United States Eighth Circuit

In an action involving multiple claims against a billboard company primarily based on claims of fraud and misrepresentation regarding the company's scheme and role in railroad advertising, judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the jury's verdict on plaintiffs' state-law claims was supported by the evidence; 2) the district court did not err in rejecting plaintiffs' calls to harmonize the jury's actual damages awards on plaintiffs' state law claims; 3) jury instructions on the calculation of damages were not erroneous and the evidence supported the damages award; 4) the district court did not err in dismissing a plaintiff's RICO and state-law claims for lack of standing; 5) other plaintiffs failed to establish a RICO claim, since they did not show that the alleged association-in-fact enterprises shared a common purpose; but 6) the district court abused its discretion in capping one plaintiff's punitive damages award at a sum insufficient to cover its litigation expenses expressed in a contingency-fee agreement.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/04/2008
• Published 06/04/2008

Judges

• BOWMAN, Circuit Judge., Before BYE, BOWMAN, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Floyd R. Finch Jr., Maxwell Carr-Howard, Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP, Kansas City, MO, James Robert Wyrsch, John Justin Johnston, Wyrsch Hobbs & Mirakian PC, Kansas City, MO, for Plaintiffs.


• For Appellees:
  
• Karen L. Hirschman, Stacey H. Dore, Vinson & Elkins, LLP, Dallas, TX, James M. Humphrey, Jennifer G. Bacon, Lawrence R. Ward, Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, PC, Kansas City, MO, Glenn Eugene Davis, Armstrong Teasdale, LLP, St. Louis, MO, Robert C. Walters, Dallas, TX, Phillip R. Anderson, Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, Kansas City, MO, for Defendants.