St. Jude Med. S.C., Inc. v. Biosense Webster, Inc.
Appeals court affirms plaintiff’s employment contract with employee is enforceable, and competitor interfering with it is liable for profits plaintiff employer lost; court notes plaintiff established causation and proved loss with reasonable certainty.
Court Decides Daubert Attack ‘Misses the Mark’
Court calls Daubert challenger’s attack on expert’s lost profits opinion “misguided”; it unduly focuses on expert’s familiarity with legal standards and fails to explain what is wrong with expert’s use of software program for projecting future damages.
No Legal Barrier to Expert’s Adjusted Lost Profits Analysis
Federal Circuit upholds lost profits award based on adjusted market share analysis, finding expert accounted for huge price disparity between patentee’s product and infringer’s product and based market elasticity discount on sound economic principles.
Pattridge v. Starks
In breach of noncompete case, appeals court finds measure of damages is not limited to net loss; statute allows damages “for the loss sustained” in addition to lost profits, and trial court properly credited and adjusted expert’s typical damages models.
Covol Fuels No. 4 v. Pinnacle Mining Co.
Court rejects defendant’s relevance attack on plaintiff expert’s opinion, noting under Daubert testimony need not “fit” a particular cause of action but is relevant where it assesses damages based on harm to plaintiff caused by defendant’s misconduct.
Some Key Takeaways From the AICPA FVS Conference
Over 1,100 attendees converged on Las Vegas for the AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services Conference 2015. BVU was there and heard some outstanding speakers and topics. Covered below are just a few of the takeaways. Future issues will cover these—and more.
High Court Finds Trial Court’s Damages Assessment Unsound
State high court strikes down trial court’s damages assessment because it included values from a business valuation when the applicable law required an analysis of the entire loss suffered by a corporation owing to a partner’s breach of fiduciary duty.
Destruction of financial evidence trips up guilty party's own experts
As a damages expert, what do you do when your own client has destroyed vital financial information? Two highly educated finance professionals working on a contract case solved this dilemma by relying exclusively on the opposing side's sales projections, only to see their analysis buckle under a Daubert challenge.
Court Approves Winstar Plaintiff’s Tax Gross Up Calculation
Court finalizes damages award to Winstar bank by adopting plaintiff’s projected tax liability on damages related to government’s breach of contract and by ordering an additional gross up award “to make plaintiff whole.”
Trial Court Misinterprets Damages Rules for Design Patent Violation
Federal Circuit rejects design patent infringement award where prevailing expert improperly apportioned the infringer’s profits and jury failed to determine infringer’s profits but, against the weight of the evidence, simply stated they equaled zero.
SIGA Technologies, Inc. v. PharmAthene, Inc.
In major pharmaceutical case, state Supreme Court finds DE Chancery did not abuse its discretion when it awarded plaintiff lump-sum expectation damages and its findings supporting the new damages determination were not clearly erroneously.
Mississippi high court sets record straight on assessing economic damages
A Mississippi trial court’s cavalier approach to determining economic damages in a dispute involving allegations of breach of fiduciary duty and usurpation of a business opportunity triggered a petition with the state Supreme Court to clarify the applicable measure of damages. The trial court used the wrong standard and accounting procedures for calculating the loss to the plaintiff, the Supreme Court decided.
Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc.
Federal Circuit upholds lost profits award based on adjusted market share analysis, finding expert accounted for huge price disparity between patentee’s product and infringer’s product and based market elasticity discount on sound economic principles.
Deflecto, LLC v. Dundas Jafine Inc.
Court calls Daubert challenger’s attack on expert’s lost profits opinion “misguided”; it unduly focuses on expert’s familiarity with legal standards and fails to explain what is wrong with expert’s use of software program for projecting future damages.
Lane v. Lampkin (II)
State high court strikes down trial court’s damages assessment because it included values from a business valuation when the applicable law required an analysis of the entire loss suffered by a corporation owing to a partner’s breach of fiduciary duty.
Nordock, Inc. v. Systems, Inc.
Federal Circuit rejects design patent infringement award where prevailing expert improperly apportioned the infringer’s profits and jury failed to determine infringer’s profits but, against the weight of the evidence, simply stated they equaled zero.
Anchor Savings Bank v. United States
Court finalizes damages award to Winstar bank by adopting plaintiff’s projected tax liability on damages related to government’s breach of contract and by ordering an additional gross up award “to make plaintiff whole.”
Daubert Allows for Generous View on Yardstick Analysis
Court rejects bright-line reliability test for yardstick analysis, saying expert’s failure to find a “nearly identical” comparator did not render analysis unreliable and inadmissible under Daubert and finding companies were similar in material respects.
Federal Circuit Sweeps Aside Lost Profits Theories and Award
Federal Circuit strikes down lost profits where patentee does not practice patents and fails to qualify for convoyed sales because of missing functional relationship between nonpatented parts it sells to related company and latter’s patented products.
Failure to Test Causation Narrative Clouds Analysis of Lost Profits
Court strikes parts of lost profits opinion, finding expert adopted plaintiff’s causation theory, “pinning the company’s overall financial performance” on defendants’ allegedly defective crane without offering supporting data or methodology to test theory ...
Federal Circuit Resists Samsung’s ‘Quest for Apportionment’
Federal Circuit rejects Samsung’s call for apportioning damages related to design patent infringement, saying the proposed treatment would conflict with the express language of the applicable statute; court upholds most of $1 billion award to Apple.
Admissibility Does Not Depend on Personal Knowledge of Facts
Appeals court says expert’s lack of personal knowledge of information undergirding lost profits calculation does not disqualify his opinion, as long as he can show experts in his field would rely on this information and it is otherwise reasonably reliable ...
Court Endorses Before and After Method for Lost Profits
In Daubert case, court accepts before and after method for lost profits and diminution of value calculation but excludes parts of expert testimony because they merely restated company assumptions and conclusions without undergoing testing from the expert.