Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A.
Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A.
Opinion of the Court
OPINION AND ORDER
I. INTRODUCTION
Plaintiffs, Liberty Media Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, “Liberty”), sued defendants, Vivendi Universal, S.A. and Universal Studios, Inc. (collectively, ‘Vivendi”), alleging violations of federal securities law and breach of express warranty under New York state law. In particular, Liberty sued Vivendi for violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Rule 10b-5 (collectively, “Section 10(b)”). Liberty also sued Vivendi for breach of four different express warranties contained in the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Exchange (“Merger Agreement”) that was signed on December 16, 2001. On June 25, 2012, the jury found Vivendi liable for violating Section 10(b) and for breach of warranty. The jury awarded Liberty €765 million in damages for each cause of action.
Vivendi now renews its motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b), or, in the alternative, for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59. Vivendi argues on various grounds that Liberty’s evidence at trial was legally insufficient on both liability and damages.
For the following reasons, Vivendi’s motion is denied.
II. BACKGROUND
Familiarity with the facts and procedural background of this case is assumed. Only those facts necessary to the disposition of Vivendi’s motion will be noted.
On December 16, 2001, the parties signed the Merger Agreement, which involved, in part, a commitment for Liberty to exchange its multiThématiques (“MTH”) shares for Vivendi securities.
The Class Action was tried before a jury from October 2009 to January 2010.
The Liberty Action was tried before a jury from May to June 2012. On June 25, 2012, the jury returned its verdict, finding Vivendi liable for violating Section 10(b) and for breach of warranty.
III. APPLICABLE LAW
A defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law if, after a party has been fully heard on an issue during trial, the Court finds that “a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue ....”
consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion was made and to give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences that the jury might have drawn in his favor from the evidence. The court cannot assess the weight of conflicting evidence, pass on the credibility of the witnesses, or substitute its judgment for that of the jury.14
A jury verdict should not be set aside lightly. A court may not grant judgment as a matter of law unless: (1) there is such a “ ‘complete absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jury’s findings could only have been the result of sheer
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b),
[n]o later than 28 days after the entry of judgment ... the movant may file a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and may include an alternative or joint request for a new trial under Rule 59 ... In ruling on the renewed motion, the court may: (1) allow judgment on the verdict, if the jury returned a verdict; (2) order a new trial; or (3) direct entry of judgment as a matter of law.
The legal test for granting a new trial under Rule 59 is less stringent than for granting judgment as a matter of law. “Unlike a motion for judgment as a matter of law, a motion for a new trial may be granted even if there is substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict.”
With regard to the merits of Liberty’s claims, under New York law, a breach of warranty claim sounds “essentially in contract.”
A Section 10(b) claim requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence that, in connection with the purchase or sale of a security: (1) defendants made an untrue statement of material fact, or omitted to state a material fact which made what was said, under the circumstances, misleading; (2) defendants acted with scienter; (3) plaintiffs justifiably relied on the misstatement or omission; and (4) plaintiffs suffered an economic loss as a result of the misstatement or omission.
the required “causal link” between the alleged fraud and the subsequent decline in value of the stock when the fraud comes to light. It is typically shown by the reaction of the market to a “corrective disclosure” which reveals a prior*517 misleading statement. However, loss causation may also be shown by the “materialization of risk” method, whereby a concealed risk — here, a liquidity crisis — comes to light in a series of revealing events that negatively affect stock price over time. Unlike corrective disclosures, these events do not identify prior company statements as misleading, but they must reveal new information previously concealed and fall within the “zone of risk” concealed so that the events were foreseeable consequences of the fraud. In addition, a plaintiff must show that the loss was caused by materializations of the concealed risk and not other factors.21
IV. DISCUSSION
Vivendi offers six arguments for setting aside the jury’s verdict and granting judgment as a matter of law, or in the alternative for a new trial: (1) Liberty failed to prove causation and damages because the opinion of Liberty’s expert, Dr. Blaine Nye, is legally defective and unreliable; (2) Liberty failed to prove causation because the alleged events or disclosures that ostensibly caused Liberty’s losses did not reveal a previously undisclosed risk; (3) the jury’s damages award is not supported by any evidence in the record; (4) Liberty failed to prove Section 10(b) reliance; (5) Vivendi proved that Liberty was not obligated to close the transaction, thereby establishing an affirmative defense; and (6) Vivendi was unfairly prejudiced by the admission of evidence regarding falsity and therefore is entitled to a new trial.
I address each argument in turn.
A. Dr. Nye’s Opinion
Vivendi argues that it should be granted judgment as a matter of law because “[n]o jury should have been permitted to base a verdict on Dr. Nye’s inconsistent, unreliable, and inadmissible testimony.”
Vivendi challenges Dr. Nye’s testimony under five headings.
A number of factors may affect a company’s stock price, including fluctuations in the market as a whole, news affecting the industry to which the company belongs, and the release of information specifically related to the company.
At trial, Dr. Nye testified that he had examined each of the 166 trading days between December 16, 2001, the day on which the Merger Agreement was signed, and August 14, 2002, the date of the final alleged materialization event, to determine if there was a statistically significant decline in Vivendi’s stock price on any of those days after removing market and industry effects.
In the end, Dr. Nye identified nine days on which statistically significant negative returns resulted from materializations of Vivendi’s concealed liquidity risk.
By contrast, Vivendi’s expert, Dr. William Silber, testified that there was competing negative news on several of the materialization days that could have affected Vivendi’s stock price.
The jury was charged with the following instruction regarding damages under Section 10(b):
Liberty bears the burden of separating the alleged fraud from any other factors that may have affected Vivendi’s stock price and ascribing] some rough proportion of the whole loss to the alleged false or misleading statement. Vivendi is not liable for any loss resulting from those other non-fraud related events.42
Having heard the competing testimony of the parties’ experts, the jury found that Liberty’s reliance on Vivendi’s statements caused Liberty to suffer an economic loss of €765 million.
Vivendi now argues that Dr. Nye’s disaggregation analysis was so flawed as to be legally insufficient to support the jury’s verdict on loss causation and damages.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to upholding the jury’s verdict, I conclude that a reasonable juror could have found that none of the ostensible confounding events put forth by Vivendi were both non-fraud-related and affected Vivendi’s share price.
2. One-day Event Window
At trial, Dr. Nye testified that he measured the share price declines resulting from the materialization events by using a “one-day event window.”
Dr. Nye testified that the current academic standard for measuring the effect of the release of information on a stock’s price “is to extend the event period to the close of ... trading on the day after the release of the pertinent information.”
Vivendi argues that Dr. Nye’s one-day event window analysis is invalid because it fails to take into account the intraday movement of Vivendi’s stock price or consider the impact at market opening of overnight disclosures.
It is true, as Vivendi suggests, that Dr. Nye testified approvingly about the theory that the market will make at least some virtually instantaneous reaction to any significant news.
Moreover, even if there were an irreconcilable conflict between Dr. Nye’s theory of immediate market reaction and his analysis of the connection between materialization events and stock price changes in this case, the jury could have reasonably disregarded the former theory while accepting the latter results. Dr. Nye’s loss causation and damages analysis did not depend on the validity of his beliefs about instantaneous market reactions. Rather, his analysis depended on the assumption that markets are more or less efficient over a day,
Finally, Vivendi’s suggestion that Dr. Nye offered inconsistent testimony in prior cases regarding the extent to which markets are efficient is only relevant as an indication of Dr. Nye’s credibility.
3. May 3, 2002 Moody’s Downgrade
Vivendi argues that Dr. Nye impermissibly included in his loss causation and damages analysis a stock decline that preceded a materialization event.
Liberty counters that Dr. Nye concluded “that news of the downgrade had entered the market before that announcement— either through a leak, or because the announcement in a Dow Jones news release at 5:12 Paris time was not the first the market learned of the downgrade.”
The first two factors are together sufficient to support the finding that the pre5:12 p.m. declines in Vivendi’s share price resulted from information concerning Moody’s downgrade. A significant share decline occurred shortly before the first record evidence of the public release of news about Moody’s downgrade. Liberty’s expert testified that leaks of such news are common, and explained how such leaks unfold. The opposing party could provide no alternative cause for the share decline. In light of this evidence, and considering that direct evidence of trading based on impermissibly leaked information will presumably be difficult to prove in many cases even where such trading took place,
Because the first two factors are sufficient to support the jury’s finding, it is not necessary to determine whether the two Vivendi emails might provide additional support.
