PALMER, J.
The defendant Jurgita Karobkaite
The following facts and procedural history are set forth in the opinion of the Appellate Court. "The defendant came to the United States in 1996, when she was twenty years old. She married [the named defendant, Scott] Alpert
"Alpert testified [at trial] that throughout his employment, he diverted the plaintiff's customers so that he personally could purchase their jewelry. Alpert would tell the customers that [the plaintiff] was not interested in the piece that they were selling but that he would like to buy it for the defendant's upcoming birthday or anniversary. Alpert also testified that he diverted customers who had signed consignment agreements with the plaintiff. He would tell those customers that their piece was not moving as quickly as he had hoped but that he personally was willing to purchase it for the defendant. He would typically set up an off-premises meeting to complete the transaction. Alpert would then resell the jewelry at the wholesale level, often in New York City or in other locations by mail or courier service. His selling price for an item usually was 45 to 50 percent higher than what he paid for its purchase. Alpert also admitted to stealing several diamonds from the plaintiff.
"Alpert testified that the defendant was fully aware of his diversion scheme from its inception and was a willing participant who shared in the profits. Bank records revealed that the defendant maintained a joint checking account with Alpert throughout the years in question. Checks were drawn on this account to pay for the purchase of jewelry from diverted customers, and deposits were made into this account when those items were resold. [At trial] Alpert provided several examples of such transactions, and copies of the corresponding
"The defendant was present when Alpert made transactions with diverted customers on numerous occasions, her signature is on some of the checks used to purchase the jewelry, and she endorsed checks from the wholesale purchasers. The defendant also sold a diamond to Nagi Jewelers for which she received a check payable to herself in the amount of $828, which she cashed.
"In ... 2000, approximately $195,000 was deposited into the [defendant] and Alpert's joint account. The defendant also maintained a savings account, into which approximately $136,000 was deposited. During this time, the defendant never earned more than $500 a week, and Alpert's salary was never greater than $96,000 a year. No additional income was listed on their joint tax returns for any of the years involved.
"Approximately one year prior to the termination of his employment, Alpert missed a meeting [that] he had arranged with a diverted customer, and the customer called the plaintiff's store looking for him. Alpert was confronted by David Schnee, the president of the plaintiff. Alpert promised Schnee that he would not conduct any business outside the store. At about this time, Alpert admitted to the defendant that he was addicted to crack cocaine. Shortly thereafter, Alpert moved out of the condominium that he owned with the defendant. Despite their separation, the deposits to and withdrawals from the [couple's] joint checking account continued.
"Approximately one year later, in April, 2002, Schnee hired a private investigator to set up a sting operation [designed to] catch Alpert purchasing jewelry from a diverted customer. Following the successful operation, Alpert confessed all the details of his scheme to Schnee, who terminated his employment immediately. The defendant and Alpert were subsequently divorced in ... 2003.
"The plaintiff brought [an action] against the defendant and Alpert in a six count complaint, alleging as to both of them tortious interference with a business relationship or expectancy, violations of [the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA), General Statutes § 42-110a et seq.], and civil conspiracy. [The case was tried to the court.] At trial, Alpert testified ... as to the veracity of all of the allegations in the complaint. The defendant, however, maintained throughout the trial that she did not know anything about Alpert's activities. [In its posttrial brief, the plaintiff requested damages in the amount of $240,000, which, according to the plaintiff, represented lost profits from the diverted jewelry sales that Alpert and the defendant had shared.] A judgment of default was entered against Alpert on all counts. The court found the defendant liable for tortious interference with a business relationship or expectancy and civil conspiracy but found that she had not violated CUTPA. The court awarded the plaintiff $118,000 in damages." American Diamond Exchange, Inc. v. Alpert, supra, 101 Conn.App. at 86-88, 920 A.2d 357.
