Court Opinion

ID: 9893340
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-26 17:03:28.911204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:02:29.466710
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-11150     Document: 69-1        Date Filed: 10/26/2023   Page: 1 of 19

                                                       [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                     In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                          For the Eleventh Circuit

                            ____________________

                                  No. 22-11150
                            Non-Argument Calendar
                            ____________________

        IRA KLEIMAN,
        as the Personal Representative of the
        Estate of David Kleiman,
                                                          Plaintiﬀ-Appellant,
        W&K INFO DEFENSE RESEARCH, LLC,
                                                                    Plaintiﬀ,
        versus
        CRAIG WRIGHT,

                                                        Defendant-Appellee.

                            ____________________
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        2                        Opinion of the Court                     22-11150

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Southern District of Florida
                         D.C. Docket No. 9:18-cv-80176-BB
                             ____________________

        Before WILSON, ROSENBAUM, and LUCK, Circuit Judges.
        PER CURIAM:
               This appeal involves an ownership dispute stemming from
        the origins of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The Estate of David Klei-
        man (“Estate”) sued Craig Wright, an Australian computer scien-
        tist and self-described inventor of Bitcoin, claiming that (David)
        Kleiman and Wright, who were friends, formed a partnership to
        develop the original Bitcoin protocol, to mine bitcoin, and to de-
        velop related blockchain technology. The Estate asserts that it is
        entitled to half of the bitcoins—purportedly worth billions—mined
        through the alleged partnership. A jury ultimately found that no
        partnership existed and returned a verdict against the Estate, which
        now appeals. 1
                On appeal, the Estate asserts that the verdict should not
        stand for three reasons. First, in the Estate’s view, the district
        court’s instructions on partnership formation did not accurately re-
        flect current law under Florida’s Revised Uniform Partnership Act
        of 1995 (“FRUPA”), Fla. Stat. §§ 8001 et seq. Second, according to

        1 The jury also returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff W&K Info Defense Re-

        search, LLC, on its conversion claim in the amount of $100 million. That ver-
        dict is not at issue, and W&K is not a party to this appeal.
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                          3

        the Estate, the court applied the wrong legal standard and abused
        its discretion when it vacated sanctions imposed by the magistrate
        judge that would have deemed as true essential factual elements of
        the Estate’s partnership claim. And third, the Estate maintains that
        the district court abused its discretion by denying a new trial based
        on opposing counsel’s repeated violations of an in limine order pro-
        hibiting evidence of the “sibling relationship” between David Klei-
        man and Ira Kleiman, David’s brother and the personal representa-
        tive of the Estate. We consider each argument in turn, but ulti-
        mately, we affirm.
                            I. JURY INSTRUCTIONS
               In evaluating jury instructions, our standard of review is
        “simultaneously de novo and deferential.” Bhogaita v. Altamonte
        Heights Condo. Ass’n, Inc., 765 F.3d 1277, 1285 (11th Cir. 2014). That
        is, “[w]e review jury instructions de novo to determine whether
        they misstate the law or mislead the jury to the prejudice of the
        objecting party but give the district court wide discretion as to the
        style and wording employed.” Id. (quotation marks omitted).
               Under longstanding Florida law, a “partnership is created
        only where both parties contribute to the labor or capital of the
        enterprise, have a mutuality of interest in both profits and losses,
        and agree to share in the assets and liabilities of the business.” Wil-
        liams v. Obstfeld, 314 F.3d 1270, 1275 (11th Cir. 2002) (quotation
        marks omitted); see Kislak v. Kreedian, 95 So. 2d 510, 514 (Fla. 1957).
        In other words, a partnership “must consist of the following ele-
        ments: (1) a common purpose; (2) a joint proprietary interest in the
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        4                       Opinion of the Court                  22-11150

