Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc.

557 F.3d 1377, 90 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1061, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 4527, 2009 WL 595586
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMarch 9, 2009
Docket2007-1409, 2007-1436
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 557 F.3d 1377 (Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc., 557 F.3d 1377, 90 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1061, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 4527, 2009 WL 595586 (Fed. Cir. 2009).

Opinion

ORDER

LINN, Circuit Judge.

On June 2, 2008, this court entered judgment on an appeal by Mars, Incorporated (“Mars”) and a cross appeal by Coin Acceptors, Inc. (“Coinco”). That judgment affirmed-in-part and reversed-in-part the judgment of the district court, and remanded “for recalculation of damages for the period prior to 1996 and for further proceedings.” Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc., 527 F.3d 1359, 1374 (Fed.Cir.2008). Our mandate on that judgment entered on July 7, 2008. In accordance with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 41(a) and Federal Circuit Rule 41, that mandate consisted of a certified copy of this court’s final judgment and a copy of this court’s opinion.

Mars has brought a motion requesting that we recall this mandate and enter an amended mandate instructing the district court to award post-judgment interest. Specifically, Mars alleges that the mandate was deficient under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 37(b), which requires that “[i]f the court modifies or reverses a judgment with a direction that a money judgment be entered in the district court, the mandate must contain instructions about the allowance of interest.”

“[T]he power to recall a mandate should be exercised sparingly and only upon a showing of good cause....” In re Snyder, 557 F.2d 820, 821 (Cust. & Pat. App.1977); see also Calderon v. Thompson, 523 U.S. 538, 550, 118 S.Ct. 1489, 140 L.Ed.2d 728 (1998) (“In light of ‘the profound interests in repose’ attaching to the mandate of a court of appeals ... the *1379 power can be exercised only in extraordinary circumstances.”). Nevertheless, recall is appropriate when a mandate does not contain instructions concerning the allowance of interest on a money judgment as required by Rule 37(b). See Fed. R.App. P. 37 advisory committee’s note (1967) (“Since the rule directs that the matter of interest be disposed of by the mandate, in cases where interest is simply overlooked, a party who conceives himself entitled to interest from a date other than the date of entry of judgment in accordance with the mandate should be entitled to seek recall of the mandate for determination of the question.”); see also Tronzo v. Biomet, Inc., 318 F.3d 1378, 1380-81 (Fed.Cir.2003) (quoting advisory committee note approvingly); Planned Parenthood of Colwmbia/Willamette Inc. v. Am. Coal. of Life Activities, 518 F.3d 1013, 1022 (9th Cir.2008) (en banc) (recalling mandate for noncompliance with Rule 37(b)); Hall v. White, Getgey, Meyer Co., LPA, 465 F.3d 587, 593 (5th Cir.2006) (same); DeLong Equip. Co. v. Wash. Mills Electro Minerals Corp., 997 F.2d 1340, 1343 (11th Cir.1993) (same). Moreover, the Supreme Court has made clear that, when an appellate court modifies or reverses a judgment and its mandate does not provide for interest from the date of that judgment, a district court is powerless to award such interest and that an award of such interest “could be done only by amendment of the mandate.” Briggs v. Pa. R.R. Co., 334 U.S. 304, 306, 68 S.Ct. 1039, 92 L.Ed. 1403 (1948).

In this case, we reduced the amount of the district court’s damages award by holding that Mars lacked standing to recover damages on sales from 1996 to 2003. See Mars, 527 F.3d at 1369. We affirmed the award of damages to Mars at a 7% reasonable royalty rate for sales prior to 1996, and we remanded to the district court for a calculation of the amount of damages based on those sales. See id. at 1374. Our decision therefore “modifie[d]” the district court’s judgment within the meaning of Rule 37(b). Our mandate erroneously did not contain any instruction concerning an award of interest. It was therefore improper under Rule 37(b), and recall of the mandate is appropriate.

“[T]he responsibility and authority for [determining whether a party to an appeal is entitled to post-judgment interest] is assigned to the appellate tribunal.” Tronzo, 318 F.3d at 1381. “The application of Rule 37 is not unique to judgments in patent cases, and thus we look to the law of the regional circuit for guidance.” Id. In the Third Circuit, “[t]he standard for determining whether post-judgment interest should run from the original judgment ... turns on the degree to which the original judgment was upheld or invalidated on appeal.” Loughman v. Consol-Pennsylvania Coal Co., 6 F.3d 88, 97 (3d Cir.1993). The application of this standard is “often very fact specific,” and focuses on whether a case resembles more an affir-mance or a complete reversal. Id. at 98. More specifically, plaintiffs are generally entitled to post-judgment interest under Third Circuit law when “liability and damages, as finally determined, were ascertained or established in the first judgments” of the district court. Id.

In this case, the parties do not dispute that, under the Third Circuit’s Loughman test, our opinion is closer to an affirmance. This is because we did not alter the district court’s liability determination, but merely remanded for recalculation of damages for a more limited time period. See Coinco’s Opp’n Br. 14; Mars’s Reply Br. 7-8. Thus, under Third Circuit law, the date from which post-judgment interest runs in this case is May 22, 2007 — the date of the district court’s final judgment.

*1380 Coinco offers two arguments against any award of post-judgment interest to Mars. First, Coinco argues that Mars is precluded from collecting post-judgment interest during the pendency of this appeal because it unsuccessfully appealed an award of damages in its favor. Coinco relies on various cases applying an old common-law rule under which, “if a party takes an appeal from an award in his favor and is unsuccessful, he is not allowed interest pending the appeal upon what he got under the decree of the district court. The reason given has always been that by his appeal he has made it impossible for the appellee to discharge the debt....” Lauro v. United States, 168 F.2d 714, 716 (2d Cir.1948) (footnote omitted). At least one other circuit has recognized, however, that “in view of the promulgation of Rule 37, [the so-called Lauro

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557 F.3d 1377, 90 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1061, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 4527, 2009 WL 595586, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mars-inc-v-coin-acceptors-inc-cafc-2009.