Vivendi argues that no evidence supports Dr. Nye’s choice of December 13, 2001 as the date of maximum inflation, that is, the date at which the value of Vivendi’s shares was most inflated by Vivendi’s fraud.
Vivendi’s arguments are without merit. A reasonable juror could have accepted Dr. Nye’s conclusion that the inflation of Vivendi’s stock price as a result of Vivendi’s misrepresentations reached its peak on or before December 13, 2001. Dr. Nye’s choice was not arbitrary, but rather based on plausible and sufficiently supported reasoning that was submitted to the jury for its consideration. Dr. Nye claimed that in the period leading up to December 13, there were a series of indicators that liquidity risk was very high, but these indicators were unknown to the market and to Liberty.
Vivendi is also incorrect to suggest that Dr. Nye had an obligation to derive the maximum inflation date from a quantitative analysis of Vivendi’s liquidity risk, a suggestion for which Vivendi provides no legal support.
5. Inflation Amount
Finally, Vivendi suggests that a reasonable jury could not have relied on Dr. Nye’s damages calculation, because Dr. Nye arrived at the same inflation amount based on different sets of misstatements in the Class and Liberty trials.
If Dr. Nye’s analysis were based on the assumption that each of Vivendi’s misstatements played a distinct and independently measurable role in inflating Vivendi’s share price, then Vivendi’s argument might have merit. At minimum, Liberty would not be entitled to recover for whatever inflation Dr. Nye’s analysis would suggest was already built into Vivendi’s share price at the start of trading on December 31, 2000 based on Vivendi’s two earlier misstatements regarding its liquidity risk.
Vivendi’s challenge is without merit, however, because Dr. Nye’s damages analysis did not depend on the assumption that every misrepresentation by Vivendi could be independently monetized and subtracted from Liberty’s damages.
Vivendi was free to attempt to persuade the jury to reject Dr. Nye’s relatively simple method for determining loss causation and damages in favor of a more sophisticated one. Using a different method, it might in theory have been possible to offer a more precise causal analysis, one that
Finally, a reasonable juror could have concluded that where losses result from a party’s failure to correct a false impression it created that a risk does not exist, the losses may be the same whether the party failed to correct the false impression on twenty-five occasions over one year or fifty-seven occasions over a year and a half. Either way, plaintiffs may suffer the same losses as a result of the materialization of the risk.
B. Disclosure of Previously Undisclosed Risk
The jury was instructed that for Liberty to establish loss causation in its Section 10(b) claim, it was required to “prove both that the loss it suffered was foreseeable and that the loss was caused by events that revealed information concerning Vivendi’s true liquidity risk that previously had been concealed by the false/untrue or misleading statements.”
Liberty responds that Vivendi’s loss causation argument is waived under Rule 50(b) because it did not appear in Vivendi’s Rule 50(a) Motion.
[Bjecause the Rule 50(b) motion is only a renewal of the preverdict motion, it can be granted only on grounds advanced in the preverdiet motion. The earlier motion informs the opposing party of the challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and affords a clear opportunity to provide additional evidence that may be available.103
“As to any issue on which proper Rule 50 motions were not made, JMOL may not properly be granted by the district court ... unless that action is required in order to prevent manifest injustice.”
Waiver under Rule 50, however, does not imply waiver under Rule 59.
If the significance of the truth is such as to cause a reasonable investor to consider seriously a zone of risk that would be perceived as remote or highly unlikely*528 by one believing the fraud, and the loss ultimately suffered is within that zone, then a misrepresentation or omission as to that information may be deemed a foreseeable or proximate cause of the loss.107
Vivendi infers from this that “there can be no loss causation unless a reasonable investor misled by the fraud would have thought it ‘remote or highly unlikely’ that the event causing his or her loss would occur.”
Second, the Second Circuit distinguished in Omnicom between the proof of loss causation based on a theory of corrective disclosure, and proof of loss causation based on a theory of materialization of the risk.
Vivendi infers from Omnicom that Liberty had the burden to prove that “the allegedly corrective events” in the present case “related to the ‘specific misrepresentations alleged’ ” in the present case.
Vivendi’s attempt to suggest that the liquidity problems revealed in 2002 had “nothing to do” with the liquidity risk concealed in 2001 is unpersuasive. A reasonable juror could have concluded that Vivendi had a need for cash in late June 2002, despite the asset and share sales mentioned by Vivendi, precisely because of the sources of liquidity risk it concealed in 2001. In fact, the intervening asset sales strengthen rather than weaken the chain of causation between the concealed liquidity risk in 2001 and the liquidity problems in 2002. It would be easier for Vivendi to argue that its liquidity problems in June 2002 were unrelated to its liquidity risk in December 2001 if Vivendi had purchased rather than sold assets in the intervening months. In that case, Vivendi could have argued that the June 2002 problems were the result of risk created by the new purchases rather than the result of any liquidity risk existing in December 2001.
Vivendi’s arguments regarding the other materialization days are equally unpersuasive. Vivendi repeatedly suggests that the materialization events “revealed nothing,”
C. Damages
The jury awarded €765 million in damages.
Vivendi argues that the jury’s damages award is not supported by any evidence in the record and must be rejected.
In any case, Vivendi’s argument is probably waived.
Any damages you award must have a reasonable basis in the evidence and may not be based on speculation. Damages need not be proven with mathematical certainty, but there must be enough evidence for you to make a reasonable estimate of damage.141
The jury heard Dr. Nye’s and Dr. Silber’s calculations and apparently found the former largely but not entirely credible. If the jury discounted Dr. Nye’s calculation by roughly ten percent, the jury acted appropriately and within the bounds of its instructions. Even Vivendi seems to acknowledge the appropriateness of such discounting: Vivendi approvingly notes that the jury in the Class Action awarded roughly half the damages calculated by Dr. Nye because the jury “found Dr. Nye’s calculations non-credible by a factor of 50%.”
The question remains, however: if the jury did find Dr. Nye roughly ninety percent credible, why did it award €765 million in damages, which is 90.86% of €842 million, rather than a simple, round 90% of €842 million (that is, €757.8 million)? One possible answer would be that the jury, recognizing the many sources of imprecision in the damages calculations in this case, conceived of Dr. Nye’s damages as “roughly €850 million,” and then discounted that number by ten percent. Ninety percent of €850 million is exactly €765 million. Another possible answer would be that the jury subtracted €2.06 per share from Dr. Nye’s €22.52 per share inflation calculation by partially or wholly discounting one or more of the materialization events, as noted above, or by partially or wholly incorporating one or more of Dr.
It is hopeless to attempt to determine which specific materialization events, if any, the jury might have questioned; or which specific confounding events, if any, it might have incorporated; and what specific degrees of credence it gave to either or both. The jury’s deliberations cannot be deduced from the number 77, nor from the number 2.06. But while I cannot know for sure which calculations the jury actually made, “ ‘a jury has wide discretion in determining damages, so long as it has a reasonable basis.’ ”
Finally, Vivendi argues that the Court should grant remittitur and reduce Liberty’s award because it “deviates materially” from reasonable compensation as measured by awards in similar cases, in violation of section 5501(c) of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”).
In reviewing a money judgment in an action in which an itemized verdict is required by rule forty-one hundred eleven of this chapter in which it is contended that the award is excessive or inadequate and that a new trial should have been granted unless a stipulation is entered to a different award, the appellate division shall determine that an award is excessive or inadequate if it deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation.149
The only subsections of CPLR § 4111 that require an itemized verdict are subsections (d) and (e), which concern, respectively, “medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice actions,” and “personal injury, injury to property or wrongful death.” Neither Liberty’s Section 10(b) claim nor its breach of warranty claim fall within these tort law categories. Nevertheless, Vivendi points to past decisions in which federal courts have applied CPLR § 5501(c) outside of the tort context.
