Research Systems Corp. v. IPSOS Publicite, IPSOS USA & IPSOS et al.

Decision Date09 January 2002
Docket NumberNos. 00-3742 and 00-4073,s. 00-3742 and 00-4073
Parties(7th Cir. 2002) RESEARCH SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. IPSOS PUBLICITE, IPSOS USA, IPSOS, ET AL., Defendants-Appellees
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Evansville Division. No. 97 C 10--Richard L. Young, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Barbara Bison (argued), Bison Jacobson Law Office, Cincinnati, OH, for Appellant.

Alexander Dimitrief, (argued), Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, IL, Ross E. Rudolph, Mattingly, Rudolph, Fine & Porter, Evansville, IN, Appellees.

Before POSNER, RIPPLE and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

The Plaintiff, research systems corporation ("RSC"), sued IPSOS S.A. and several of its subsidiaries (collectively "IPSOS") for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets (under Indiana and federal law), constructive fraud and false advertising. The district court entered summary judgment for IPSOS on RSC's state law misappropriation claim, and a jury found for IPSOS on the rest of the claims. RSC appeals the grant of summary judgment, the entry of judgment against it following the jury verdict, the denial of its motion for a new trial, the denial of a post-trial motion for sanctions against IPSOS, and the granting of a post-trial motion IPSOS made to recover some of its expert witness fees from RSC. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the district court in all respects.

I BACKGROUND
A. Facts

RSC is an advertising research company. It sells a product called "ARS Persuasion," which is a system for testing the effectiveness of television commercials. In 1989, the French advertising research company IPSOS Publicite, a subsidiary of IPSOS S.A., approached RSC regarding a possible joint venture between IPSOS and RSC to market a testing system in France. IPSOS sold a testing system called Pre*Vision in France, but wanted to develop a new system to attract the business of Proctor & Gamble ("P&G").

Representatives of IPSOS and RSC began to negotiate seriously in September 1990. The presidents of IPSOS Publicite and IPSOS S.A. each signed a confidentiality agreement with RSC covering information that the companies would share. In December 1990, representatives of IPSOS visited RSC headquarters in Evansville, Indiana, and received a guided tour of the facility. During the visit, RSC furnished the IPSOS representatives with proposed joint venture and license agreements. The terms of the agreements were not acceptable to IPSOS, however, and the two companies were unable to reach any further agreement. RSC had been pursuing similar arrangements with other European advertising research companies as well, but there, too, could reach no final agreements. In early 1991, IPSOS and the two other European companies with which RSC had negotiated, Research Services Limited ("RSL") of the United Kingdom and the Sample Institute (Sample) of Germany, put together a joint proposal to RSC for the licensing of ARS Persuasion in Europe. RSC rejected theoffer, and negotiations between RSC and the European companies ended in August 1991.

By September 1991, IPSOS in collaboration with Sample had revised its Pre*Vision product to make it compatible with the RSL and Sample products used by P&G in the UK and Germany. RSC learned of the revised Pre*Vision in September 1991.

B. District Court Proceedings

RSC filed suit in December 1996 in an Indiana state court for misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract. IPSOS removed the case to federal court in January 1997 and filed for partial summary judgment in March 1998 on the ground that the state law misappropriation claims were time-barred. The court granted RSC's motion to delay its response until thirty days after discovery. In February 1999, the court permitted RSC to amend its complaint to add two new parties and claims of constructive fraud and false advertising and misappropriation under the Lanham Act. RSC sought permission to amend its complaint again in November 1999 to add more new parties and new claims, but the court denied the motion, explaining that more delay was not in the interest of justice. Over the course of discovery, each party filed numerous motions to compel. In June 1999, the court scheduled a trial date for April 3, 2000. In December 1999, the court ordered the parties to work out a discovery schedule that would lead up to the April 2000 trial. According to the schedule, on which the parties agreed, each party's witness lists and exhibits were to be disclosed by March 3, 2000, and IPSOS was to disclose its potential expert witnesses by March 17, 2000. Each party's disclosures were timely.