        subject matter; (3) the right to share profits and duty to share losses;
        and (4) joint control or right of control.” Williams, 314 F.3d at
        1275–76. “These requirements are strictly construed and the ab-
        sence of even one is fatal to the finding of a partnership.” Dreyfuss
        v. Dreyfuss, 701 So. 2d 437, 439 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); see Austin v. Du-
        val Cnty. Sch. Bd., 657 So. 2d 945 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995).
                The Estate admits that the district court’s instructions to the
        jury were consistent with this caselaw, notably Williams and Drey-
        fuss. But, in the Estate’s view, these decisions are not controlling
        because the alleged partnerships at issue predated FRUPA, which
        took effect in 1995. The Estate maintains that FRUPA replaced the
        strict common-law test, which required four or five factors to be
        proven, “with a totality of the circumstances test, under which no
        single factor is dispositive.”
               Florida law requires statutes enacted “in derogation of the
        common law [to] be strictly construed.” Ady v. Am. Honda Fin.
        Corp., 675 So. 2d 577, 581 (Fla. 1996). “[A]ny legislative intent either
        to abolish or to limit the common law must indicate such change
        clearly, or else the rule of common law stands.” Larmoyeux v. Mont-
        gomery, 963 So. 2d 813, 820 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007).
               Here, the Estate has failed to show that FRUPA abrogated
        the common law or otherwise changed the rules of partnership for-
        mation relevant to its claim. FRUPA’s general rules for partnership
        formation are largely unchanged from the Uniform Partnership
        Act (“UPA”), which Florida adopted in 1972. Pinellas Cnty. v. Lake
        Padgett Pines, 333 So. 2d 472, 474 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976); see generally
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                        5

        John Larson, Florida’s New Partnership Law: The Revised Uniform
        Partnership Act and Limited Liability Partnerships, 23 Fla. St. U. L.
        Rev. 201, 205–06 (1995).
                For instance, the Estate relies on FRUPA’s definition of a
        partnership: “[T]he association of two or more persons to carry on
        as co-owners a business for profit forms a partnership, whether or
        not the persons intend to form a partnership.” Fla. Stat.
        § 620.8202(1). But UPA similarly defined a partnership as “an asso-
        ciation of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business
        for profit.” Larson, supra at 205 n.9. FRUPA merely added the
        clause, “whether or not the persons intend to form a partnership,”
        and “recast” UPA’s “definition” as an “operative rule of law.” Fla.
        Stat. § 620.8202, cmt. n.1. Notably, “[n]o substantive change in the
        law [was] intended” by these modifications. Id.
               The Estate also cites FRUPA’s profit-sharing presumption.
        Among its rules for “determining whether a partnership is
        formed,” FRUPA provides that “[a] person who receives a share of
        the profits of a business is presumed to be a partner.” Fla. Stat.
        § 620.8202(3)(c) (emphasis added). That marked a changed from
        UPA, which stated a person’s receipt of profits of a business was
        “prima facie evidence” that the person was a partner. Larson, supra
        at 205 n.9. Thus, FRUPA “recast[s]” the sharing of profits as a “re-
        buttable presumption of a partnership, a more contemporary con-
        struction, rather than as prima facie evidence thereof.” Fla. Stat.
        § 620.8202, cmt. n.3. Beyond that, though, “no substantive change
        [was] intended” to the profit-sharing rule. Id.
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        6                      Opinion of the Court                22-11150

                 These minor revisions cannot sustain the Estate’s claim that
        FRUPA substituted a new test for determining partnership for-
        mation, let alone clearly so. See Larmoyeux, 963 So. 2d at 820. After
        all, “[l]ike its predecessor, [F]RUPA makes no attempt to answer in
        every case whether a partnership is formed.” Fla. Stat. § 620.8202,
        cmt. n.3. While FRUPA revised UPA’s partnership definition to
        clarify that intent to form a partnership is not relevant to for-
        mation, intent is not one of the four required factors Williams iden-
        tifies for establishing a partnership. 314 F.3d at 1275–76. It does
        not follow that, because intent is not relevant, courts must evaluate
        the other factors under a totality-of-the-circumstances approach.
                Nor is such an approach required because FRUPA “recast”
        the sharing of profits as a “rebuttable presumption of a partnership,
        . . . rather than as prima facie evidence thereof.” Fla. Stat. §
        620.8202, cmt. n.3. As the party asserting its existence, the Estate
        bore the burden of establishing the formation of a partnership by a
        preponderance of the evidence. See, e.g., Watson Realty Corp. v.
        Quinn, 435 So. 2d 950, 950 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983) (“[P]laintiff's burden
        of proof is that of a preponderance or greater weight of the evi-
        dence.”). And the application of a rebuttable presumption is not
        inconsistent with requiring a jury to apply the four partnership fac-
        tors listed above, since it’s up to the jury to determine whether any
        such presumption has been rebutted.
                Notably absent from the Estate’s briefing is any Florida
        caselaw that supports its position. The Estate cites one Florida case
        that cites FRUPA but is otherwise silent about the issues here. See
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        22-11150                 Opinion of the Court                              7