"In its memorandum of decision, the [trial] court explained its award of damages as follows: `It is difficult to calculate the amount of damages sustained by the plaintiff. There were theories running from $100,000 or so to nearer to $400,000. The most reasonable calculation, however, is $118,000, representing [the defendant's]
The defendant appealed to the Appellate Court from the judgment of the trial court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court's damages award was legally improper and not supported by the evidence.
The defendant further contended that, in order to calculate damages as directed by the remand order, which, as we have indicated, instructs the trial court to "consider the net profit made by Alpert, as measured by the difference between the amount he earned on the resale of a given item of jewelry and the amount he had paid to acquire that item"; American Diamond Exchange, Inc. v. Alpert, supra, 101 Conn.App. at 104, 920 A.2d 357; Judge Tobin would have to engage in "wild conjecture and guess work" because Alpert typically was unable to recall the acquisition and sale price of any of the diverted jewelry pieces, or even what type of jewelry was involved in a given transaction. Rather, the defendant maintained, Alpert's testimony concerning damages consisted of his review of his bank statements from the years corresponding to the diversion scheme and his identification of deposits and withdrawals that he believed were related to the diverted jewelry sales.
The defendant finally contended, in the alternative, that, even if there was sufficient evidence to establish the plaintiff's losses with reasonable certainty, Judge Lewis had not made any factual findings that would enable Judge Tobin to calculate them on remand from the Appellate Court. The defendant asserted that the only evidence relevant to a determination of the plaintiff's lost profits was the "uncorroborated, self-serving, [and] conclusory" testimony of the plaintiff's president, Schnee, who had testified that the plaintiff enjoyed an average markup of 100 percent on consignment and estate jewelry sales. The defendant also observed that Judge Lewis did not rely on Schnee's testimony in his memorandum of decision and he otherwise made no determination as to Schnee's credibility. The defendant further noted that Judge Lewis did not credit Alpert's testimony regarding his average markup. To the contrary, Judge Lewis expressly stated in his memorandum of decision that Alpert was "an admitted thief, drug addict, gambler and liar [who] has absolutely no credibility." The defendant maintained,
The plaintiff asserted that the evidence was sufficient to calculate its lost profits on the basis of "the credible testimony of ... Schnee ... as to the profit margins and general profitability of the type of business [that was] diverted, and the [bank] records and testimony [of Alpert] documenting the acquisition costs and or wholesale ... values of the diverted items." The plaintiff further maintained that, if, as the defendant claimed, the evidence had been insufficient to calculate the plaintiff's lost profits, the Appellate Court would not have remanded the case for a recalculation of damages based on the existing record but, rather, would have remanded for a new trial. The plaintiff asserted, therefore, that it must be presumed that the Appellate Court, in fashioning the remand that it did, implicitly had concluded that the evidence was sufficient to calculate the plaintiff's losses.
Thereafter, Judge Tobin issued a memorandum of decision in which he found that "[t]he only evidentiary basis for determining the plaintiff's lost profits is the testimony of ... Schnee ... that the plaintiff enjoyed an average markup of 100 percent on jewelry [that] it resold after acquiring it from individual sellers." Judge Tobin then noted that "[t]he defendant has objected to the court's consideration of Schnee's testimony, correctly pointing out that the trial court made no findings with respect to the plaintiff's markup or with respect to Schnee's credibility. The [defendant] also points out that the record contained evidence that the [plaintiff's] markup on jewelry varied depending on the value of particular items. However, the defendant does not point to any other evidence in the record from which the court could find the amount of lost profits [that] the plaintiff suffered as a result of the transactions occurring after April 1, 2001. Moreover, the court must keep in mind the explicit directions of the Appellate Court [that the court on remand] must ... factor into its damages equation that the net profit to Alpert may have been substantially less than it would have been to the plaintiff because of the different price markup each applied.... In the context of this case and the evidence presented, the above quoted language strongly suggests that the Appellate Court expected [the] court to consider Schnee's testimony regarding the markup [that] the plaintiff enjoyed."
