lumbard, C.J., concurring ). The instructions here fall far short of those sustained in e.g., United States v. Corcione, 592 F.2d 111, 117 n. 5 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 975, 99 S.Ct. 1545, 59 L.Ed.2d 974 (1979) (after jury deadlocked on criminal charge, trial judge instructed jury that it should consult with one another and ... deliberate with a view to reaching agreement if you can possibly do so); United States v. Robinson, 560 F.2d 507, 511 n. 6 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 905, 98 S.Ct. 1451, 55 L.Ed.2d 496 (1978) (jury instructed that [i]t is important that a decision ... be reached here, and I really see no good reasons why a decision cannot be reached). 24 Litton was entitled to a jury determination on all of its claims and we do not believe the trial court judge erred either in resubmitting the claims or in instructing the jury as he did. There is no factual or logical basis for AT & T's arguments that resubmission of these questions tipped the balance in Litton's favor. 25