Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., an Oregon Corporation, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Cooper Industries, Inc., an Ohio Corporation, Defendant-appellant, 285 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2002)

The Honorable Jeremy Fogel, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation

Leatherman indicates in its briefing that it could present additional evidence of the circumstances surrounding Cooper's conduct. It does not explain, however, why such evidence was not or could not have been presented to the district court originally, particularly in view of the fact that the district court addressed and made findings as to the propriety of the punitive damages award

We note that after the briefing on remand in this case, we issued In re Exxon Valdez, 270 F.3d 1215 (9th Cir. 2001), in which we also found that a punitive damage award exceeded the constitutional maximum. The district court in that case did not have the benefit of either Gore or Leatherman II at the time of trial, and we remanded to the district court so that it could conduct the constitutional analysis with respect to the maximum permissible award "in the first instance." Id. at 1241. Nothing in Exxon Valdez, however, suggests that an appellate court is required to remand to the district court where, as here, it appears that judicial economy and the interests of justice would be served by disposing of the issue at this level.