First Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n of Rochester v. United States

76 Fed. Cl. 765, 2007 U.S. Claims LEXIS 186, 2007 WL 1771957
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided June 19, 2007·No. No. 95-517 C·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

GEORGE W. MILLER, Judge.

In its Opinion and Order dated April 13, 2007 (docket entry 181), First Fed. Sav. & [766]*766Loan Ass’n of Rochester v. United States, 76 Fed.Cl. 106 (2007),1 the Court found that plaintiff proved its entitlement to damages at trial in the amount of $96.581 million as a result of defendant’s breach of contract. The Court also found that First Federal suffered damages of $2 million — rather than the $11.5 million plaintiff asserted — as a result of restructuring its asset portfolio in advance of the Canada Trust transaction. Id. at 147. In light of that finding the Court concluded that plaintiff had understated the amount to be offset against the damages to which the Court held that First Federal was otherwise entitled, i.e., $96.581 million. Id. at 156-57. Pursuant to the Court’s direction in its Opinion and Order, plaintiff filed on May 15, 2007, a revised calculation of the amount to be offset against the damages established at trial (“PL’s Revised Calculation,” docket entry 182). The Government filed a response (“Def.’s Resp.,” docket entry 183) on June 12, 2007.

Plaintiffs filing attached a report by Dr. Donald M. Kaplan, who testified for plaintiff at trial as an expert witness, in which Dr. Kaplan “follow[ed] the identical process described in his trial testimony” in calculating plaintiffs damages and the appropriate offset. PL’s Revised Calculation 1. Dr. Kaplan presented the Court with two alternative calculations of the amount to be offset. In the first, he assumed no change to the quantum of damages to which he testified at trial other than the reduction, described above, of lost profit damages by $9.5 million. In light of that reduction, he calculated the offset to be $11.122 million. Id. at 2. However, Dr. Kap-lan explained, his original calculations had been performed “before the loss of [net operating losses (“NOLs”)] had been focused upon as an element of First Federal’s damages.” Id., Attach. 1, at 5. If one were to take into account the $7.4 million benefit of the NOLs, Dr. Kaplan calculated that the offset would decline to $8.061 million. Id. at 2.

Defendant objected to Dr. Kaplan’s consideration of the benefit of the NOLs on the grounds that it (1) went “beyond the Court’s directive to the party in its Order,” and (2) was “based upon the unsupported assumption that the realization of the tax benefits .would have increased First Federal’s pre-conversion capital.” Def.’s Resp. 2. Defendant also argued that “Dr. Kaplan’s revised calculations suffer from the same methodological flaws that [the Government] brought to the Court’s attention during trial.” Id. at 3. Defendant presented a report by Dr. David P. Rochester, who testified at trial as an expert witness on behalf of the Government, employing the same methodology he used at trial to calculate the offset the Government contended was appropriate. Using his methodology, Dr. Rochester calculated that the offset should be $14.381 million without taking into account the NOLs or, if the Court were to take into account the NOLs, $11.830 million. Id.

Plaintiff could have introduced evidence regarding the effect of the $7.4 million in tax benefits on plaintiffs pre-conversion capital at'trial, but did not. Defendant did not have a chance therefore to cross-examine Dr. Kap-lan on this point at trial or to offer evidence in support of its contention that the realization of tax benefits would not have increased First Federal’s pre-conversion capital. The Court is not inclined to re-open the record of this 27-day trial at this late stage in order to permit the parties to fully litigate their opposing contentions on this issue (nor has either party requested that the Court do so). Therefore, the Court concludes that the proper calculation of the offset, consistent with Dr. Kaplan’s testimony and related exhibits proffered by plaintiff at trial, should not take into account the effect of the premature lapse of plaintiffs NOLs resulting from the Canada Trust acquisition. In that regard, the Government appears not to quarrel with Dr. Kaplan’s calculation that, disregarding the NOLs, the offset should be $11.122 million, assuming arguendo that Dr. Kaplan’s methodology and damage estimates, as modified by the Court, are sound and reliable.

[767]*767In its submission, the Government argued, as it had at trial, that Dr. Kaplan’s methodology was flawed. In support of that contention the Government submitted a report by Dr. Rochester. The Court did not contemplate in its April 13, 2007, Order that the parties would reargue in their submissions the merits of the competing methodologies of their expert witnesses. Nevertheless, the Court has treated defendant’s submission as, in effect, a motion for reconsideration of a non-final order under Rule 59(a)(1) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”).2 Accordingly, the Court has again reviewed the trial testimony of Dr. Kaplan and of Dr. Rochester,3 as well as the relevant, related trial exhibits. The Court has also considered Dr. Rochester’s new report, dated June 12, 2007, which was attached to defendant’s response to plaintiffs May 15, 2007, filing. Having done so, the Court remains of the view that the evidentia-ry record, together with the Court’s understanding of the expert witnesses’ competing methodologies and the Court’s observation of those witnesses’ demeanor, fully supports the Court’s findings as to the appropriate methodology for determining plaintiffs damages and the amount of those damages. See, e.g., Citizens Fed. Bank v. United States, 474 F.3d 1314, 1318 (Fed.Cir.2007) (“The standard ... governing selection of an appropriate methodology for determining damages ... lies within the trial court’s discretion.”). The Court, in its Opinion and Order, found Dr. Kaplan to be “a knowledgeable, thorough, and credible witness.” First Federal, 76 Fed.Cl. at 121. The Court “also found Dr. Kaplan’s testimony regarding the other elements of plaintiffs claimed damages ... to Id. Nothing in the Government’s submission warrants reconsideration of the Court’s earlier findings on damages, and the Court therefore adheres to those findings as set forth in the Court’s Opinion and Order of April 13, 2007. be sound and reliable.’

In light of the foregoing, the Court finds that the amount to be offset against plaintiffs gross damages of $96,581 million is $11,122 million, the amount calculated by Dr. Kaplan without taking into account the $7.4 million benefit of plaintiffs NOLs. Thus, plaintiff is entitled to net damages in the amount of $85,459 million.4

The Court will not delay the entry of judgment in order to determine the amount, if any, of “attorneys’ fees and related nontaxable expenses,” RCFC 54(d)(2)(A), to which plaintiff may be entitled pursuant to Section 8.10 of the Financing Agreement (“Section 8.10”) or otherwise. See RCFC 58(c)(1). Section 8.10, said by Judge Merow to be a provision “perhaps unique to this Winstar case,” First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Rochester v. United States, 58 Fed.Cl. 139, 150 (2003), states:

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First Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n of Rochester v. United States, 76 Fed. Cl. 765, 2007 U.S. Claims LEXIS 186, 2007 WL 1771957 (uscfc 2007).

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