Thus, even if I were persuaded by Vivendi’s argument that the jury’s verdict on the breach of warranty claim is excessive under section 5501(c) — which I am not
D. Section 10(b) Reliance
Reliance by Liberty upon Vivendi’s “deceptive acts is an essential element of the § 10(b) private cause of action.”
a rebuttable presumption of reliance in two different circumstances. First, if there is an omission of a material fact by one with a duty to disclose, the investor to whom the duty was owed need not provide specific proof of reliance. Second, under the fraud-on-the-market doctrine, reliance is presumed when the statements at issue become public. The public information is reflected in the*534 market price of the security. Then it can be assumed that an investor who buys or sells stock at the market price relies upon the statement.154
The jury instructions reflected these principles:
Liberty must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that it relied upon the statements Vivendi made to the public. In order to satisfy this element, Liberty must prove that it read or heard the false and misleading statement and relied on it, and that its reliance was reasonable and justified----
What Liberty must prove to establish reliance depends on whether the particular statement in question was a misstatement or an omission. To prove that it relied on a misstatement that Vivendi made, Liberty must prove that, but for the misstatement that Vivendi made, Liberty would not have signed the Merger Agreement.
With respect to an omission — that is Vivendi’s failure to state a material fact that was necessary to prevent the statements that were made from being misleading under the circumstances— Liberty is entitled to a presumption of reliance. An omission is material if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable investor would have considered the omitted fact to be important in making investment decisions regarding Vivendi’s stock.155
The instructions then described how Vivendi could rebut the presumption of reliance regarding material omissions. The instructions also reflected my ruling before trial that the fraud-on-the-market presumption only applied in a very limited sense.
At trial, Liberty introduced evidence that Robert Bennett, Liberty’s CEO, directed Liberty Vice President Neal Dermer to perform due diligence and formulate a recommendation on a Vivendi investment; Bennett and John Malone, Liberty’s Chairman, expected Dermer to review public information about Vivendi, including SEC filings and press releases; during his review, Dermer read all or nearly all of the twenty-five material misrepresentations presented to the jury;
Vivendi argues that based on the evidence at trial, Liberty “utterly failed” to prove reliance under Section 10(b),
The only legal support Vivendi offers for this position is a brief 1987 decision, Zaro v. Mason, in which the District Court found that three individual plaintiffs had failed to show Section 10(b) rebanee on a misstatement in the offering memo for a limited real estate partnership.
It is a general rule “ ‘that a corporation is charged with constructive knowledge ... of all material facts of which its officer or agent receives notice or acquires knowledge while acting in the course of employment within the scope of his or her authority.’ ”
E. Vivendi’s Obligation to Close the Transaction
Even if Liberty justifiably relied on Vivendi’s fraud in signing the Merger Agreement on December 16, 2001, Vivendi could have broken the chain of causation between this justifiable reliance and Liberty’s losses by showing that before Liberty closed the transaction, on May 7, 2002, Liberty knew or should have known of Vivendi’s fraud and was free to walk away.
after signing the Merger Agreement on December 16, 2001 but prior to closing on the Agreement on May 7, 2002, (1) Liberty knew or should have known of Vivendi’s fraud, such that Liberty’s continued reliance on the statements made on or before December 16, 2001, was utterly unreasonable, foolish, or knowingly blind, and ... (2) Liberty could have walked away from its obligations under the Merger Agreement.172
Questions 10 and 11 on the Special Verdict Form addressed this defense. Question 10 asked: “Has Vivendi proven ... that Liberty was not legally obligated to close the transaction embodied in the Merger Agreement?” If the jury answered “NO,” the form told the jury to proceed to Question 12, the calculation of Section 10(b) damages. If the jury answered “YES,” the form told the jury to proceed to Question 11, which asked: “Has Liberty proven ... that Liberty’s decision to close the Merger Agreement, on May 7, 2002, in reliance on any of the statements set forth in Table A caused Liberty to suffer an economic loss?”
After deliberation, the jury answered “NO” to Question 10, and — as instructed— proceeded to the calculation of damages in Question 12 without addressing the issue of post-signing reliance in Question ll.
It is true that Vivendi filed its Rule 50(a) motion at the close of plaintiffs’ case. But Vivendi could have moved under Rule 50(a) again at the close of evidence, before the jury began deliberations.
First, with regard to the Registration Statement condition, a reasonable juror could have found the following facts: (1) Under the Merger Agreement, the parties agreed that if Vivendi had not met the closing conditions by the end of September 2002, either party could walk away from the deal.
Vivendi does not dispute that a reasonable jury could have found these facts.
Setting aside for a moment the issues raised by the May 7 Letter Agreement, discussed below, and assuming provisionally that none of the other closing conditions were unmet when Liberty closed, I turn to the language of Section 6.03 of the Merger Agreement. This section states in relevant part: “The obligation of the Liberty Parties to consummate the Transactions is subject to the satisfaction on the Closing Date of the following conditions, any one or more of which conditions may be waived ...”
As this chain of reasoning already suggests, however, there is another, more significant sense in which Liberty’s decision to close on May 7, prior to the effective date of the registration statement, had no effect on its obligation to close on the Merger Agreement. Section 6.03 does not state that Liberty was free to walk away from the Merger Agreement until the mordent when the SEC’ declared the Registration Statement effective. To the contrary, as the parties understood,
'A reasonable juror could thus have found that Vivendi did not prove the Registration Statement condition provided Liberty with an ayenue for avoiding its legal obligation to close the Merger Agreement. Vivendi’s challenge to the jury’s rejection of Vivendi’s closing-conditions defense is without merit to the extent that the challenge is based on the Registration Statement condition.
I now turn to the. effect of the May 7 Letter Agreement, which was excluded from the foregoing analysis. As noted above, in the Letter Agreement, signed on the day of closing, Liberty waived the Registration Statement condition in exchange for a modification in another provision of the Merger Agreement.
Second, as noted above, another closing condition in the Merger Agreement required Vivendi to obtain a waiver of the right of first refusal held by other holders of MTH shares.
The jury heard conflicting evidence regarding the satisfaction of the MTH waiver condition. The dispute between the parties turns in large part on a letter that Vivendi forwarded to Liberty on March 19, 2002. At the time, Vivendi presented the letter' as “confirming that Lagardere Active Broadcast will not exercise its right of first refusal under the Multithematique Cooperation Agreement.”
On the one hand, Vivendi notes that prior to closing, Liberty itself questioned whether the Lagardere Letter satisfied the MTH waiver condition.
Based on the evidence introduced at trial, a reasonable juror could have found that Liberty was not free to walk away from the Merger Agreement based on the MTH waiver condition having not been satisfied. While the evidence suggested uncertainty as to whether the Lagardere Letter satisfied the MTH waiver condition, none of the evidence established that the Letter in fact failed to satisfy the condition. A reasonable juror could have found that Liberty insisted on the Indemnification Agreement in order to protect itself against the risk created by the uncertainty around the Lagardere Letter, not because it had been definitively established that the Letter failed to satisfy the waiver condition. The fact that Liberty questioned the validity of the Letter before, and now defends it — while Vivendi defended its validity before, and now questions it — illustrates the lack of clarity regarding the effect of the Letter on the waiver condition.
In the face of such uncertainty, it is appropriate to defer to the jury’s findings. Because a reasonable juror could have found that the MTH waiver condition was adequately satisfied despite the lack of certainty regarding the legal effect of the Lagardere Letter, the waiver condition does not provide a basis for concluding that the jury’s answer to Question 10 was seriously erroneous.
Viewing the evidence concerning both the Registration Statement condition and the waiver condition together, a reasonable juror could have found that Liberty was never free to walk away from the Merger Agreement based bn unsatisfied closing conditions. The jury’s answer to Question 10 was thus not seriously erroneous, and there was no need for the jury to answer Question ll. Vivendi is not entitled to a new trial under Rule 59.
F. Challenges to Admitted Evidence
Vivendi argues that at trial Liberty introduced “highly prejudicial evidence that was not relevant to any issue before the jury,” and that as a result Vivendi should be granted a new trial under Rule 59, which permits the granting of a new trial “ ‘if substantial errors were made in admitting or excluding evidence.’ ”
The evidence challenged by Vivendi related to: (1) Vivendi having engaged in “earnings management” to boost its reported earnings; (2) Vivendi having failed to disclose the role of one-time “purchase accounting benefits” in its reported EBITDA growth; (3) Vivendi having concealed its obligation to purchase an additional stake in a Moroccan telephone company, Maroc Telecom; and (4) Vivendi having failed to consolidate earnings with an affiliate, Telco, which allowed Vivendi to report less debt.
Liberty argues that Vivendi’s evidentiary challenges are waived because Vivendi failed to object when the Court issued its pretrial rulings limiting Liberty’s evidence and, for the most part, failed to object during trial to the introduction of the evidence it now contests.