On March 17, 2000, RSC moved for a continuance, but the court denied the motion. It also moved the trial to April 4, reserving April 3 as a day to resolve any pending motions. On March 23 and 24, 2000, both parties made several motions in limine, including motions for sanctions, which the court rejected. On March 31, the court granted IPSOS' motion for partial summary judgment on the state law misappropriation claims, holding that the claims were time barred. RSC moved for a continuance of the trial on April 3. The court granted the motion, and moved the trial date to April 6. The jury returned a verdict for IPSOS on all claims, and the court entered judgment on the jury verdict for IPSOS. It denied RSC's motion for a new trial on September 15. RSC then filed another motion for sanctions, which the court denied. Finally, on October 24, 2000, the court granted IPSOS' motion to recover expert witness fees from RSC. RSC had deposed the proffered witnesses, but had refused to pay the witnesses' fees after IPSOS decided not to call them at trial.

II DISCUSSION
A.

RSC claims that IPSOS' pretrial conduct and the district court's denial of RSC's motions for continuances violated RSC's due process right to a full and fair trial. The crux of RSC's argument is that IPSOS purposefully delayed its delivery of discovery materials until the month before trial and that the delay interfered with RSC's ability to prepare for trial. RSC made two motions for continuances: the first on March 17, 2000, and the second on March 28, 2000. The district court summarily denied the first and reserved decision on the second until it could hear oral argument on the motion. The court granted a continuance, moving the trial date from April 4 to April 6, 2000, but RSC maintains that the two-day extension was inadequate.

"We review the trial court's denial of a continuance for abuse of discretion." United States v. $94,000.00 in United States Currency, 2 F.3d 778, 787 (7th Cir. 1993). RSC carries a heavy burden, for "[t]he decision concerning whether to grant a continuance is left to the broad discretion of the district court." United States v. Withers, 972 F.2d 837, 845 (7th Cir. 1992). "Matters of trial management are for the district judge; we intervene only when it is apparent that the judge has acted unreasonably." N. Ind. Pub. Serv. Co. v. Carbon County Coal Co., 799 F.2d 265, 269 (7th Cir. 1986). The district court's rulings on RSC's motions for continuances were not unreasonable. The court ordered the parties to work out a schedule that would allow trial to proceed on the scheduled date. RSC and IPSOS agreed to the schedule, and the discovery materials that RSC complains of receiving only in the month before the trial were delivered timely according to that schedule. Nowhere in its brief does RSC claim that any discovery materials were produced late according to the agreed-upon schedule. Furthermore, the district court was aware of how long it had taken the case to get to trial and how many resources of the parties and the court it already had consumed. In denying RSC's November 1999 motion to file a second amended complaint, 1 which would have added another party to the litigation, the court noted:

The plaintiff's original complaint was filed on December 16, 1996 . . . . A trial date is set for April 3, 2000. Discovery has been extensive and extremely expensive. The parties have each exchanged 33,000 to 40,000 pages of materials and have filed numerous motions to compel. Depositions have required at least two and possibly three trips to Europe. There are contemplated depositions in South America. The plaintiff was previously granted leave to file a first amended complaint in July 1999.

R.322 at 2. Given that "district judges must be allowed considerable leeway in scheduling civil cases, and therefore in denying continuances that would disrupt their schedules," N. Ind. Pub. Serv. Co., 799 F.2d at 269, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in ruling as it did on RSC's motions for continuances. 2

B.

RSC contends that the district court abused its discretion by denying its motion for sanctions for the "obstructive tactics" of defense counsel. The tactics, RSC claims, thwarted RSC's efforts to bring the case to trial and increased its cost of doing so. The district court did not abuse its discretion. "District courts possess wide latitude in fashioning appropriate sanctions," and this court will not disturb the decisions unless they are unreasonable. Johnson v. Kakvand, 192 F.3d 656, 661 (7th Cir. 1999). RSC agreed to the schedule according to which IPSOS made its pre- trial disclosures. It has not shown any misconduct on the part of IPSOS that would have been subject to sanctions. Thus, the district court's denial of RSC's motion was not unreasonable, and we shall not disturb it.

C.

RSC contends that the district court erred in granting IPSOS recovery of the expert witness fees. First, as the district court noted in its order, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(4)(A) permits a party to depose an expert whose opinion may be presented...

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