Statutory Damages Under VARA Plus Actual Damages for the Same Works Constitutes Improper Double Recovery: Seventh Circuit
Published on 23 Jul 2019
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USA (National/Federal)
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by Practical Law Intellectual Property & Technology
PRACTICAL LAW
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23 Jul 2019
In Narkiewicz-Laine v. Doyle, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled, among other things, that an award of statutory damages under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) plus an award of actual damages under common law claims for the same works constitutes improper double recovery.
On July 19, 2019, in Narkiewicz-Laine v. Doyle, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, affirming the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, ruled that a plaintiff cannot recover both actual damages for common law claims and statutory damages under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (17 U.S.C. § 106A) for the same works because it would constitute improper double recovery under Section 504 of the Copyright Act and Illinois law ( (7th Cir. June 19, 2019)).
Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, an artist, stored his artwork and other belongings in a space rented from the defendants. The artist sued the defendants in district court after the defendants emptied the unit, destroying most of the artist's property. The artist pursued claims under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) and common law claims for trespass, conversion, and negligence under Illinois law. The jury returned a verdict in the artist's favor and awarded him:
$120,000 in actual damages or, in the alternative, $120,000 in statutory damages under VARA for the defendant's destruction of four pieces of artwork protected under VARA.
$300,000 in damages for the common law claims under Illinois state law for the loss of all of his property discarded from the rental unit.
Following the trial, the district court reduced the artist's total damages award from $420,000 to $300,000 to avoid what it viewed as an improper double recovery. Specifically, the district court:
Reduced the jury award on the common law claims ($300,000) by subtracting the actual loss the artist sustained for the works protected under VARA ($120,000). This left an award on the common law claims of $180,000.
Added the jury's award of statutory damages to compensate the artist for the loss of works protected under VARA ($120,000) to the award for the common law claims ($180,000). This increased the total damages award to $300,000.
The artist appealed and sought, among other things, a reversal of the district court's ruling that reduced his damages award. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's rulings, including the reduction of damages. The artist argued that the jury award of $420,000 did not constitute a double recovery because:
The $120,000 he was awarded compensated him for violation of his moral rights.
The $300,000 he was awarded compensated him for his property rights.
The Seventh Circuit disagreed with the artist's argument, reasoning that:
To prevent a double recovery under Illinois law, an award must be reduced to offset any amounts that the plaintiff has already collected from other sources in compensation for the same injury.
Under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1), a plaintiff may elect to recover either actual damages or statutory damages for the same works, but not both.
The artist elected to receive statutory damages, and therefore could not also recover actual damages for the same works.
The actual damages attributed to the four works protected under VARA must be subtracted out of the jury's award of actual damages for all of the artist's destroyed property because the artist cannot recover twice for the same property.
Even though the jury had an identical calculation of statutory and actual damages under VARA ($120,000 each), statutory and actual damages are not interchangeable and compensate for different harms.
Decoupling statutory damages from actual losses is in line with VARA's purpose to protect artists' moral rights as opposed to monetary interests in their work.
End of Document
Resource ID w-021-3953Document Type Legal update: archive
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