Caddell

MEMORANDUM ***

Defendants appeal from an amended judgment following a four day bench trial in which the district court awarded Plaintiff Fallon Mining Company (“Fallon”) $220,165 in “out of pocket” damages for fraud and $500,000 in damages for libel. Defendants allege that the district court erred in finding joint and several liability, and in concluding that Fallon reasonably relied on fraudulent misrepresentations. *418 We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I. Joint and Several Liability

Defendants recognize that Nevada law extends joint and several liability to “joint venturers” but argue that Prosser should be excluded from the joint venture because his “only involvement [in CLPR] was to provide consulting engineering services on one occasion and initial work on an unrelated project.” 2 The record provides substantial evidence that Prosser formed part of the “informal partnership” known as “Caddell, Luther, Prosser, and Ringer,” a.k.a., CLPR Alliance. Defendants reason that Prosser is not a joint venturer because he played a minor role during the contracting phase of the transaction at issue. But Defendants do not contest that Prosser was an…