Thus, Vivendi’s challenges to the evidence introduced at trial were not waived. They are, however, without merit. First, some discussion of the four categories of evidence challenged by Vivendi was obviously necessary for the jury to have a basic understanding of the facts of the case. Vivendi is incorrect to the extent that it argues .the jury should have determined — or indeed. could have determined — whether Liberty suffered damages caused by its justifiable reliance on Vivendi’s fraud, without being exposed to relatively detailed evidence concerning the nature of that fraud and how the fraud was causally related to Liberty’s losses.
In addition, the jury was instructed that Liberty was required to “show that its reliance was reasonable or justified”:
[I]f through minimal diligence Liberty should have discovered the statements were false or misleading, Liberty’s reliance would not be justified. In deciding*544 whether Liberty justifiably relied on the misstatements, you may consider evidence of:
3. Liberty’s access to relevant information;
4. Vivendi’s concealment of the fraud;
5. Liberty’s opportunity to detect the fraud; and
6. the generality or specificity of the misrepresentation.221
Much of the evidence that Vivendi now challenges was relevant to showing how difficult it would have been for Liberty to uncover Vivendi’s fraud, and thus that Liberty’s reliance on the fraud was justified.
Second, the evidence challenged by Vivendi was not unfairly prejudicial, and certainly was not “so clearly prejudicial to the outcome of the trial”
In sum, Vivendi has neither provided grounds for revisiting my pretrial evidentiary rulings, nor provided persuasive evidence that Liberty departed from those rulings at trial in such a way as to warrant a new trial.
V. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Vivendi’s renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the alternative, for a new trial pursuant to Rule 59, is DENIED. The Clerk of Court is not required to take any action, as there
SO ORDERED.
. See Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., No. 03 Civ. 2175, 2013 WL 105776, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 9, 2013) (ordering entry of final judgment). The jury was instructed as follows: "If you determine that Liberty is entitled to damages on both its breach of warranty claims and its Section 10(b) claims, you should award whatever amount of damages you find that Liberty suffered for each of these claims even though this may appear to award the same damages twice. In entering the judgment, the Court will ensure that Liberty does not obtain double recovery for any injury you find that it suffered.” Jury Charge ("Jury Charge”), Exhibit ("Ex.”) 1 to 8/20/12 Declaration of Julie B. Rubenstein, Liberty’s counsel, in Opposition to Defendants' Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law Pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial Pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Ruben-stein Decl.”), at 2930 (emphasis in original).
. See Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., 861 F.Supp.2d 262, 268 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).
. See id.
. See Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., 842 F.Supp.2d 587, 589-90 (S.D.N.Y. 2012) (citing Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., No. 03 Civ. 2175).
. See id. (citing In re Vivendi, S.A. Sec. Litig., No. 02 Civ. 5571).
. See In re Vivendi Universal, S.A. Sec. Litig., 765 F.Supp.2d 512, 521 (S.D.N.Y. 2011). The two types of shares originally at issue were "ordinary shares,” which "traded primarily on the Paris Bourse, and did not trade on any U.S. exchange,” and "American Deposity Receipts” ("ADRs”), which “were listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange.” Id. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. National Austl. Bank Ltd., - U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2869, 177 L.Ed.2d 535 (2010), Judge Holwell dismissed the claims of purchasers of ordinary shares. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 533-34.
. See Liberty Media, 842 F.Supp.2d at 589.
. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 520.
. See Liberty Media, 861 F.Supp.2d at 272-74.
. See Liberty Media, 2013 WL 105776, at *1.
. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(1).
. Tolbert v. Queens Coll., 242 F.3d 58, 70 (2d Cir. 2001) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Accord Caceres v. Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 631 F.3d 620, 622 (2d Cir. 2011).
. Altria Grp., Inc. v. United States, 658 F.3d 276, 290 (2d Cir. 2011) (quoting Kosmynka v. Polaris Indus., Inc., 462 F.3d 74, 79 (2d Cir. 2006)). "It is rare that the party having the burden of proof on an issue at trial is entitled to a directed verdict.” Granite Computer Leasing Corp. v. Travelers Indem. Co., 894 F.2d 547, 551 (2d Cir. 1990) (citing Service Auto Supply Co. of P.R. v. Harte & Co., 533 F.2d 23, 24-25 (1st Cir. 1976); Powers v. Continental Cas. Co., 301 F.2d 386, 388 (8th Cir. 1962)).
. Caruolo v. John Crane, Inc., 226 F.3d 46, 54 (2d Cir. 2000) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
. Townsend v. Benjamin Enters., Inc., 679 F.3d 41, 51 (2d Cir. 2012) (quoting Medforms, Inc. v. Healthcare Mgmt. Solutions, Inc., 290 F.3d 98, 106 (2d Cir. 2002)).
. CBS, Inc. v. Ziff-Davis Publ’g Co., 75 N.Y.2d 496, 503, 554 N.Y.S.2d 449, 553 N.E.2d 997 (1990).
. See Promuto v. Waste Mgmt., Inc., 44 F.Supp.2d 628, 642 (S.D.N.Y. 1999); Ainger v. Michigan Gen. Corp., 476 F.Supp. 1209, 1220-21 (S.D.N.Y. 1979). See also CBS, 75 N.Y.2d at 503, 554 N.Y.S.2d 449, 553 N.E.2d 997.
. See Dura Pharms., Inc. v. Broudo, 544 U.S. 336, 341-42, 125 S.Ct. 1627, 161 L.Ed.2d 577 (2005); In re Salomon Analyst Metromedia Litig., 544 F.3d 474, 478 n. 1 (2d Cir. 2008).
. In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 555 (citations omitted).
. See Vivendi’s Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants’ Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law Pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial Pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Viv. Mem.”) at i-ii. Because Vivendi offers no arguments in support of its previously rejected contention that "Liberty’s breach of warranty claims should have resulted in dismissal under the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 ('SLU-SA’),” and that "Liberty was not entitled to collateral estoppel with respect to the falsity, materiality, and scienter elements of Liberty's Section 10(b) claim and partial summary judgment with respect to section 3.11 of the Merger Agreement,” I will not repeat the Court’s reasoning here. Viv. Mem. at 3 n. 2. See also Liberty Media, 861 F.Supp.2d at 264-66, 269-74.
. Viv. Mem. at 2, 5-6.
. See id. at 5.
. Jury Charge at 27. See generally In re Vivendi Universal, S.A. Sec. Litig., 634 F.Supp.2d 352, 360 (S.D.N.Y. 2009) ("Proving loss causation is prescribed by statute for actions under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5.” (citing 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4(b)(4))).
. See Viv. Mem. at 6.
. See Dura, 544 U.S. at 342-43, 125 S.Ct. 1627 (noting that a lower stock price "may reflect, not the earlier misrepresentation, but changed economic circumstances, changed investor expectations, new industry-specific or firm-specific facts, conditions, or other events”).
. See Jury Charge at 27.
. See In re Flag Telecom Holdings, Ltd. Sec. Litig., 574 F.3d 29, 36 (2d Cir. 2009) (quoting Dura, 544 U.S. at 342-43, 125 S.Ct. 1627). Accord In re Vivendi, 634 F.Supp.2d at 364-65 (holding that "[t]o demonstrate the connection between the events and the share price declines, plaintiffs must: (1) show a correlation between news of the event and the declines; and (2) disaggregate the declines or some rough percentage of the declines from losses resulting from other, non-fraud-related events.” (citing Dura, 544 U.S. at 342-43, 125 S.Ct. 1627; Lattanzio v. Deloitte & Touche LLP, 476 F.3d 147, 158 (2d Cir. 2007))).
. See Transcript of May-June 2012 Liberty Action Trial ("Tr.”) 6/13 at 18781891; Tr. 6/14 at 1911; Excerpts from Dr. Blaine Nye’s Demonstrative Slides (“Viv. Nye Slides”), Ex. 1 to 7/23/12 Declaration of Caitlyn M. Campbell, Vivendi’s counsel, in Support of Defendants’ Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law Pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial Pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Campbell Decl.”), at 86.
. See Tr. 6/14 at 1903:9-1904:23.
. See Tr. 6/13 at 1878:6-10.
. SeeTr. 6/14 at 1911:5-1912:5.
. See Tr. 6/15 at 2121:15-2122:6 ("Q. Were there days where there were statistically significant declines of Vivendi stock net of market and industry that you looked at and did not include in the damages calculation? A. Sure. Those were all taken out.”).
