Court Opinion

ID: 9498181
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:10:24.873626+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:40.375620
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion with the exception of Section IV.A.3, wherein the majority holds the district court did not clearly err in calculating the total amount of workers’ compensation payments omitted as a result of the Defendants’ illegal conduct. The district court did not articulate a single reason why it disbelieved defense witness Terry Gul-brandson, who testified that only twelve percent of the workers involved in this scheme were at the “high” scaffold rate. The difference between 12 percent and 50 percent is significant, and so the district court’s unjustified figures cannot be overlooked by claiming that “precise calculation” is “virtually impossible.” Majority opinion, supra, at 843. Precise calculation is not required, but a reasoned fact-finding process is.
The majority attempts to provide a post-hoe rationalization as to how the district court could have arrived upon this fifty-fifty split, but with all due respect, this is just sheer speculation. The majority reasons, “If the district court had found that 100 percent of wages paid by RCC and SSI required workers’ compensation payments of 45 percent,” then the district court’s calculation might have been reasonable. Majority opinion, supra, at 843 (emphasis added). Unfortunately, the district court did not make that finding, and we are not authorized to speculate.
Rita Galston’s testimony also cannot fairly be said to controvert Terry Gul-brandson’s testimony regarding the per*847centage of workers at the “high” scaffold rate. Galston’s testimony was non-specific, in the sense that it did not identify whether she was referring to the “high” or “low” rate. It is questionable to infer that she was speaking of the “high” rate, since the “45 percent” figure she mentioned did not even comport with evidence showing that the high rate for the years in question ranged from about 35 to 45 percent. In light of these potential conflicts, using Gal-ston’s testimony to buttress the district court’s suspiciously convenient and otherwise unjustified calculation is simply too speculative.
The district court should have explained why it apportioned 50 percent of the workers’ compensation payments to the “high” rate and 50 percent of the payments to the “low” rate. Since it did not, and since the only evidence on point supports a substantially different apportionment, I respectfully dissent.