CACI VF-3303 Below Cost Sales Claim—Affirmative Defense—Closed-out, Discontinued, Damaged, or Perishable Items

California Civil Jury Instructions CACI

VF-3303 Below Cost Sales Claim—Affirmative Defense—Closed-out, Discontinued, Damaged, or Perishable Items


We answer the questions submitted to us as follows:

1.Did [name of defendant] [offer to sell/sell] [product/service] at a price that was below cost?

 Yes   No

If your answer to question 1 is yes, then answer question 2. If you answered no, stop here, answer no further questions, and have the presiding juror sign and date this form.

2.Were [his/her/nonbinary pronoun/its] sales in the course of closing out, in good faith, all or any part of [his/her/nonbinary pronoun/its] supply of [product], in order to stop trade in [product]?

 Yes   No

If your answer to question 2 is yes, then answer question 3. If you answered no, skip question 3 and answer question 4.

3.Did [name of defendant] give sufficient notice of the sale to the public?

 Yes   No

If your answer to question 3 is no, then answer question 4. If you answered yes, stop here, answer no further questions, and have the presiding juror sign and date this form.

4.Was [name of defendant]’s purpose to injure competitors or destroy competition?

 Yes   No

If your answer to question 4 is yes, then answer question 5. If you answered no, stop here, answer no further questions, and have the presiding juror sign and date this form.

5.Was [name of defendant]’s conduct a substantial factor in causing harm to [name of plaintiff]?

 Yes   No

If your answer to question 5 is yes, then answer question 6. If you answered no, stop here, answer no further questions, and have the presiding juror sign and date this form.

6.What are [name of plaintiff]’s damages? $

Signed:Presiding Juror
Dated:  

After [this verdict form has/all verdict forms have] been signed, notify the [clerk/bailiff/court attendant] that you are ready to present your verdict in the courtroom.


Directions for Use

This verdict form is based on CACI No. 3301, Below Cost Sales—Essential Factual Elements, and CACI No. 3331, Affirmative Defense to Locality Discrimination, Below Cost Sales, and Loss Leader Sales Claims—Closed-out, Discontinued, Damaged, or Perishable Items.

The special verdict forms in this section are intended only as models. They may need to be modified depending on the facts of the case.

If other grounds for this defense are asserted, question 2 should be modified according to question 2 in CACI No. 3331. If other affirmative defenses are asserted, this form can be modified accordingly. See other Unfair Practices Act verdict forms for examples.

If there are multiple causes of action, users may wish to combine the individual forms into one form. If different damages are recoverable on different causes of action, replace the damages tables in all of the verdict forms with CACI No. VF-3920, Damages on Multiple Legal Theories.

If the jury is being given the discretion under Civil Code section 3288 to award prejudgment interest (see Bullis v. Security Pac. Nat’l Bank (1978) 21 Cal.3d 801, 814 [148 Cal.Rptr. 22, 582 P.2d 109]), give CACI No. 3935, Prejudgment Interest. This verdict form may need to be augmented for the jury to make any factual findings that are required in order to calculate the amount of prejudgment interest.