. Tr. 6/14 at 1936:4-23. Liberty provides no citation to Dr. Nye explicitly stating that he
. Id. at 2051:14.
. See Tr. 6/13 at 1879:1-8.
. See Tr. 6/19 at 2564-2581.
. Id. at 2564:20-22. See also Viv. Mem. at 7.
. Tr. 6/20 at 2773:3-4.
. See, e.g., id. at 2843-2845. To the extent that the ostensible confounding events were liquidity-related and revealed Vivendi’s concealed liquidity risk, they would not be confounding events, but materializations of the risk.
. Jury Charge at 31.
. See Special Verdict Form, Ex. 21 to Campbell Decl., at 7. The discrepancy between Dr. Nye’s damages calculation and the jury's award is discussed below in Part IV.C.
. See Viv. Mem. at 8.
. See id. at 5-8; Vivendi’s Reply Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Defendants' Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter'of Law Pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial Pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Viv. Reply”) at 2.
. Viv. Reply at 2.
. See Tr. 6/14 at 2051:14.
. The absence of confounding events during the nine materialization event windows might also be explained by Dr. Nye having excluded days containing non-fraud related declines prior to selecting the nine materialization event windows, though Dr. Nye’s testimony was unclear on this point. See Tr. 6/15 at 2121:15-2122:6.
. In fact, it is not clear that the jury entirely accepted Dr. Nye’s testimony and rejected Dr. Silber’s on the issue of confounding events. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the jury’s reduction of Dr. Nye’s damages calculation could have been based in whole or in part on the conclusion that some of Dr. Silber's confounding events should have been factored into Dr. Nye’s analysis. Thus, even if I were to accept Vivendi’s suggestion that Dr. Nye’s rejection of all the ostensible confounding events on the nine materialization days fatally undermined his analysis, which I do not, Vivendi would still not necessarily be entitled to judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, because the jury’s damages award could be upheld as having incorporated at least some of the confounding events that Dr. Nye rejected.
. Tr. 6/14 at 1908-1909.
. See id. at 1906, 1908; Viv. Nye Slides at 86.
. See Tr. 6/14 at 1905-1906.
. Id. at 1905.
. Id. (citing Mark L. Mitchell & Jeffry M. Netter, The Role of Financial Economics in Securities Fraud Cases: Applications at the Securities and Exchange Commission, 49 Bus. Law. 545, 559 (1994)).
. See, e.g., id. at 2058:11-16, 2602:2-21 (regarding the May 3, 2002 materialization event).
. See id. at 2075:7-2077:20 (regarding the June 21, 2002 materialization event).
. See Viv. Mem. at 8.
. Id. at 10.
. Id. at 11.
. See Def. Mem. at 10. Dr. Nye’s most direct statement along these lines may have been when he concluded a discussion of how the market acts on news by stating: "The information starts to hit the market immediately." Tr. 6/14 at 2081:16-17. It is less clear that Dr. Nye endorsed the notion that when news arrives overnight, “there is an initial reaction that’s impounded into the opening price." Id. at 1907:20-21. This quotation from Dr. Nye's direct examination, presented by Vivendi as Dr. Nye’s acknowledgment of the stated principle, see Viv. Mem. at 11, in fact appeared in the context of Dr. Nye's summary of an article. See Tr. 6/14 at 1907:19-20. To the extent that any conflict exists between the stated principle and Dr. Nye’s loss causation and damages analysis, the jury could reasonably have inferred that Dr. Nye did not endorse the stated principle. Alternately, the jury could reasonably have disregarded the stated principle and still accepted Dr. Nye’s loss causation and damages analysis: the two are logically independent. That is, one can believe that significant overnight news does not always display an impact at the opening of trading and still believe that the nine materialization events identified by Dr. Nye caused the share declines in Dr. Nye's one-day event windows.
. See Liberty's Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants’ Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law Pursuant to Rule 50(b), or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial Pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Lib. Mem.”) at 9-11.
. See Viv. Mem. at 10.
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/15 at 2103:19-21, 2104:24-2105:1.
. 6/14 Tr. at 1905.
. See Viv. Mem. at 8-11.
. See id. at 9-10. The jury was specifically charged that the prior inconsistent statements of non-party witnesses were introduced "solely for the purpose of attacking the credibility of the witness.” Jury Charge at 11. In Vivendi’s summation, Vivendi’s attorney placed the question of Dr. Nye's credibility squarely before the jury. See Tr. 6/21 at 2961:6-15 (Vivendi's argument that based on inconsistent testimony in prior cases, "Dr. Nye is simply not worthy of anybody’s belief”).
. See Tolbert, 242 F.3d at 70.
. See Viv. Mem. at 11.
. See id. at 11-12 (citing Tr. 6/14 at 2058:8-2059:1; Tr. 6/19 2550:15-21).
. Lib. Mem. at 11 (citing Excerpts of Dr. Blaine Nye’s Demonstrative Slides ("Lib. Nye Slides”), Ex. 8 to Rubenstein Decl., at 3435, 37; Tr. 6/14 at 2066:7-2067:25).
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/15 at 2125:1-20.
. See Tr. 6/19 at 2551:3-8.
. See Lib. Mem. at 12 (citing 5/2/02 Email from Eileen McLaughlin to Guillaume Hannezo ("McLaughlin Email”), Ex. 9 to Ruben-stein Decl.; 5/2/02 Email from Laurence Daniel to Guillaume Hannezo ("Daniel Email”), Ex. 10 to Rubenstein Decl.).
. The jury was repeatedly instructed to use its common sense in finding the facts. See Jury Charge at 8, 12, 13, 15.
. In fact, it is unclear whether the jury made this finding. The jury may have discounted Dr. Nye's damages award in part based on a rejection of Dr. Nye’s theory that the share decline prior to 5:12 p.m. resulted from information about Moody’s downgrade. Drawing all inferences in favor of upholding the jury’s verdict, the jury's verdict could be upheld on this basis even if Vivendi’s challenge to Dr. Nye’s May 3 analysis were successful, which it is not.
. One of the internal Vivendi emails from May 2 reports a third party’s statement that Vivendi stock was being shorted because hedge funds thought Vivendi would soon be downgraded by Moody's. See McLaughlin Email. The other reports that a third party heard Moody’s could downgrade Vivendi. See Daniel Email. At trial, I sustained Vivendi’s hearsay objection to Dr. Nye’s reliance on the emails for the truth of the third parties’ assertions. See Tr. 6/14 at 1932:921. But I allowed the admission of the emails for the purpose of showing "Vivendi was aware that people were saying this.” Id. The mere fact that on May 2 Vivendi was discussing possible speculation concerning trading based on a looming Moody’s downgrade strengthens the plausibility of Dr. Nye’s theory that news of the downgrade might have leaked prior to any formal announcement, or at the veiy least that such a leak would not have been out of the ordinary.
.See Lib. Mem. at 11. Liberty suggests that Vivendi’s argument is not a sufficiency challenge but is in fact a renewed Daubert challenge to Dr. Nye’s reliability, and that Vivendi waived the Daubert challenge by failing to raise it in either of its two prior Daubert motions in this case. See id. Vivendi argues that it sufficiently preserved its challenge to Dr. Nye’s inclusion of the pre-5:12 p.m. May 3 share decline through general arguments made in prior briefing. See Viv. Reply at 5 n.6.
. See Viv. Mem. at 13.
. See id. at 14.
. See id. at 13.
. See id. at 13-14.
. See Lib. Nye Slides at 10.
. See id. at 11.
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/14 at 2022:22-24.
. See Viv. Mem. at 13-14.
. See id. at 14.
. See Class Action Verdict Form, Ex. 5 to Campbell Decl., at tbl. A ("Class Action Misstatement or Omission Table”).
. See Special Verdict Form, Ex. 13 to Rubenstein Decl., at tbl. A (“Liberty Misstatement or Omission Table”).
. See Viv. Mem. at 15 & n. 9 (citing 12/16/01 Agreement and Plan of Merger and Exchange ("Merger Agreement”), Ex. 6 to Campbell Decl, §§ 3.08, 3.11).
. See Class Action Misstatement or Omission Table.
. See Viv. Mem. at 15 (citing Tr. 6/14 at 2012:11-23).
. Once again, however, even if I were to accept this conclusion, which I do not, the jury’s verdict would not need to be disturbed. The jury could have corrected for Dr. Nye’s hypothetical error on this point by discounting Dr. Nye's damages calculation.