        Rafael J. Roca, P.A. v. Lytel & Reiter, Clark, Roca, Fountain & Wil-
        liams, 856 So. 2d 1, 5–6 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (distinguishing but not
        criticizing Dreyfuss). The Estate’s other cases that do address simi-
        lar issues are from out of state and of limited persuasive value. 2
        Even assuming we would endorse a more flexible approach as a
        matter of first impression, we are governed by existing Florida law.
        And we see no indication that Florida courts have moved away
        from the common-law test.
                For these reasons, FRUPA did not abrogate prior caselaw on
        partnership formation insofar as it required proof of certain factors.
        See Larmoyeux, 963 So. 2d at 820. Accordingly, we reject the Es-
        tate’s claim that the district court erred in instructing the jury on
        partnership formation.
                                    II. SANCTIONS
                “We review a district court’s order denying a motion for
        sanctions for abuse of discretion.” Fuentes v. Classica Cruise Operator
        Ltd., Inc., 32 F.4th 1311, 1321 (11th Cir. 2022). This standard gives
        the district court a “range of choice” so long as the court does not
        rely on an erroneous legal standard or make a clear error of judg-
        ment. Id.; see Higgs v. Costa Crociere S.P.A. Co., 969 F.3d 1295, 1304

        2 For example, Ingram v. Deere concerns the Texas Revised Partnership Act,
        which expressly listed five factors that indicated partnership formation and
        therefore “contemplate[d] a less formalistic and more practical approach to
        recognizing the formation of a partnership.” 288 S.W.3d 886, 895 (Tex. 2009).
        No similar list is contained in FRUPA, so we cannot draw a similar inference.
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        8                      Opinion of the Court                 22-11150

        (11th Cir. 2020). “In other words, a district court has broad, yet not
        unbridled, discretion in deciding whether to impose evidentiary
        sanctions.” Fuentes, 32 F.4th at 1321 (quotation marks omitted).
                                  A. Background
                During litigation, the Estate sought discovery from Wright
        about his bitcoin holdings, which it believed were relevant to es-
        tablish the universe of bitcoin mined during the alleged partnership
        between David Kleiman and Wright. A magistrate judge broadly
        agreed and, on March 14, 2019, ordered Wright to produce a list of
        his bitcoin holdings as of the last day in 2013, the year David died.
                Wright resisted, asserting that the information was impossi-
        ble to produce. The gist of his position, as developed over several
        filings and in testimony at an evidentiary hearing, was as follows.
        In 2011 or 2012, Wright transferred ownership of all bitcoin he had
        mined or acquired or would acquire to the Tulip Trust, of which
        he was both a trustee and beneficiary. Information about the
        Trust’s bitcoin was locked in an encrypted file protected by a “Sha-
        mir’s Secret Sharing Algorithm”—an algorithm created by Adi Sha-
        mir to divide a secret, such as a private encryption key, into multi-
        ple parts. The key to the encrypted file was split into fifteen “key
        slices” and distributed through the Trust. Wright controlled seven
        of the eight key slices required to access the bitcoin address infor-
        mation, and so was without access on his own. Nonetheless,
        Wright indicated that, based on an arrangement with David before
        his death, he expected to receive another key slice by bonded cou-
        rier in 2020.
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                          9

