10-3062 & 10-3068 BCS Services, Inc., v. Heartwood 88, LLC

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RICO

Damages

Where the plaintiffs alleging bid-rigging in a RICO case made a prima facie case of $5 million in damages, summary judgment was improperly granted to the defendants.

“The statistical evidence in this case would be enough, when combined with evidence also presented by the plaintiffs of the average profit they made on the zero-percent liens that they won, to carry their burden of proving an amount of damages with sufficient (which is not to say with great) precision to justify an award of that amount. The evidence was summarized in two expert-witness reports that the defendants take a number of potshots at. The criticisms may be substantial, but they are premature because the district judge never ruled on the admissibility of the expert evidence previewed in the reports. On the record as it stands the plaintiffs made a prima facie case of damages in the amount ($5 million before trebling) that they seek, and so the defendants cannot prevail on their alternative, zero-damages defense of the district court’s decision without a trial.”

Reversed and Remanded.

10-3062 & 10-3068 BCS Services, Inc., v. Heartwood 88, LLC

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Holderman, J., Posner, J.