CACI 3304 Presumptions Concerning Costs—Manufacturer
California Civil Jury Instructions CACI
3304 Presumptions Concerning Costs—Manufacturer
A manufacturer’s costs include the cost of raw materials and the cost of manufacturing.
The cost of manufacturing is the average cost of manufacture over a reasonable time, rather than the cost of one item at a particular time.
[If [name of defendant]’s cost for raw materials cannot be computed, the cost is presumed to be the prevailing price for similar raw materials at the time and place those materials would usually be purchased.]
[If [name of defendant]’s trade or industry has an established cost study or survey for the geographic area in this case, that cost survey may be considered in calculating [name of defendant]’s costs.]
[[Name of defendant]’s delivery costs are presumed to be the tariffs set by the California Public Utilities Commission, but this presumption may be overcome by other evidence.]
Directions for Use
The bracketed sentences should be inserted as necessary.
Sources and Authority
•“Cost” Defined. Business and Professions Code section 17026.
•Cost Survey Is Competent Evidence. Business and Professions Code section 17072.
•Presumptive Evidence of Cost. Business and Professions Code section 17073.
•Transportation Tariffs Are Presumptive Evidence of Delivery Costs. Business and Professions Code section 17074.
•Prevailing Market Price Is Presumptive Evidence of Cost of Raw Materials. Business and Professions Code section 17077.
•“Determination of the defendant’s cost has always been treated as an issue of fact.” (Pan Asia Venture Capital Corp. v. Hearst Corp. (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 424, 432 [88 Cal.Rptr.2d 118].)
•“California appears to have adopted a very expansive approach to the evidence that may be used to establish cost; no formula has been expressly sustained or denounced.” (Pan Asia Venture Capital Corp., supra, 74 Cal.App.4th at p. 436.)
•“These statutes embody California’s fully allocated cost standard, that is, a fair allocation of all fixed or variable costs associated with production of the article or product.” (Pan Asia Venture Capital Corp., supra, 74 Cal.App.4th at p. 432, footnote omitted.)
•“Cost is to be measured as ‘the fair average cost of production over a reasonable time, rather than the cost of one item on a particular occasion.’ ” (Pan Asia Venture Capital Corp., supra, 74 Cal.App.4th at p. 432, fn. 6, internal citation omitted.)