                Following an evidentiary hearing on the Estate’s motion to
        compel, during which Wright testified, the magistrate judge en-
        tered an order imposing sanctions against Wright under Rule 37,
        Fed. R. Civ. P. The magistrate judge completely rejected Wright’s
        story of his inability to comply, finding that he had offered willfully
        false testimony, supported by fraudulent documents, about the
        Trust and the encrypted file as “part of a sustained and concerted
        effort to impede discovery into his bitcoin holdings.”
                The magistrate judge then turned to the “question of a
        proper remedy.” The magistrate judge found that Wright’s “will-
        ful and bad faith pattern of obstructive behavior” had prejudiced
        the Estate by preventing it from obtaining evidence relevant to its
        partnership claim. Finding that “[n]o lesser sanction would suf-
        fice,” the magistrate judge awarded reasonable expenses and attor-
        ney’s fees and “deem[ed] the following facts to be established for
        purposes of this action” (the “Deemed Facts”):
               (1) Dr. Wright and David Kleiman entered into a
               50/50 partnership to develop Bitcoin intellectual
               property and to mine bitcoin;
               (2) any Bitcoin-related intellectual property devel-
               oped by Dr. Wright prior to David Kleiman’s death
               was property of the partnership,
               (3) all bitcoin mined by Dr. Wright prior to David
               Kleiman’s death (“the partnership’s bitcoin”) was
               property of the partnership when mined; and
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        10                         Opinion of the Court                         22-11150

                (4) Plaintiffs presently retain an ownership interest in
                the partnership’s bitcoin, and any assets traceable to
                them.
        The magistrate judge also struck certain affirmative defenses to
        conform to the Deemed Facts.
                Wright appealed to the district court, arguing that the mag-
        istrate’s judge’s order was without evidentiary support, exceeded
        the scope of the matters before the magistrate judge, and would
        deprive Wright of his rights to due process and a fair trial.
               In an order entered on January 10, 2020, the district court
        denied relief in part and granted relief in part. The court agreed
        with the magistrate judge’s decision to discredit Wright’s testi-
        mony, which was “the sole evidence put forward to establish [his]
        claim of impossibility.” 3 Concluding that Wright had “willfully ob-
        structed” the discovery process and denied the Estate evidence rel-
        evant to its claim, the court found that sanctions were warranted
        in the form of reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses.
                But the district court agreed with Wright that the sanctions
        deeming certain facts as true, and striking certain affirmative de-
        fenses as a result, were “improperly imposed.” The court stated
        that, in its view, the sanctions were not “specifically related to the

        3 The district court also stated that, even if his testimony was true, Wright still

        failed to show he made “in good faith all reasonable efforts to comply” with
        his discovery obligations, warranting sanctions.
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        22-11150                Opinion of the Court                         11

        particular discovery abuse at issue,” and did little to “cure” that dis-
        covery abuse—that is, Wright’s failure to identify the extent of his
        bitcoin holdings. Accordingly, the court found that these sanctions
        were “not proper.”
                Notably, the district court agreed to “indulge” Wright’s rep-
        resentations that a bonded courier could soon arrive with the key
        slices necessary to generate a list of his bitcoin holdings. The court
        indicated that, if “this mysterious figure has appeared from the
        shadows” and Wright produced a list of his holdings, then no addi-
        tional sanctions would be imposed. But if the courier did not ar-
        rive, and the Estate was not given access to information “directly
        relevant” to their claims, the court found that “additional sanctions
        would be warranted.” The court specifically noted that it would
        inform the jury of Wright’s failure to disclose the information
        sought by the Estate, extend the discovery period, and consider any
        renewed discovery requests by the Estate.
               Just four days later, Wright filed a notice stating that “a third
        party has provided the necessary information and key slice to un-
        lock the encrypted file,” and that he had “produced a list of his
        bitcoin holdings, as ordered by the [m]agistrate [j]udge, to plaintiffs
        today.”
               After discovery closed and Wright had moved for summary
        judgment, the Estate filed an “Omnibus Sanctions Motion.” The
        Estate accused Wright of an ongoing and unrepentant campaign of
        forgery, perjury, and obstruction, making a mockery of the pro-
        ceeding and preventing the Estate from proving its claims. The
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        12                     Opinion of the Court                  22-11150

