Columbia Pictures Indus. v. Krypton Broad. of Birmingham

• Decision Date: 09 July 2001
• Docket Number: N,No. 99-56733,DEFENDANT-APPELLANT,No. 99-56215,PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE,PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,99-56215,99-56733
• Citation: 259 F.3d 1186
• Parties: (9th Cir. 2001) COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC.,, v. C. ELVIN FELTNER, JR., KRYPTON BROADCASTING OF BIRMINGHAM, INC., DEFENDANT, COLUMBIA PICTURES TELEVSION, INC.,, v. KRYPTON BROADCASTING OF BIRMINGHAM, INC.; BIRMINGHAM; KRYPTON BROADCASTING, INC.; KRYPTON D.C. INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION; WTWV, INC.; DANIEL S. DAYTON; ALFRED F. DECUIR, DEFENDANTS, AND C. ELVIN FELTNER, JR.,o. 99-56331,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1186

259 F.3d 1186 (9th Cir. 2001)

COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC., PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, v. C. ELVIN FELTNER, JR., DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

KRYPTON BROADCASTING OF BIRMINGHAM, INC., DEFENDANT, COLUMBIA PICTURES TELEVSION, INC., PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. KRYPTON BROADCASTING OF BIRMINGHAM, INC.; BIRMINGHAM; KRYPTON BROADCASTING, INC.; KRYPTON D.C. INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION; WTWV, INC.; DANIEL S. DAYTON; ALFRED F. DECUIR, DEFENDANTS, AND C. ELVIN FELTNER, JR., DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

No. 99-56215, No. 99-56331, No. 99-56733

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Argued and Submitted November 14, 2000

Filed July 9, 2001

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Counsel Richard L. Chaifetz, Columbia, Maryland (argued & brief) and William H. Shibley Long Beach, California (brief), attorneys for defendant-appellant/appellee.

Henry J. Tashman, Davis Wright Tremaine Llp, Los Angeles, California, attorneys for plaintiff-appellee/appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Edward Rafeedie, District Judge, Presiding D.C. No. CV 91-06847-ER

Before: Harry Pregerson, Barry G. Silverman, and Richard C. Tallman, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Pregerson

This matter comes before the court on three related appeals. Defendant C. Elvin Feltner, Jr. ("Feltner") appeals from a jury verdict awarding the plaintiff, Columbia Pictures Television Inc. ("Columbia"), $31.68 million in statutory damages for violations of the Copyright Act of 1976 ("Copyright Act"), 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, et seq. In a separate appeal, Columbia asserts that the district court erred in denying its motion for attorneys' fees pursuant to the Copyright Act. Finally, in a third appeal, Feltner asserts that the district court erred in facilitating Columbia's efforts to enforce its judgment against him pending appeal by certifying the judgment for registration in other districts pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62(a) and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1963. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291, and we affirm.

I. FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Feltner is the sole shareholder of Krypton International Corporation, a holding company that owns all of the stock in defendant Krypton Broadcasting Corporation ("KBC"). KBC, in turn, owns three television stations in the Southeast, which were also named as defendants in this action.¹ In 1990, each of the three stations licensed television programs from Columbia, either directly, or by assuming the rights and obligations under contracts with former station owners. The licensed programs include the four series at issue in this litigation: (1) "Who's the Boss?"; (2) "Silver Spoons"; (3) "Hart to Hart"; and (4) "T.J. Hooker."

In 1991, the stations failed to make timely licensing payments and Columbia terminated the licensing agreements. When the stations nonetheless continued to air the series, Columbia filed the present action in federal district court alleging various claims against the defendants, including copyright infringement. During the course of the litigation, Columbia dismissed all claims against all defendants with the exception of the copyright claims against Feltner. On September 28, 1993, the district court granted partial summary judgment in favor of Columbia, finding Feltner vicariously and contributorily liable for the copyright infringement committed by the defendant stations.

On January 14, 1994, Feltner sought leave to file a motion to vacate the order granting partial summary judgment in favor of Columbia. In the motion to vacate, Feltner asserted that Columbia was not the exclusive licensee of the series in question at the time Columbia filed the lawsuit, and that therefore, Columbia lacked standing under the Copyright Act. The district court denied Feltner's request for leave to file the motion to vacate and did not address the merits of Feltner's standing argument.