. As Vivendi itself recognized in its 50(a) motion, “Dr. Nye did not calculate the amount of inflation in Vivendi’s share price that was caused by any particular alleged misstatement or omission identified by Liberty.” Vivendi's 6/15/12 Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law ("Viv. 50(a) Mot.”) at 14.
. Jury Charge at 29.
. It is true that viewing the liquidity risk in this case in such a binary way — as though investors only considered whether the risk existed, or not, rather than viewing the risk in terms of the likelihoods of various crisis-related events — could gloss over potentially significant differences between the damages suffered by the Class and by Liberty. For example, if some of the statements or omissions admitted in the Class Action trial but not in the Liberty trial had suggested that there was no more than a five percent chance of a liquidity crisis, while the most positive statements or omissions admitted in the Liberty trial had suggested that there was no more than a twenty-five percent chance of a liquidity crisis, and if the market inflated Vivendi’s stock price based on the claims of a five percent or smaller risk, then Liberty would not have been entitled to damages resulting from the fall in Vivendi's stock price from the height it actually reached based on the five percent claims to the height it would have reached if the market had only heard the twenty-five percent claims. Such speculation, however, hardly compels the striking of Dr. Nye's testimony, the entry of judgment as a matter of law, or the granting of a new trial. Dr. Nye's methods in the present case were adequate to meet the Second Circuit’s standards for the proof of loss causation and damages, according to which plaintiffs are not " 'required to allege the precise loss attributable to defendants’ fraud.” In re Vivendi, 634 F.Supp.2d at 365 (quoting Lentell v. Merill Lynch & Co., Inc., 396 F.3d 161, 177 (2d Cir. 2005)). See also Lattanzio, 476 F.3d at 158 (suggesting that Section 10(b) obligates plaintiffs to allege facts "that would allow a factfinder to ascribe some rough proportion of the whole loss” to defendants' misstatements).
. Jury Charge at 27.
. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 555-60.
. See Lib. Mem. at 16.
. Id. at 18 (quoting Lentell, 396 F.3d at 173; In re Omnicom Grp., Inc. Sec. Litig., 597 F.3d 501, 511 (2d Cir. 2010)).
. See Jury Charge at 27-28; Lib. Mem. at 16-18 (analyzing Lentell, 396 F.3d at 173; In re Omnicom, 597 F.3d at 511).
. See Lib. Mem. at 16, 23.
. See id. at 15.
. Lore v. City of Syracuse, 670 F.3d 127, 153 (2d Cir. 2012) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 Advisory Committee Note (2006) (emphasis omitted)).
. Id. (citing Kirsch v. Fleet St., Ltd., 148 F.3d 149, 164 (2d Cir. 1998); Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty & Dev. Corp., 136 F.3d 276, 287 (2d Cir. 1998)).
. Compare Viv. 50(a) Mot. at 11-15; and Viv. Mem. at 16-18. Vivendi's Rule 50(a) brief states that “Liberty has failed to prove that Vivendi’s false or misleading statements caused the losses they suffered.” Viv. 50(a) Mot. at 2. But the details of Vivendi’s Rule 50(a) loss causation argument contain no hint that materialization events need to be perceived as “remote or highly unlikely,” or that materialization events must reveal some fact directly traceable to the "specific misrepresentation alleged.” Id. at 2, 11-15. Vivendi suggests in its reply brief that its citation of Lentell and Omnicom in the Rule 50(a) motion somehow provide a sufficient foundation for the arguments in its renewed motion. See Viv. Reply at 6 n. 7. However, Vivendi cited those cases in the earlier brief for different legal rules. See Viv. 50(a) Mot. at 11, 12. The citations gave no indication of the arguments Vivendi raises now.
.See, e.g., Bracey v. Board of Educ. of City of Bridgeport, 368 F.3d 108, 117-19 (2d Cir. 2004) (denying Rule 50(b) motion based on failure to file Rule 50(a) motion, but granting Rule 59 motion).
. Lentell, 396 F.3d at 173 (quoting Castellano v. Young & Rubicam, Inc., 257 F.3d 171, 188 (2d Cir. 2001)).
. Viv. Mem. at 17 (emphasis added). See also id. at 18 ("At trial, Liberty introduced no evidence that ... a reasonable investor misled by the fraud would have perceived the allegedly corrective events as ‘remote or highly unlikely.’ ”).
. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 556.
. Id.
. See Omnicom, 597 F.3d at 511-14.
. Id. at 511 (quoting Lentell, 396 F.3d at 175 n. 4).
. Id. at 513 (quoting ATSI Commc’ns Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 107 (2d Cir. 2007)).
. Id. at 511.
. Viv. Mem. at 18 (quoting Omnicom, 597 F.3d at 511).
. In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 559.
. In re Vivendi, 634 F.Supp.2d at 367. As Judge Holwell went on to explain: “if a company misrepresents fact A (we have plenty of free cash flow), which conceals risk X (liquidity), the risk can still materialize by revelation of fact B (a ratings downgrade), an indication of risk X (liquidity). ” Id.
. As even Liberty recognizes, Vivendi's sufficiency arguments do not seem to depend in any straightforward way on its novel legal arguments for elements (i) and (ii). See Lib. Mem. at 17.
. See Viv. Mem. at 18-23.
. Id. at 20 (citing Martine Orange, Vivendi Universal Prepared to Sell Its Stake in Vivendi Entertainment, Le Monde, June 10, 2002, Ex. 9 to Campbell Dec!.).
. See Lib. Mem. at 20 (citing Tr. 6/14 at 1937:4-1939:12; Lib. Nye Slides at 39-54).
. Viv. Reply at 7.
. Id.
. Viv. Mem. at 18 (referring to the January 7 treasury share sale).
. Id. at 19 (referring to the May 3 Moody's downgrade).
. Id. at 20 (referring to July 1-2 downgrades and July 3 analyst and press reports). Accord id. at 21 (referring to July 10 S & P press release); id. at 23 (referring to August 14 factors as mostly recharacterization).
. Id. at 21 (referring to aspects of July 1 Moody’s downgrade). Accord id. (referring to July 10 Bloomberg article); id. at 22 (refer
. See Lib. Mem. at 18-23.
. Viv. Mem. at 19.
. Lib. Mem. at 19 (citing Tr. 6/14 at 1927:14-21). I also note that even if a ratings agency justified its downgrade entirely through information already known to the market, a reasonable juror could have found that the downgrade itself represented a materialization of the liquidity risk: because downgrades involve judgment, they constitute new information beyond the individual facts offered in support of the judgment. A downgrade is new information for the market even if the stated explanation for the downgrade contains no new facts. Cf. In re Vivendi, 634 F.Supp.2d at 367 ("[I]f a company misrepresents fact A (we have plenty of free cash flow), which conceals risk X (liquidity), the risk can still materialize by revelation of fact B (a ratings downgrade), an indication of risk X (liquidity).'').
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/19 at 2553:8-16 (Dr. Silber testifying that market had already anticipated Moody’s downgrade).
. See Special Verdict Form at 5, 7.
. See Tr. 6/13 at 1879; Tr. 6/21 at 3054 (Liberty summation stating damages as €841,-942,539); 12/21/07 Expert Report of Blaine F. Nye (stating damages as €842.2 million).
. See Tr. 6/21 at 3054. Without citation, Liberty's brief states the total decline in the value of Liberty’s shares in Vivendi between December 16, 2001 and August 14, 2002 as €1.56 billion. See Lib. Mem. at 26.
. See Tr. 6/19 at 2582-2584.
. Viv. Mem. at 24.
. Id.
. Viv. Reply at 9 n. 9.
. See id.
. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 575.
. Jury Charge at 29.
. Viv. Mem. at 25.
.See First Nat’l Bank of Kenosha v. United States, 763 F.2d 891, 896 (7th Cir. 1985) (upholding verdict where “the jury was presented ... with widely divergent opinions” about quantity of damages, the jury "apparently did not accept whole-cloth the view of either of the experts,” and “very possibly ... split[] the difference” between the two).
. Tr. 6/21 at 3054-3055.
. See Lattanzio, 476 F.3d at 158 (requiring plaintiffs to produce sufficient evidence for the fact finder to "ascribe some rough proportion of the whole loss” to defendant's fraud); Lentell, 396 F.3d at 177 ("We do not suggest that plaintiffs were required to allege the precise loss attributable to [defendant’s] fraud....”).