        Estate requested that the district court invoke its inherent authority
        to sanction Wright by imposing judgment by default, or by effec-
        tively reinstating the Deemed Facts.
                In a June 2020 order, the district court reviewed the Estate’s
        allegations in detail and denied the motion for sanctions. The court
        was sympathetic to the Estate, stating that it depicted “unsettling
        issues” about whether Wright had “committed perjury, produced
        forgeries, and engaged in judicial abuse” since the court’s January
        2020 order. But the court explained that “significant factual dis-
        putes abound” over these issues, which would ordinarily be within
        the province of the jury to decide, and it found insufficient cause to
        remove the case from the jury. The court also declined to impose
        lesser sanctions.
                                   B. Discussion
                The Estate contends that the district court abused its discre-
        tion when it vacated the Deemed Facts sanctions that the magis-
        trate judge imposed. In support of this contention, the Estate
        claims that the court applied an erroneous legal standard that con-
        flicts with Rule 37, and that, even if it applied the correct standard,
        the court failed to account for the prejudice to the Estate’s case.
               We start with a point of clarification. Although the Estate
        references the June 2020 order denying its omnibus sanctions mo-
        tion, and the allegations made therein, the Estate does not plainly
        and prominently appeal that ruling. See Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian
        Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014) (“A party fails to ade-
        quately brief a claim when he does not plainly and prominently
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                        13

        raise it, for instance by devoting a discrete section of his argument
        to those claims.” (quotation marks omitted)). Rather, the sub-
        stance of its argument relates almost entirely to the January 2020
        order vacating the Deemed Facts sanctions imposed by the magis-
        trate judge. Accordingly, the Estate has abandoned any appeal of
        the June 2020 ruling. See id.
               Thus, this appeal concerns only the January 2020 ruling. As
        to that ruling, the district court did not abuse its discretion by va-
        cating sanctions that the magistrate judge imposed that would have
        deemed as true essential factual elements of the Estate’s partner-
        ship claims. The Estate has not shown that the court relied on an
        erroneous legal standard or made a clear error of judgment.
               Rule 37(b) gives “district judges broad discretion to fashion
        appropriate sanctions for violation of discovery orders.” Consumer
        Fin. Prot. Bureau v. Brown, 69 F.4th 1321, 1330 (11th Cir. 2023)
        (cleaned up). Such sanctions may include “directing that the mat-
        ters embraced in the order or other designated facts be taken as
        established for purposes of the action, as the prevailing party
        claims,” or “striking pleadings in whole or in part.” Fed. R. Civ. P.
        37(b)(2)(A).
                 “The broad discretion of the district court to manage its af-
        fairs is governed, of course, by the most fundamental safeguard of
        fairness: the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.” Serra
        Chevrolet, Inc. v. Gen. Motors Corp., 446 F.3d 1137, 1151 (11th Cir.
        2006). “To comply with the Due Process Clause, a court must im-
        pose sanctions that are both ‘just’ and ‘specifically related to the
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        14                      Opinion of the Court                  22-11150

        particular ‘claim’ which was at issue in the order to provide discov-
        ery.” Id.
               First, we are not convinced that the district court relied on
        an erroneous legal standard. The court accurately quoted and de-
        scribed Serra Chevrolet, where we vacated a Rule 37 sanction on
        due-process grounds for lack of a “relationship with the discovery
        abuse,” not just the claim more broadly. 446 F.3d at 1152.
                Moreover, the district court’s order reflects that its sanctions
        decision was an exercise of its broad discretion in discovery mat-
        ters, not a determination that the Deemed Facts sanctions neces-
        sarily violated due process. The court described the sanctions as
        “not proper,” rather than “not authorized,” or the like. The court
        also gave Wright another chance to comply and indicated it would
        impose additional sanctions if he again failed to provide a list of his
        bitcoin holdings, which reflects that the court was yet to make a
        final sanctions decision in relation to that discovery issue.
               Second, the district court did not make a clear error of judg-
        ment in vacating the magistrate judge’s Deemed Facts sanctions.
        When the court issued its January 2020 ruling, there was a possibil-
        ity, however remote, that Wright would soon comply with the
        magistrate judge’s discovery order and provide the Estate with the
        information it had requested, mitigating any prejudice to its case
        and reducing the need for further curative measures. So it was rea-
        sonable at that time to postpone consideration of sanctions more
        drastic than an award of attorney’s fees until it became clear
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                        15

