Opinion ID: 446770
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Contradictory Evidence Presented at the Liability and Damage Trials

Text: 45 Kaiser also contends that a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) should have been granted because the plaintiff produced evidence at the trial on damages that contradicted the evidence presented at the liability trial. Kaiser, however, fails to explain the legal theory supporting its contention. 46 Normally, when the evidence is contradictory, a JNOV is inappropriate. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Videfreeze Corp., 540 F.2d 1171, 1178 (3d Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1053, 97 S.Ct. 767, 50 L.Ed.2d 770 (1977). The assumption is that the jury should decide factual issues involving contradictory evidence. In this case, however, no single jury heard all of the allegedly contradictory testimony. Kaiser's argument must be that if a single jury had heard both the evidence on liability and damages, then that jury would not have returned a verdict against Kaiser. Under this theory, however, a JNOV is not the proper remedy in this case. There was sufficient evidence of monopolization to go to the jury, even if, as Kaiser contends, the plaintiffs' introduced evidence that was inconsistent with their theory of liability. 47 The proper remedy, at best, would be a new trial on both liability and damages. Kaiser, however, does not argue for a new trial on the ground that testimony inconsistent with the theory of liability was introduced at the damages trial. 48 Even if we were to construe Kaiser's arguments for a JNOV as a request for a new trial in the alternative, we do not believe that substantial justice dictates that a new trial be ordered. Cf. Scott v. Plante, 641 F.2d 117, 136 (3d Cir.1981), vacated on other grounds, 458 U.S. 1101, 102 S.Ct. 3474, 73 L.Ed.2d 1362 (1982). If the district court committed error, it would have been in its failure to order a full new trial in 1981 when it ordered the limited retrial on damages. In general, the ordering of a new trial is committed to the sound discretion of the district court. In this case, we cannot say that the district abused its discretion. The liability trial was properly conducted and there was no need to expend further judicial resources retrying liability. 49 In some situations, however, the seventh amendment right to a jury trial is implicated if the issues in the separate retrial on damages are so interwoven with the issues of liability already tried that it is unjust to try the damages separately. Gasoline Prods. Co. v. Champlin, 283 U.S. 494, 500, 51 S.Ct. 513, 515, 75 L.Ed. 1188 (1931). In this case, it might be argued that the issues are interwoven if the theory of damages relied upon was inconsistent with the liability theory, thus requiring a single jury to resolve the inconsistency. We believe, however, that the issues are not interwoven because the theory of damages was consistent with the theory of liability. 50 Kaiser claims that Dr. Bowman, the plaintiffs' expert witness at the damages trial, contradicted the theory that the price squeeze was deliberately caused by Kaiser and not the result of natural market forces. First, Dr. Bowman testified that he could estimate a free market price for pipe by using the price of coil as a base figure and then adding to the coil price a certain percentage of the base figure to account for fabrication costs and a reasonable profit. In choosing a base figure, Dr. Bowman used the actual coil prices charged by Alcoa and Reynolds from 1973 to 1977. Thus, Kaiser charges, the implication of Dr. Bowman's testimony is that the coil prices would have been the same in a free market. However, the theory of liability was not that the prices of the raw materials were too high, but that Kaiser deliberately caused a price squeeze condition. The jury did not find that there was a price conspiracy among Kaiser, Alcoa, and Reynolds. The plaintiff was entitled to show that in a free market, either the pipe prices would have been higher or the raw material prices lower during the period of the price squeeze. In constructing a hypothetical world free of the defendants' exclusionary activities, the plaintiffs are given some latitude in calculating damages, so long as their theory is not wholly speculative. See Litton Systems v. American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 700 F.2d 785, 822-23 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 984, 79 L.Ed.2d 220 (1984). Dr. Bowman anchored his theory to the actual prices of coil over a five year period. If he had constructed a hypothetical price for coil to calculate a hypothetical price for pipe, his theory would have been far more speculative. Under present circumstances, we do not believe that the implications of Dr. Bowman's testimony were so inconsistent with the plaintiffs' theory of liability as to warrant a new trial. 51 The second set of statements that Kaiser alleges contradicts and disproves the price squeeze theory was a statement by Dr. Bowman that the free market price of pipe from 1973 to 1977 would have been substantially similar to the actual prices for pipe charged by Kaiser. Dr. Bowman, however, testified also that actual pipe prices were depressed and tended to be lower than his hypothetical free market pipe prices. App. at 6520 and 6531. If actual pipe prices were lower than the hypothetical prices, then his testimony was consistent with the liability theory. The only inconsistency is that Dr. Bowman appeared to contradict himself when he testified that the prices were substantially similar. 52 Dr. Bowman's statements are not necessarily inconsistent. His statements applied to a five year period of time. Pipe prices may have been fair over a five year period and still have been depressed during the shorter time period involved in the price squeeze. Further, even if Dr. Bowman's testimony was internally inconsistent, it was an inconsistency entirely before the damages jury. Dr. Bowman's credibility was properly before the damages jury and is not grounds for a new trial. 53