Court Opinion

ID: 9477645
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:28:05.041785+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:58.733901
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ordered a new trial as the next step in the saga of Peter M. Roberts and Sears, Roebuck & Co., litigation that began in 1969 based on a patent that issued in 1965 and expired in 1982. In 1983 the Seventh Circuit vacated a jury verdict in Roberts’ favor, the Circuit applying procedural law and practice that diverge from that enunciated by the Federal Circuit. Roberts v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 723 F.2d 1324, 221 USPQ 504 (7th Cir.1983) (en banc) (Roberts IV).1
The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, to which the case was remanded, was ordered by the Seventh Circuit to conduct the new trial “in accordance with this opinion”. Id. at 1344, 221 USPQ at 522. The district court has recognized its obligation to obey that mandate. Roberts v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., No. 80-C-5986, order at 5-9 (N.D.Ill. Jan. 14, 1985) (holding that the district court has no authority to reconsider the ruling of the Seventh Circuit, which is the law of the case).
The district court lacks authority to diverge from that mandate; see Gindes v. United States, 740 F.2d 947, 949 (Fed.Cir.) (“ ‘once a case has been decided on appeal, the rule adopted is to be applied, right or wrong, absent exceptional circumstances, in the disposition of the lawsuit’ ”) (quoting United States v. Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, 612 F.2d 517, 520, 222 Ct.Cl. 1 (1979)), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1074, 105 S.Ct. 569, 83 L.Ed.2d 509 (1984). In this case, however, the “exceptional circumstances” are present, as one of the classical exceptions to the doctrine of the law of the case. Thus the circuit court, including this court as successor to the Seventh Circuit, has authority to grant Roberts’ petition to the extent of ordering that Federal Circuit law shall apply in any new trial.
Such order is necessary in view of the Seventh Circuit’s clear contrary mandate, and the district court’s refusal to depart therefrom. Indeed, the district court rejected Roberts’ request for leave to take an interlocutory appeal, stating that its order “involved a straightforward application of the mandate rule”. Roberts v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., No. 80-C-5986, order at 1 (N.D.Ill. April 10, 1985).
The law and procedure that the Seventh Circuit ordered the district court to follow on retrial differ in several ways from the law and procedure since established by the Federal Circuit.2 Although one may de*1367bate the significance of these differences, they were the bases on which the Seventh Circuit vacated Roberts’ jury verdict and required a new trial; thus they can not be considered de minimus. Further, this trial court is now bound by rules and instructions to which no other court trying patent cases is bound.
On this background, I would not refuse the simple clarification that would allow the case to go forward on a correct, rather than an incorrect, basis. Such response is in aid of our jurisdiction,3 would conserve judicial resources, and advance resolution of the dispute between the parties. Thus I respectfully dissent from this court’s decision that the Federal Circuit has neither jurisdiction nor authority to “interfere”, in response to the mandamus petition before us, until after the new trial is held (or, at best, until leave for interlocutory appeal is granted).
As the designated appellate tribunal, exercise of our authority will not result in a “conflicting” mandate, to use the majority’s word. The issue is neither of conflict nor of comity. We have succeeded the Seventh Circuit in patent cases. Seventh Circuit patent law is extinct4; it has no role in ongoing litigation, unless it has law of the case viability. Our responsibility as successor appellate authority is to determine the law of the case viability of the order controlling Roberts’ mandated new trial.5
The issue at bar is not whether an appellate tribunal’s mandate is binding upon the trial court. The issue is whether an appellate court, or a successor appellate court, has the power to supercede the prior command, and under what circumstances. The Supreme Court has stated that the law of the case doctrine “merely expresses the practice of courts generally to refuse to reopen what has been decided, not a limit to their power”. Messenger v. Anderson, 225 U.S. 436, 444, 32 S.Ct. 739, 56 L.Ed. 1152 (1912). The Seventh Circuit described it as a “self-imposed prudential limitation rather than a recognition of a limitation of the courts’ power”. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 680 F.2d 527, 532 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1226, 103 S.Ct. 1233, 75 L.Ed.2d 467 (1983).
There is substantial jurisprudence dealing with law of the case doctrine when the controlling law changes between an appellate court’s decision and the further proceedings in the trial court. See, e.g., Colaizzi v. Walker, 812 F.2d 304, 310 (7th Cir.1987) (“an intervening change of law is a familiar reason for refusing to apply the law of the case doctrine”); Amen v. City of Dearborn, 718 F.2d 789, 794 (6th Cir.1983):
the [law of the case] doctrine is not so rigid as the rule of res judicata, and there is a well-recognized exception that the doctrine must yield to an intervening change of controlling law between the date of the first ruling and the retrial, [citations omitted]
cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1101, 104 S.Ct. 1596, 80 L.Ed.2d 127 (1984). See also Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies & Draglines, Inc., 761 F.2d 649, 657, 225 USPQ 985, 990 (Fed.Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. *1368902, 106 S.Ct. 230, 88 L.Ed.2d 229 (1985) (recognizing three standard exceptions to the law of the case doctrine, including intervening change of law).
Professor Moore speculated on the somewhat analogous situation wherein a case is transferred by a circuit court to a district court in a sister circuit:
Pre-transfer appellate decisions establish the law of the case, and normally the second court of appeals should follow it. Whether the duty to follow the foreign decision is more absolute than the duty to follow the law of the case as established by a local panel in a prior appeal is questionable. Again departures occur so infrequently that comparisons are impossible. [footnotes omitted]
Moore’s Federal Practice, ¶ 0.404[4. — 5] at 138. See also Christianson v. Colt Industries Operating Corp., 798 F.2d 1051, 1056, 230 USPQ 840, 845 (7th Cir.1986) (law of the case “should not foreclose reconsideration of the decision of the Federal Circuit ordering a transfer of the instant appeal to this court”).
Although it is clear that the supervening law should be applied in the subsequent proceeding, such application is far from automatic. When a district court has been expressly bound by an appellate court’s mandate to apply the superseded law, it is conventional for an appellate court to relieve the trial court of its obligation. The question has arisen in a variety of contexts; e.g., In re Union Nacional de Trabajadores, 527 F.2d 602 (1st Cir.1975) (district court refused, despite an intervening Supreme Court decision, to depart from the circuit court’s order to grant a jury trial in a criminal contempt proceeding, until so instructed by the circuit court and withdrawal of the mandate); Amen v. City of Dearborn, 718 F.2d at 793 (district court on remand applied intervening change in statute of limitations without violating the mandate because mandate not explicit as to how the statute was to be applied); Luminous Unit Co. v. Freeman-Sweet Co., 3 F.2d 577 (7th Cir.1924) (describing law of the case as “not an inexorable rule”, upholding district court’s vacation of a judgment that had been previously affirmed on appeal, based on an intervening Supreme Court decision).
In the case before us, as in Union Na-cional, the district court has declined to depart from the circuit court’s order; any further order is the responsibility of the circuit court. Such responsibility devolves upon the Federal Circuit, as successor to the Seventh in this matter. Thus it is not material that the appeal in Roberts IV was filed before October 1, 1982 and was properly before the Seventh Circuit. Our concern is for the continuing proceeding, and for the law that is to be applied in a case for which we have sole appellate responsibility.
Professor Moore remarked, “Surely the court of appeals should not hesitate to correct a patent error in a still live case”. Moore’s Federal Practice II 0.404 [4. — 5] at 139 n. 9. This court’s reluctance to make a simple clarifying statement is difficult to justify, when one considers the ease of settling the matter now before us, balanced against the time, resources, and energy that an erroneous trial would consume on the part of courts and litigants. See Lummus Co. v. Commonwealth Oil Refining Co., 297 F.2d 80, 87 (2d Cir.1961) (“The right not to have to relitigate an issue [needlessly] is as much entitled to extraordinary protection [by writ of mandamus] as the right to jury trial”), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 986, 82 S.Ct. 601, 7 L.Ed.2d 524 (1962). By rejecting both authority and opportunity to respond to Roberts’ petition, we do not fulfill our obligation to achieve consistency in patent law and practice. Thus, I would grant Roberts’ petition to the extent of holding that the district court shall apply Federal Circuit law in all further proceedings.