        whether the Estate would receive a list of Wright’s bitcoin hold-
        ings. Then, shortly after the court’s order, Wright in fact produced
        a list of bitcoin holdings. While the Estate disputes the origin and
        authenticity of this list, with supporting evidence, those issues were
        raised in the Estate’s omnibus sanctions motion, filed several
        months later. And the Estate has not appealed the denial of that
        subsequent decision, as we explained above, so we will not con-
        sider those matters here.
                        III. MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL
                We review a ruling on a motion for a new trial for an abuse
        of discretion. McGinnis v. Am. Home Mortg. Servicing, Inc., 817 F.3d
        1241, 1255 (11th Cir. 2016). “Deference to the district court is par-
        ticularly appropriate where a new trial is denied and the jury’s ver-
        dict is left undisturbed.” Id. (quotation marks omitted).
                A party is entitled to a new trial where opposing counsel’s
        misconduct “impaired a substantial right of the objecting party.”
        Ruiz v. Wing, 991 F.3d 1130, 1141 (11th Cir. 2021) (quotation marks
        omitted). “Inappropriate statements made by counsel will not jus-
        tify a new trial unless the remarks were such as to impair gravely
        the calm and dispassionate consideration of the case by the jury.”
        Id. (quotation marks omitted). “We consider the entire argument,
        the context of the remarks, the objection raised, and the curative
        instruction.” Id. (quotation marks omitted).
               Before trial, the district court granted the Estate’s motion in
        limine to exclude “[e]vidence about Ira Kleiman’s sibling-relation-
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        16                     Opinion of the Court                 22-11150

        ship with [David] Kleiman.” The one exception was an alleged din-
        ner conversation on Thanksgiving in 2009 in which, according to
        Ira, David made comments suggesting that he was developing
        Bitcoin with another person. But, in the court’s view, whether Ira
        “visited his brother at the hospital, spoke to him infrequently, or
        whether Mr. Kleiman mentioned Ira Kleiman to others has limited
        probative value but substantial capacity to cause undue prejudice.”
        In particular, the court stated, it raised “significant concerns” that
        jurors would decide the case based “on how ‘good’ of a brother Ira
        [Kleiman] was or whether [he] ‘deserves’ Dave [Kleiman’s] for-
        tune.”
               The Estate maintains that opposing counsel knowingly and
        repeatedly violated the in limine order by putting improper infor-
        mation before the jury. On cross-examination, Wright’s counsel
        questioned Ira about issues bearing on the sibling relationship, in-
        cluding whether Thanksgiving 2009 was the “last day you saw your
        brother in person,” whether he ever “saw [David] in the hospital,”
        whether he didn’t “learn of Dave’s death until a few days after his
        body was found,” and how frequently he spoke with his brother in
        the “last 13 months of your brother’s life.” Wright’s counsel also
        briefly showed the jury an exhibit with unredacted statements that
        Ira had “limited contact and personal knowledge as to David’s fi-
        nancial affairs throughout David’s life.” And the jury may have
        seen another unredacted exhibit stating that “Ira never saw [David]
        at the hospital.” Wright’s counsel also asked another witness, a
        close friend of David’s, how often he heard of Ira from David. The
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        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                         17

