Lorillard Tobacco Co., Inc. v. A & E Oil, Inc.

• Decision Date: 21 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-2676.,06-2676.
• Citation: 503 F.3d 588
• Parties: LORILLARD TOBACCO CO., INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. A & E OIL, INC., Thomas Kuruvilla, Jose Kurian, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

503 F.3d 588

LORILLARD TOBACCO CO., INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. A & E OIL, INC., Thomas Kuruvilla, Jose Kurian, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 06-2676.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued January 18, 2007.

Decided September 21, 2007.

Cameron M. Nelson (argued), Greenberg Traurig, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Carlton E. Odim (argued), Shestokas, Raines, Odim & Malavia, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before BAUER, MANION, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

MANION, Circuit Judge.

Lorillard Tobacco Company sued A & E Oil, Incorporated, its two shareholders, and one of its employees alleging that they violated Lorillard's trademark for Newport Cigarettes. The district court granted Lorillard's motion for summary judgment, awarding $50,000 in statutory damages. The district court subsequently determined that Lorillard was entitled to attorneys' fees and entered a permanent injunction. The defendants appeal only the decision determining Lorillard's entitlement to attorneys' fees. We affirm.

I.

Thomas Kuruvilla and Emmanuel Joseph each own half of A & E Oil ("A & E"), a corporation that runs a gas station and mini-mart in Chicago, Illinois. The corporation employs Jose Kurian, who is Kuruvilla's brother. Among other items, the station sells cigarettes by the pack. In particular, they sell Newport cigarettes, which are manufactured by Lorillard.

During a routine visit to the station, a Lorillard sales representative noticed five cartons of Newport cigarettes that she suspected were counterfeit. She purchased six packs from the suspected counterfeit cartons, which she then sent to Lorillard's laboratory for inspection. The inspection concluded that all six packs were counterfeit, based on discrepancies in the packaging, printing, and product codes from authentic Newport cigarette packs. All of the packs also bore fake tax stamps. Based on this evidence, Lorillard filed suit against A & E, Kuruvilla, Joseph, and Kurian under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq., for trademark infringement and obtained a seizure order. The seizure order resulted in the confiscation of three opened packs of counterfeit Newport cigarettes found in the station's office, which bore the same indicia of counterfeiting.

The critical question remaining in this case is whether A & E knew about the counterfeit cigarettes found in the station; resolution of the attorneys' fees issue requires discerning whether the defendants knowingly sold counterfeit cigarettes. Kuruvilla claims that he bought Newport cigarettes for resale exclusively from a wholesaler called Midwest Cash and Carry. There was no evidence in the record that Midwest Cash and Carry ever distributed counterfeit cigarettes or that counterfeit cigarettes were ever recovered there. Kuruvilla stated that the only other possible source for cigarettes to have entered the store inventory is through customer returns, which occurred at a rate of about one pack every two weeks. A & E, however, would not sell returned packs. Before the seizure, a customer returned a pack of Newport cigarettes, complaining about their quality. Kurian, who was working at the time, took another pack of Newport cigarettes from A & E stock, opened it, and tried one. He agreed with the customer that the cigarette tasted "terrible." Kurian left the returned pack and the opened pack from the stock in the office, and later told Kuruvilla about them. The returned pack and the opened pack from stock were among the three packs seized by Lorillard. (The origin of the third pack remains unexplained.)

The counterfeit cigarettes found at A & E were not an isolated occurrence. Beginning in the summer of 2003, Lorillard became aware of a rash of counterfeit cigarettes infiltrating the Chicago market. As a result, Lorillard sued over fifty sellers and distributors and investigated a common source.

Lorillard claims that the counterfeit cigarettes found at A & E came from a company called U.S.A. Cigarettes. A & E admitted purchasing items from U.S.A. Cigarettes, such as soda pop and cigars, through a contact person known to A & E only as "Mohammed," but A & E claims never to have purchased any cigarettes from U.S.A. Cigarettes. The evidence, however, shows that "Amin Arba" endorsed one of the checks Kuruvilla wrote to pay U.S.A. Cigarettes, and that "Amin Arba" is an alias for Amin Umar, who has been linked to the counterfeit cigarettes.