Columbia elected to recover statutory damages in lieu of actual damages pursuant to §§ 504(c) of the Copyright Act, which permits an award of statutory damages "for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work." 17 U.S.C. §§ 504(a)(1) (emphasis added). Although Feltner requested a jury trial on the issue of statutory damages, the district court denied the request. Proceeding with a bench trial, the district court found as a matter of law that each episode of each series was a separate "work " for purposes of computing statutory damages.² The district court also found that each airing of the same episode by a different station constituted a separate act of infringement. Finally, the district court found that Feltner's infringement was willful. Based on these findings, the district court determined that Feltner infringed 440 separate "works," and on April 4, 1994, the district court entered judgment against Feltner in the amount of $8,800,000. The district court also granted a motion by Columbia for attorneys' fees and costs incurred through April 1994.

A prior panel of this court generally affirmed the district court's rulings, Columbia Pictures Television v. Krypton Broadcasting of Birmingham, Inc., 106 F.3d 284 (9th Cir. 1997),³ but the Supreme Court reversed. The Supreme Court held that the Seventh Amendment guarantees Feltner the right to a jury trial "on all issues pertinent to an award of statutory damages under §§ 504(c) of the Copyright Act, including the amount itself." Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, 523 U.S. 340, 355 (1998).

Following the Supreme Court's ruling, we remanded the case to the district court for a jury trial on the sole question of the amount of money to award Columbia, within the range permitted by the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act, for each of the 440 "works" that Feltner infringed. Columbia Pictures Television v. Krypton Broadcasting of Birmingham, Inc., 152 F.3d 1171 (9th Cir. 1998). The jury ultimately returned a $31.68 million verdict for Columbia. This verdict is equivalent to an award of $72,000 for each of the 440 works infringed, which is within the statutory damages range for willful infringement. The district court entered judgment against Feltner on April 14, 1999.

Shortly after judgment was entered, Columbia filed a motion for attorneys' fees and a motion for an order certifying the judgment against Feltner for registration in another jurisdiction. In addition, Feltner filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial. The district court granted Columbia's motion to certify the judgment, denied Columbia's motion for attorneys' fees, and denied Feltner's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Feltner's Appeal from the Jury Verdict

Feltner first appeals from the jury's $31.68 million verdict in favor of Columbia. Specifically, Feltner asserts that a new trial is warranted because the district court erred in: (1) denying his motion in limine to dismiss the suit because Columbia lacks standing under the Copyright Act; (2) denying his motion in limine to preclude a jury trial on statutory damages; (3) granting Columbia's motion in limine to reaffirm the district court's prior ruling that Feltner infringed 440 separate "works"; (4) ruling as a matter of law that the two stations that aired "Who's the Boss?" were not joint tortfeasors for purposes of calculating statutory damages; and (5) denying Feltner's new trial motion. We address each of these arguments in turn.

1. Feltner's Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Standing

Feltner asserts that the district court erred in denying his motion in limine to dismiss the suit for lack of standing under the Copyright Act. A prior panel of this court already held that Feltner failed to timely raise this issue in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, and that Feltner failed to satisfy the requirements for a motion for reconsideration. Columbia Pictures, 106 F.3d at 290. In light of this prior ruling, the law of the case doctrine bars reconsideration of the issue whether Columbia's standing as an exclusive licensee is properly before the court. See Jeffries v. Wood, 114 F.3d 1484, 1489 (9th Cir. 1997) (en banc); Milgard Tempering, Inc. v. Selas Corp. of Am., 902 F.2d 703, 715 (9th Cir. 1990).

2. Feltner's Motion to Preclude a Jury Trial on Statutory Damages

Feltner also asserts that the district court erred in denying his motion in limine to preclude a jury trial on the issue of statutory damages. Here, Feltner argues that in holding that the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act violates the Seventh Amendment, the Supreme Court effectively found that the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act is unconstitutional in its entirety. Feltner thus urges us to find that the Supreme Court's decision in this case rendered the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act constitutionally unenforceable.

This argument is not persuasive. What the Supreme Court held is that to the extent §§ 504(c) fails to provide a jury trial right, it violates the Seventh Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. However, this holding in no way implies that copyright plaintiffs are no longer able to seek statutory damages under the Copyright Act. Indeed, the position urged by Feltner is contrary to the express language of the Supreme Court's decision in this case. As the Feltner Court stated, "if a party so demands, a jury must determine the actual amount of statutory damages under §§ 504(c) . . . . " Feltner, 523 U.S. at 355. The Court later reaffirmed this point by stating, "the Seventh Amendment provides a right to a jury trial on all issues pertaining to an award of statutory damages under §§ 504(c) of the Copyright Act, including the amount itself." Id. This language evinces the Court's intent to preserve a plaintiff's ability to seek statutory damages under§§ 504(c) of the Copyright Act.

Feltner argues...