Conflicts Keyed to Currie
Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, Inc.
Facts
Gasperini (Plaintiff), a journalist, agreed to provide his original color transparencies to The Center for Humanities, Inc. (Defendant), for use in an educational videotape. He chose 300 slides, and the Center (Defendant) used 110 of them in the video. The Defendant agreed to return the slides, but at the end of the project could not locate them. Gasperini (Plaintiff) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern Division of New York, invoking the court’s diversity jurisdiction and alleging several state law claims. Defendant admitted liability, and the issue of damages was tried before a jury. The jury awarded Plaintiff $1,500 for each of the 300 slides, a total of $450,000 in compensatory damages. Defendant filed a motion for a new trial, attacking the verdict on grounds of excessiveness. The district court denied the motion, however, the court of appeals vacated the jury’s verdict. The court applied New York’s CPLR § 5501(c), which permits the ordering of a new trial when an award deviates materially from “reasonable compensation,” and concluded that evidence at trial was not adequate to support the damage award of $450,000. The appellate court ordered a new trial unless Plaintiff accepted an award of $100,000. Gasperini (Plaintiff) appealed to the Supreme Court.
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