. In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 576 (quoting Dresser Indus., Inc. v. Gradall Co., 965 F.2d 1442, 1447 (7th Cir. 1992)).
. See Viv. Mem. at 25.
. Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, Inc., 518 U.S. 415, 423, 116 S.Ct. 2211, 135 L.Ed.2d 659 (1996).
. CPLR§ 5501(c) (emphasis added).
. Vivendi cites the following cases as examples: Learning Annex Holdings, LLC v. Rich Global, LLC, No. 09 Civ. 4432, 2012 WL 2878124, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. July 13, 2012) (applying section 5501(c) in unjust enrichment and quantum meruit case); Uni-Rty Corp. v. Guangdong Bldg., Inc., No. 95 Civ. 09432, 2012 WL 1901200, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. May 25, 2012) (applying section 5501(c) in breach of contract and fraudulent inducement case); Health Alliance Network, Inc. v. Continental Cas. Co., 245 F.R.D. 121, 131 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (applying section 5501(c) in breach of confidentiality agreement and misappropriation of trade secrets case). See Viv. Mem. at 10. The commentary to the statute in McKinney's
. Port Auth. Police Asian Jade Soc’y of N.Y. & N.J. Inc. v. Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 681 F.Supp.2d 456, 469 (S.D.N.Y. 2010) (citing Kirsch, 148 F.3d at 165).
. Vivendi emphasizes that the jury’s award in the present case "deviates materially” from the jury's award in the Class Action, where the jury considered the same calculations by Dr. Nye but arrived at a much smaller verdict. See In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 524 ("The jury found the daily inflation in the price of Vivendi's [shares] to be approximately half of the daily inflation amount that Dr. Nye had calculated on most days in the Class Period.”). Yet Vivendi does not explain why this Court should assume the jury in the present case to be unreasonable and the jury in the prior case to be reasonable, rather than vice versa. One cannot disprove the accuracy of a ruler simply by comparing it to another ruler and observing that one is longer than the other.
. Stoneridge Inv. Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, 552 U.S. 148, 159, 128 S.Ct. 761, 169 L.Ed.2d 627 (2008).
. Id. (citations omitted).
. Jury Charge at 24-25.
. See Tr. 3/13 at 21:3-21. The Jury Charge incorporated the fraud-on-the-market presumption only in the following sense:
In setting the ratio in the Merger Agreement at which Vivendi stock was exchanged for USA Networks and [MTH] stock, Liberty was entitled to rely on the fact that the market price of Vivendi stock at the time it signed the Merger Agreement reflected and incorporated all of the information known to the market about Vivendi, including the information contained in Vivendi's false or misleading public statements.
Jury Charge at 24 — 25.
. Vivendi argues that Dermer did not review two of the twenty-five statements. See Viv. Mem. at 28 n. 12. The issue is immaterial. Just as fifty-seven misrepresentations can cause the same false impression and harm as twenty-five, so can the same false impression and harm be caused by twenty-three. Moreover, the jury was not required to find that Vivendi relied on all twenty-five statements. See Special Verdict Form at 6 ¶ 8 ("Has Liberty proven ... that it justifiably relied on any of the statements set forth in Table A ... ?” (emphasis added)).
. See Tr. 6/6 at 1005-1006; Tr. 6/7 at 1172, 1358-1366; Tr. 6/8 at 1380-1394.
. Special Verdict Form at 6 ¶ 8.
. Liberty Misstatement or Omission Table.
. Viv. Mem. at 27.
. Id. at 29. Vivendi does not challenge Liberty’s proof of reliance for the purposes of Liberty’s breach of warranty claim. See id. at 26-29.
. See Viv. Mem. at 26-29; Viv. Reply at Ills.
. See Viv. Mem. at 28 (citing Zaro v. Mason, 658 F.Supp. 222, 228-29 (S.D.N.Y. 1987)).
. See Zaro, 658 F.Supp. at 228-29.
. In re Parmalat Sec. Litig., 684 F.Supp.2d 453, 472 n. 116 (S.D.N.Y. 2010) (quoting 3 William Meade Fletcher, Cyclopedia of the Law of Private Corporations § 790 (perm. ed. 2002)).
. Jury Charge at 17.
. Moreover, it would be odd if Section 10(b) required Liberty to prove that Dermer specifically mentioned Vivendi's misrepresentations to his superiors. Precisely because the misrepresentations concealed Vivendi’s liquidity risk, there may have been no reason for Dermer to mention them specifically.
. Stoneridge, 552 U.S. at 159, 128 S.Ct. 761 (quoting Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224, 243, 108 S.Ct. 978, 99 L.Ed.2d 194 (1988)).
. The jury was instructed that "[a]s a result of the prior proceeding, it has already been determined that the statements on which Liberty bases its Section 10(b) claim were materially false/untrue or misleading statements that misstated or omitted Vivendi’s true liquidity risk in 2001.” Jury Charge at 23. The jury was not asked to determine which of the misrepresentations were misstatements, and which omissions. See Special Verdict Form at 6-7. In general, the line between the two is not always clear. For example, misrepresentations 21 and 22 in Table A are the following statement, delivered separately in a press release and a Form 6-K: "VU is in a very strong position, with solid performance in virtually every business.” Jury Charge at 26, This statement could be described either as omitting the truth about Vivendi’s liquidity risk (that is, failing to state the material fact that the liquidity risk existed, which was necessary to prevent the statement from being misleading under the circumstances), or as misstating Vivendi’s financial health. A reasonable juror could have identified this and , other, similar misrepresentations either as omissions or misstatements, and on that basis could either have applied the rebuttable presumption of reliance to those misrepresentations or not.
. Finally, Vivendi argues that it is entitled to judgment on Liberty’s entire Section 10(b) claim as a result of Morrison, 130 S.Ct. 2869, where the Supreme Court held that "Section 10(b) reaches the use of a manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance only in connection with the purchase or sale of a security listed on an American stock exchange, and the purchase or sale of any other security in the United States.” Id. at 2888. To the extent that this argument is not newly raised and thus waived, I already addressed it in my ruling on Vivendi's motion for partial summary judgment:
Having established that the operative date for irrevocable liability is December 16, 2001, ... the multiThematiques transaction was a domestic transaction such that it falls within the scope of [Section 10(b) ] under Morrison .... Liberty Media’s CEO signed the Agreement in Colorado and faxed his signature page to New York. Messier, Vivendi’s CEO, was in New York the morning of December 17, 2001 to announce the agreement, and there is no evidence indicating that he was anywhere else on December 16.
Liberty, 861 F.Supp.2d at 268-69. See also Absolute Activist Value Master Fund Ltd. v. Ficeto, 677 F.3d 60, 62 (2d Cir. 2012) ("|T]o sufficiently allege the existence of a 'domestic transaction in other securities,’ plaintiffs must allege facts indicating that irrevocable liability was incurred or that title was transferred within the United States.”). Vivendi has provided no basis for revisiting my earlier conclusion that the Merger Agreement falls under Morrison as interpreted by the Second Circuit.
. Jury Charge at 28.
. One of the key elements in Question 11 is “in reliance.” If Liberty knew or should have known of Vivendi’s fraud by May 7, then it did not close the Merger Agreement in justifiable reliance on the statements in Table A. In any case, as described below, the jury did not reach this question.
. See Special Verdict Form at 6-7.
. See id.
. See Viv. Mem. at 29. Vivendi does not challenge the jury's instructions or the Special Verdict Form.
. See id. at 30 (citing Merger Agreement § 6.03(b)-(c)). Section 6.03 of the Merger Agreement begins by stating: “The obligation of the Liberty Parties to consummate the Transactions is subject to the satisfaction on the Closing Date of the following conditions
. Merger Agreement § 6.03(c).
. Id. §§ 5.01(e), 6.03(b).
. See Viv. Mem. at 33. As this statement makes clear, the argument in this section concerns only Section 10(b) damages, and not damages for breach of warranty.
. See Lib. Mem. at 31-35.
. See id. at 31.
. See Viv. Mem. at 14-15.
. See Rule 50(a)(2) ("A motion for judgment as a matter of law may be made at any time before the case is submitted to the jury.”); Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U.S. 440, 445, 120 S.Ct. 1011, 145 L.Ed.2d 958 (2000) (example of defendant moving under Rule 50(a) at the close of plaintiff's evidence and again at the close of all evidence).
. See Bracey, 368 F.3d at 117-19.
