Smart Mktg Group Inc. v. Publ'n Int'l Ltd., 09-2646

$5.6 million jury award in damages to a marketing firm's breach of contract suit vacated

Smart Mktg Group Inc. v. Publ'n Int'l Ltd., 09-2646, concerned a challenge to a jury's award of $5.6 million in damages in finding in favor of a plaintiff, in a marketing firm's breach of contract suit against an online company, involving an agreement to develop programs that would deliver location-specific, brand specific, internet sales leads to auto dealers.

In vacating the award and remanding, the court held that, although the district court did not err in denying defendant's Rule 50(b) motion for judgment as a matter of law, the district court abused its discretion in refusing to order a new trial on damages, as the damages award fell so far outside anything the evidence might have supported that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to order a new trial on damages.

Related Link:

• Read the Seventh Circuit's Full Decision in Smart Mktg Group Inc. v. Publ'n Int'l Ltd., 09-2646