Next, for purposes of calculating the plaintiff's damages, Judge Tobin added all
On appeal, the defendant renews the claims that she raised in the trial court on remand, including her claim that the plaintiff failed to present sufficient evidence from which its lost profits could be determined with reasonable certainty. The defendant contends that the insufficiency of the evidence is the direct result of the plaintiff's theory of damages, that is, one that focuses exclusively on the defendant's alleged profits from the diverted transactions rather than on the plaintiff's lost profits.
The plaintiff counters that the defendant waived her evidentiary insufficiency claim by failing to raise it in her direct appeal from the judgment of the trial court, Lewis, J., or, alternatively, that she is barred from raising it in this appeal because the Appellate Court decided the claim against her in the first appeal. In support of the latter contention, the plaintiff argues, as it did in the trial court, that, because the Appellate Court remanded the case for a recalculation of damages based on the existing record, we must assume that that court implicitly concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support an award of damages using the correct measure
We first address the plaintiff's contention that the defendant waived her right to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence because the defendant was required but failed to raise that claim in her appeal from the judgment of the trial court, Lewis, J. In support of this contention, the plaintiff relies on Detar v. Coast Venture XXVX, Inc., 91 Conn.App. 263, 266, 880 A.2d 180 (2005), in which the Appellate Court declined to review a claim that the trial court improperly had awarded prejudgment interest because that award had been part of the original judgment and, therefore, could have been challenged in the first appeal. In reaching its determination, the Appellate Court relied on the oft cited principle that, "when a party brings a subsequent appeal, it cannot raise questions [that] were or could have been answered in its former appeals." Id.; see also id. ("[f]ailure to raise an issue in an initial appeal ... constitutes a waiver of the right to bring the claim [in a subsequent appeal]"). It is axiomatic, however, that this principle applies only when the issue that a party seeks to raise in a subsequent appeal was one that the party actually litigated prior to the initial appeal such that the issue could have been raised in the initial appeal.
As we previously indicated, in the original trial of this case, the plaintiff did not claim lost profits as part of its damages but, instead, requested an award of damages based on the defendant and Alpert's alleged profits, as measured by total deposits in their bank accounts less total withdrawals during the period corresponding to the diversion scheme.
We also are unpersuaded by the plaintiff's apparent contention that the defendant
The following principles guide our analysis. "It is well established that the elements of a claim for tortious interference with business expectancies are: (1) a business relationship between the plaintiff and another party; (2) the defendant's intentional interference with the business relationship while knowing of the relationship; and (3) as a result of the interference, the plaintiff suffers actual loss." Hi-Ho Tower, Inc. v. Com-Tronics, Inc., 255 Conn. 20, 27, 761 A.2d 1268 (2000). "Unlike other torts in which liability gives rise to nominal damages even in the absence of proof of actual loss; see Riccio v. Abate, 176 Conn. 415, 418-19, 407 A.2d 1005 (1979); it is an essential element of the tort of unlawful interference with business relations that the plaintiff suffered actual loss." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hi-Ho Tower, Inc. v. Com-Tronics, Inc., supra, at 33, 761 A.2d 1268.