. See Tr. 6/15 at 2158, 2165, 2252 (testimony of Vivendi Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel George Bushnell); Merger Agreement § 7.01(iv) (stating that Merger Agreement may be terminated "by any party ... if the Closing does not occur on or prior to September 30, 2002”).
. Tr. 6/15 at 2252.
. See 5/7/02 Letter Agreement ("Letter Agreement”), Ex. 22 to Campbell Decl., at (f)(i); 6/12 Tr. at 1624-1629 (testimony of Liberty General Counsel Charles Tanabe).
. See 6/3/02 SEC Pre-effective Amendment No. 1 to Form F-3 Registration Statement under the Securities Act of 1933 Vivendi Universal, Ex. 30 to Rubenstein Decl.
. See Viv. Reply at 16.
. See Viv. Mem. at 30-31.
. The logic supporting this conclusion is unavoidably complex. However, because it is necessary to explain my conclusion, I have no choice but to present this reasoning despite its complexity.
. Merger Agreement at § 6.03 (emphasis added).
. Id. at § 6.03(c).
. See Tr. 6/15 at 2158, 2165, 2252 (Bushnell testimony).
. See Merger Agreement § 7.01(iv) (stating that Merger Agreement may be terminated “by any party ... if the Closing does not occur on or prior to September 30, 2002”).
.Indeed, in the event, the registration statement became effective on June 3. If Liberty had not already closed, it would have been obligated to close on June 3 or in the following days. See Tr. 6/12 at 1677:19 — 22 (Tanabe testimony). Strictly speaking, the fact that the registration statement became effective before September 30 is irrelevant. As Vivendi correctly notes, the jury was instructed not to consider information that, only became available after May 7, 2002 in its answer to Questions 10 and 11. See Viv. Reply at 16. The Jury Charge states that in
. Liberty was like an employee faced with the choice between voluntarily resigning and involuntarily being fired at some later date based on a condition that might or might not come to pass. Because the relevant condition in this case — the SEC’s declaration of the registration statement’s effectiveness — did in .fact come to pass, Vivendi’s argument that Liberty was not legally obligated to close the Merger Agreement has no more validity than an employer arguing that because an employee voluntarily resigned before being fired, she was never required to lose her job.
. Another way of presenting the preceding analysis would be to say that Question 10 on the Special Verdict Form contains an ambiguity when applied to the Registration Statement condition. The question can either be interpreted as asking, in line with the jury’s instructions: Was Liberty free to walk away from the Merger Agreement, despite the registration statement having become effective after the closing date? Or the question can be interpreted ás asking, abstractly and for no apparent reason: Does the word "obligation” in Section 6.03 mean that if Liberty closed on the Merger Agreement before the registration statement became effective, it had no legal obligation, to close? I have concluded that the jury adopted the former interpretation, and was correct to do so. Vivendi offers no basis for questioning that conclusion. In the context of the trial as a whole, where Liberty’s -freedom to walk away from the Merger Agreement was a major issue, the former interpretation is the only natural one.
Even if Vivendi were to offer support for the latter interpretation, however, there would be a further reason to reject it. Vivendi successfully argued against Liberty's attempt to rephrase Question 10 in such a way that the ambiguity discussed here would not have arisen. See Tr. 6/19 at 2730-2734 (Liberty's counsel arguing that the question "should track the language used in the charge,” and should thus ask: "Has Vivendi proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Liberty could have walked away from its obligation under the Merger Agreement on May 7?”). Because Vivendi was thus to some extent responsible for the ambiguity in Question 10, and did not bring the ambiguity to the Court’s or the other party’s attention, it would arguably be unfair to allow Vivendi to benefit from the ambiguity. Cf.C & L Enters. v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Okla., 532 U.S. 411, 423, 121 S.Ct. 1589, 149 L.Ed.2d 623 (2001) (noting " 'the common-law rule of contract interpretation that a court should construe ambiguous language against the interest of the party that drafted it’ ” (quoting Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc., 514 U.S. 52, 62, 115 S.Ct. 1212, 131 L.Ed.2d 76 (1995))).
.See Letter Agreement at (f)(i); Tr. 6/12 at 1624-1629 (Tanabe testimony).
. See Viv. Mem. at 30.
. See Merger Agreement §§ 5.01(e), 6.03(b).
. See Viv. Mem. at 31-33.
. See id.; Viv. Reply at 15.
. 3/19/02 Letter from Faiza J. Saeed to Frederick H. McGrath, Ex. 26 to Rubenstein Deck
. See Viv-. Mem. at 31-32;
. 3/19/02 Email from Frederick McGrath to Faiza Saeed, Ex. 23 to Campbell Deck
. Id.
. See Viv. Mem. at 32 (quoting 5/7/02 Waiver and Indemnification Agreement, Ex. 25 to Campbell Deck, at § 2(a)).
. See Lib. Mem. at 32 (citing 4/2/02 Email from Faiza Saeed to Frederick McGrath ("4/2/02 Saeed Email”), Ex. 27 to Rubenstein Deck).
. 4/2/02 Saeed Email.
. 5/7/02 Officer’s Certificate of Universal Studios, Inc., Ex. 28 to Rubenstein Deck
. Moreover, if Liberty had walked away -from the Merger Agreement based on the Lagardere Letter having not satisfied the MTH waiver condition, and if it had been in Vivendi’s interest to enforce the Agreement, Vivendi could plausibly have argued, in court, that the waiver condition was fully satisfied. Liberty’s "freedom” to walk away from the Merger Agreement as a result of the Lagardere Letter was, at best, a freedom to walk into a costly lawsuit for breach of contract — with no guarantees that it would prevail. It would be a manifest injustice to free Vivendi from all liability under Section 10(b) simply because Liberty declined to take such a risky course.
.Viv. Mem. at 34 (quoting Rule 59).
. Id. (citing Liberty Media, 861 F.Supp.2d 262).
. See id.; Lib. Mem. at 39. For further factual background on these issues, see In re Vivendi, 765 F.Supp.2d at 512, 535-43.
. Viv. Mem. at 36. See also id. at 37 (earnings management evidence "was used only to reinforce that Vivendi had lied and acted deceitfully” (emphasis added)).
. See Lib. Mem. at 36.
. See, e.g., Tr. 5/18 at 190-195, 204-209; Tr. 5/21 at 244-247.
.See Fed.R.Evid. 103(b) ("Once the court rules definitively on the record — either before or at trial — a party need not renew an objection or offer of proof to preserve a claim of error for appeal.”); United States v. McDermott, 245 F.3d 133, 140 n. 3 (2d Cir. 2001) ("in limine objections are covered under Rule 103” (citing Fed.R.Evid. 103, notes, 2000 Amendment)). See also Fed.R.Civ.P. 46 (“A formal exception to a ruling or order is unnecessary. ... Failing to object does not prejudice a party who had no opportunity to do so when the ruling or order was made.”).
. Jury Charge at 26.
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/4 at 676-707 (Mintzer testimony).
. See, e.g., Tr. 6/21 at 2929-2933 (Quinn summation).
. Luciano v. Olsten Corp., 110 F.3d 210, 217 (2d Cir. 1997).
. See Viv. Mem. at 34-39. Vivendi’s strongest evidence in support of its speculation that Liberty harbored improper, unspoken motives in its use of fraud-related evidence may be the fact that Liberty’s counsel "uttered the words 'false' and/or 'falsity’ sixty times in his summation alone.” Id. at 36 n. 15. There is nothing sinister, however, in the frequent use of the terms "false” or "falsity” during summation in a complex case concerned with the consequences of a stipulated series of falsities. Likewise, Vivendi's suggestion that Liberty's counsel "[a]mazingly ... explicitly acknowledged in a post-trial interview that the evidence pertaining to the falsity of Vivendi’s statements did not concern reliance, causation, or damages, but rather served to show that Vivendi lied to the market,” is a blatant misrepresentation of Liberty’s counsel’s words, which clearly conveyed the opposite of what Vivendi suggests. Id. at 39.
.See, e.g., Tr. 6/4 at 695:22-25.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- LIBERTY MEDIA CORPORATION, LMC Capital LLC, Liberty Programming Company LLC, LMC USA VI, Inc., LMC USA VII, Inc., LMC USA VIII, Inc., LMC USA X, Inc., Liberty HSN LLC Holdings, Inc., and Liberty Media International, Inc. v. VIVENDI UNIVERSAL, S.A., and Universal Studios, Inc.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published