        Estate objected to some, but not all, this alleged misconduct, and
        the district court sustained some, but not all, the objections.
                Following the adverse jury verdict, the Estate moved for a
        new trial, arguing that opposing counsel’s violations of the order in
        limine so prejudiced the jury that a new trial was warranted. The
        district court disagreed and denied the motion. The court first
        found that the Estate had effectively waived its challenge by failing
        to object to some questions or to seek a remedy at trial, such as a
        curative instruction. The court further reasoned that, even assum-
        ing the claim of error was preserved, it was “not persuaded that
        [defense counsel’s] purported misconduct was so prejudicial as to
        warrant a new trial.”
              We assume without deciding that the Estate properly pre-
        served its objections to any alleged breaches of the in limine order.
        And we agree that some of the questions and comments—includ-
        ing whether Ira visited David at the hospital and how frequently he
        spoke with him—were improper and violated the in limine order.
               That said, the district court, having overseen the 21-day trial,
        was in the best position to assess whether the misconduct gravely
        impaired the jury’s dispassionate consideration of the case. Only
        the court “had the opportunity to hear the offensive remarks
        within the context of the arguments and to view their effects on
        the jury.” Vinson, 12 F.4th at 1277 (quotation marks omitted).
               The Estate has failed to show that deference to the district
        court’s decision is not appropriate here. See McGinnis, 817 F.3d at
        1255. For starters, the Estate has not addressed the court’s finding
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        18                        Opinion of the Court                      22-11150

        that some of the alleged misconduct concerned other “proper pur-
        poses,” including “establishing the implausibility of the Thanksgiv-
        ing Day 2009 conversation, relevant dates, and Ira Kleiman’s per-
        sonal knowledge of David Kleiman’s finances.” And as the court
        observed, opposing counsel “never urged the jury at any point dur-
        ing trial . . . to decide the Estate’s claims on an improper basis,” and
        the court repeatedly instructed jurors that their decision must be
        based on the evidence presented, and that they must not be influ-
        enced by any sympathy for or prejudice against any party. A jury
        is presumed to follow its instructions, and we see nothing to indi-
        cate that the jury in this case did otherwise. See United States v. Col-
        ston, 4 F.4th 1179, 1192 (11th Cir. 2021) (“We always presume that
        a jury follows its instructions.”).
               The Estate largely rests its claim of prejudice on a juror’s
        comments in a Law360 article after the trial. 4 In the article pub-
        lished on December 23, 2021, an anonymous juror was quoted as
        stating, in regard to Ira, “In three years he didn’t go to the hospital?
        That clouded my view as far as what the actual record stated.” But
        that same juror also recalled how two holdouts for the Estate had
        pored through all the evidence and “finally realized there was no
        positive connection with bitcoin,” and that the Estate had failed to

        4 Carolina Bolado, No Proof Bitcoin ‘Inventor’ Owed Friend, Juror Tells Law360,

        Law360 (December 23, 2021), available at https://www.law360.com/arti-
        cles/1451020/no-proof-bitcoin-inventor-owed-friend-juror-tells-law360
        [https://perma.cc/4QVD-CQ4A].
USCA11 Case: 22-11150     Document: 69-1      Date Filed: 10/26/2023     Page: 19 of 19

        22-11150               Opinion of the Court                        19

        convince the jury that David was involved in developing the
        Bitcoin technology or mining bitcoins.
                The Law360 article does not present grounds to grant a new
        trial. First, the juror’s comments were equivocal, at best, about the
        effect of the alleged misconduct, and they suggest that the jury
        would have found against the Estate regardless of whether any mis-
        conduct occurred. And second, these kinds of posttrial comments
        by jurors—relating to the jury’s deliberations and a juror’s mental
        processes—are not competent evidence to impeach a verdict. See
        Fed. R. Evid. 606(b)(1) (“During an inquiry into the validity of a
        verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify about any statement
        made or incident that occurred during the jury’s deliberations; the
        effect of anything on that juror’s or another juror’s vote; or any
        juror’s mental processes concerning the verdict or indictment.”);
        see also Al-Amin v. Warden Ga. Dep’t of Corr., 932 F.3d 1291, 1297
        (11th Cir. 2019) (noting that federal law “permit[s] the introduction
        of jury testimony to impeach a verdict only in rare circumstances”).
                For these reasons, the Estate has failed to show that the dis-
        trict court abused its broad discretion by denying a new trial. See
        McGinnis, 817 F.3d at 1255.
                                IV. CONCLUSION
               In sum, we affirm the district court’s judgment.
              AFFIRMED.