"It is axiomatic that the burden of proving damages is on the party claiming them.... When damages are claimed they are an essential element of the plaintiff's proof and must be proved with reasonable certainty.... Damages are recoverable only to the extent that the evidence affords a sufficient basis for estimating their amount in money with reasonable certainty." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Lawson v. Whitey's Frame Shop, 241 Conn. 678, 689, 697 A.2d 1137 (1997). We also note that there are circumstances in which "proof of damages may be difficult and that such difficulty is, in itself, an insufficient reason for refusing an award once the right to damages has been established.... Nevertheless, the court must have evidence by which it can calculate the damages, which is not merely subjective or speculative ... but which allows for some objective ascertainment of the amount.... This certainly does not mean that mathematical exactitude is a
Applying these principles to the present case, we conclude that it is readily apparent that the evidence presented at trial was wholly inadequate to establish the plaintiff's lost profits with reasonable certainty. Indeed, as Judge Lewis observed, the only evidence remotely relevant to such a determination was the uncorroborated testimony of the plaintiff's president, Schnee, who stated that the plaintiff's markup on estate jewelry sales was, at a "[m]inimum," 100 percent "[e]very time" on items that cost less than $50,000 to acquire. No documentary evidence was offered to support this claim, however, "nor was there any testimony to the effect that such data were not available." Doeltz v. Longshore, Inc., 126 Conn. 597, 601, 13 A.2d 505 (1940); see also id., at 601-602, 13 A.2d 505 (documentary or other reliable evidence required to corroborate amount of lost profits). "At a minimum, opinions or estimates of lost profits must be based on objective facts, figures, or data from which the amount of lost profits may be ascertained." Szczepanik v. First Southern Trust Co., 883 S.W.2d 648, 649 (Tex.1994); see also Waterbury Petroleum Products, Inc. v. Canaan Oil & Fuel Co., supra, 193 Conn. at 225-28, 477 A.2d 988 (plaintiff's uncorroborated testimony regarding damages insufficient to establish losses with reasonable certainty); Bianco v. Floatex, Inc., 145 Conn. 523, 525, 144 A.2d 310 (1958) ("the mere statement of the plaintiff that the reasonable value of his [services] ... was $2250 was an inadequate basis for the court's finding that the reasonable value was $1450 or, for that matter, any other amount").
"While the modern tendency is toward greater liberality in the requirements... [for proving lost profits] it is the unvarying rule that evidence of such certainty as the nature of the case permits should be produced." (Citation omitted; emphasis added.) Doeltz v. Longshore, Inc., supra, 126 Conn. at 601, 13 A.2d 505. We can only conclude that the plaintiff, a sophisticated business that, according to its president, spends between $250,000 and $600,000 annually on billboard advertising alone, was in a position to produce objective, nonspeculative, documentary proof of its profit margins, such as, for example, accounting data of its historical earnings, or some other evidence documenting its profit margins on comparable consignment or estate jewelry pieces. The plaintiff's failure to produce such evidence, which we
Indeed, the speculative nature of the evidence relating to damages in this case is abundantly clear. As the defendant contends, even if the evidence had permitted the fact finder to determine the plaintiff's profit margins with reasonable certainty, there still was no way to calculate what the plaintiff's profits would have been on the diverted sales with anything approaching reasonable certainty because, with very few exceptions, Alpert was unable to recall what he paid to acquire a piece of diverted jewelry or what he later sold it for. The plaintiff, moreover, made no efforts to obtain this information. Indeed, when Schnee was asked by counsel whether he had conducted an investigation to verify or quantify the plaintiff's losses, such as by contacting diverted clients or businesses that had purchased diverted merchandise from Alpert, he responded, "It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money.... I want to move on." Later, when Schnee was asked whether he had "a calculation of the losses sustained by [the plaintiff] as a result of... Alpert's activity," and whether he was "asking on behalf of [the plaintiff] that damages be awarded for sales that were diverted," he responded: "I'm asking this court, [that is] Judge Lewis, to look at the evidence that has been submitted and to make a decision; whatever he decides I'm going with." In light of the foregoing, it is clear that "[t]his is a case in which we reverse the judgment not for lack of `mathematical exactitude' [with respect to the plaintiff's damages] ... but because the plaintiff failed to provide [any reliable proof of its damages]. This outcome is a direct result of the plaintiff's choice of evidence." (Citation omitted; emphasis added.) Beverly Hills Concepts, Inc. v. Schatz & Schatz, Ribicoff & Kotkin, supra, 247 Conn. at 78, 717 A.2d 724.
The judgment in Docket No. SC 18666 is reversed and the case is remanded with direction to render judgment for the defendant; the appeal in Docket No. SC 18668 is dismissed.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.