Morgan Miller Blair

Challenges:  (1) Getting router maker client compensation for return of products from IC maker supplier which refused to acknowledge a defective product; (2) proving the client’s suspicion that the defective IC was knowingly shipped with conscious disregard for the consequences.

Approach:  Morgan Miller Blair’s trial team conducted simultaneous e-discovery and private investigation, followed by relentless motions to compel, and third party depositions, to try to prove the case.

Solution:  E-discovery and investigations revealed that defendant’s former engineers confirmed the defendant knew about defects early on; recovered email (which defendant denied existed and refused to produce) ordered produced by a special master showed defendant had made a conscious decision to ship bad product to save quarterly revenue targets; and former executive depositions established management approval of the scheme. Morgan Miller Blair put the evidence before the Santa Clara Superior Court judge before trial, in a motion for advanced punitive damage discovery, which required “clear and convincing evidence” of fraud.

Success:  Despite two failed early mediations, after the court’s ruling that an email from the defendant’s former executive vice president to the president proved fraud by clear and convincing evidence, the defendant voluntarily paid 60 times its initial offer, after, a total of $7.1 million, to avoid going to a jury trial.