. The decision was issued after the formation of the Federal Circuit, although the appeal was correctly before the Seventh Circuit, having been filed before October 1, 1982. Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, Pub.L. No. 97-164, § 403(e), 96 Stat. 25, 58 (1982).

. The Seventh Circuit held that the questions of anticipation and obviousness can not be decided by the jury; we do not so hold. The Seventh Circuit held that anticipation is a question of law; we have consistently held otherwise. The Seventh Circuit allowed obviousness to be shown by a preponderance of evidence; we require clear and convincing evidence. The Seventh Circuit issued precise orders as to how the jury trial must be run on remand:
[T]he jury must be instructed that if it finds facts A, B, C and D, it must render a certain verdict. Anything less than strict adherence to this procedure by a trial court constitutes an abdication of its active duty to retain ultimate control over the issue of obviousness, [emphasis added, footnote omitted]
Roberts, 723 F.2d at 1341, 221 USPQ at 519. However, even the Seventh Circuit, in the Panther Pumps case relied on in Roberts IV, recognized that such an instruction could be unworkable, and authorized the trial judge to exercise discretion:
When only two or three narrow issues of fact, such as the date of invention or perhaps the date of first public sale, determine the issue of patent validity, it may be entirely appropriate to submit special interrogatories to the jury. But if, as in this case, one party contends that as many as 32 separate fact questions must be resolved, the trial judge certainly may consider it inappropriate to use the special interrogatory procedure.
Panther Pumps & Equipment Co. v. Hydrocraft, Inc., 468 F.2d 225, 228, 175 USPQ 577, 579 (7th *1367Cir.1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 965, 93 S.Ct. 2143, 36 L.Ed.2d 685 (1973). The difficulties of implementation in even moderately complex patent litigation are apparent, where there may be dozens or hundreds of fact questions underlying the various questions of law.

. Congress left it to the courts to smooth the transition to the Federal Circuit, and to resolve questions in the way that best implements the intent of the legislation. See Atari, Inc. v. JS & A Group, Inc., 747 F.2d 1422, 1434, 223 USPQ 1074, 1083 (Fed.Cir.1984) ("In designing jurisdictional guidelines it is our duty, if possible, to implement all, not just some, of Congress’ intents.")

. See South Corp. v. United States, 690 F.2d 1368, 215 USPQ 657 (Fed.Cir.1982), wherein the Federal Circuit adopted as precedent only the decisions of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the Court of Claims.

.Our consideration of the law of the case would not surprise the Seventh Circuit. Judge Posner wrote in dissent:
[I]f the judgment entered by the district court on remand from this court is appealed the appeal will not come back to us but will go to another court [the Federal Circuit], which no doubt will have its own ideas about this interesting case. (I will not speculate on the applicability of the law of the case doctrine in this unusual situation, or on whether if it is applicable it would have any bite in view of the lack of definiteness in the legal standard
which this court has laid down in its opinion.) Roberts, 723 F.2d at 1348, 221 USPQ at 525.