After initially obtaining a default judgment against the defendants, which the district court subsequently vacated, and after contentious discovery proceedings, Lorillard filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion, concluding that "A & E knew it was selling counterfeit cigarettes," and awarded Lorillard $50,000 in statutory damages. In particular, the district court explained that "the individual Defendants ignored several warning signs, such as their association with Umar, that the Newports for sale at A & E might have been counterfeit. Coupled with Defendants' behavior at the discovery stage of the litigation, the court finds that there is sufficient evidence to establish that A & E, and the individual defendants had knowledge that they were selling counterfeit cigarettes." Lorillard then sought a permanent injunction and a declaration of its entitlement to attorneys' fees under the statute, which the district court also granted. Lorillard subsequently submitted a motion for attorneys' fees totaling $136,349.76, although the district court's docket indicates that the final amount of the award has not yet been determined.¹ The defendants do not appeal the summary judgment ruling that awarded statutory damages or the permanent injunction, but they do appeal the district court's decision that Lorillard is entitled to attorneys' fees.

II.

Ordinarily, a district court's decision to award attorneys' fees is reviewed for abuse of discretion. BASF Corp. v. Old World Trading Co., Inc., 41 F.3d 1081, 1099 (7th Cir.1994) ("A decision to award attorneys' fees under the Lanham Act is firmly committed to the district court's discretion . . . ." (citation omitted)). The award of fees in this case, however, was not made in the discretion of the district court, but rather followed from statutory language requiring the award of attorneys' fees if the defendants knowingly used a counterfeit mark. 15 U.S.C. § 1117(b). Because the award of attorneys' fees follows from an application of statutory language, we review the district court's application of the statute de novo as a question of law. See Sosebee v. Astrue, 494 F.3d 583, (7th Cir.2007) (noting that although review of an award of attorneys' fees is normally reviewed for an abuse of discretion, "[i]f the district court reached its conclusion because of its interpretation of relevant law, [] then we review that question of law de novo because a district court's application of an erroneous view of the law is by definition an abuse of discretion." (citation omitted)); see also Rolex Watch, U.S.A., Inc. v. Michel Co., 179 F.3d 704, 711 (9th Cir.1999) (noting that while assessing a district court's determination of attorneys' fees is normally reviewed for an abuse of discretion, "we review de novo the district court's legal analysis and interpretation of the Lanham Act." (citation omitted)). In effect, this standard requires us to consider whether the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the defendants, demonstrates that A & E knowingly sold counterfeit cigarettes (a determination made by the district court in its summary judgment ruling), even though the defendants limited their appeal to the attorneys' fee award and did not appeal the summary judgment against them.

Relevant here, Lorillard sued the defendants based on 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1). This statute makes a person liable who "use[s] in commerce any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of a registered mark in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of any goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive." 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1)(a). Lorillard alleged that the defendants sold counterfeit Newport cigarettes, thus violating the statute. The district court awarded attorneys' fees based on 15 U.S.C. § 1117(b), which states that:

In assessing damages under subsection (a), the court shall, unless the court finds extenuating circumstances, enter judgment for three times such profits or damages, whichever is greater, together with a reasonable attorney's fee, in the case of any violation of section 32(1)(a) of this Act (15 U.S.C. 1114(1)(a)) or section 220506 of title 36, United States Code, that consists of intentionally using a mark or designation, knowing such mark or designation is a counterfeit mark (as defined in section 34(d) of this Act 15 U.S.C. 1116(d)), in connection with the sale, offering for sale, or distribution of goods or services.

15 U.S.C. § 1117(b) (emphasis added). To prove knowledge of the counterfeiting Lorillard was not required to prove the defendants' actual knowledge; knowledge includes a willful blindness or a failure to investigate because one "was afraid of what the inquiry would yield." Louis Vuitton v. Lee, 875 F.2d 584, 590 (7th Cir.1989). If willful blindness occurs, an award of attorneys' fees is required by the statutory language absent extenuating circumstances. 15 U.S.C. § 1117(b) ("the court shall . . . enter judgment . . . with a reasonable attorney's fee."); see also Hard Rock Café Licensing v. Concession Servs., Inc., 955 F.2d 1143, 1151 ("Willful blindness is sufficient to trigger the mandatory provisions of subsection b." (citing Lee, 875 F.2d at 590)).

In this appeal, we must determine whether the record demonstrates that the defendants acted with knowledge or willful blindness in selling counterfeit cigarettes. The district court made a finding of...