Samsung is claiming that Apple’s billion-dollar court victory in August is tainted. According to the Korean technology giant, the jury foreman failed to disclose a previous bankruptcy and lawsuit by former employer Seagate.
Samsung has requested that the verdict of the recent billion-dollar lawsuit be overturned because the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, failed to disclose information that could have affected the case, Bloomberg reports. It turns out Hogan was, until 1993, an employee of Seagate, with which Samsung claims it has a “substantial strategic relationship”.
However, in 1993 Hogan filed for bankruptcy and was sued by Seagate. Samsung insists it should have been told, because it may have affected the outcome:
Mr. Hogan’s failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore.
However, Hogan points out that he answered every question asked of him, explaining that the courts asked jurors to disclose details of litigation they were involved in within the last 10 years. Obviously, 1993 falls well outside that time frame. Hogan expained to Bloomberg:
“Had I been asked an open-ended question with no time constraint, of course I would’ve disclosed that. I’m willing to go in front of the judge to tell her that I had no intention of being on this jury, let alone withholding anything that would’ve allowed me to be excused.”
It really does seem like Hogan did nothing wrong, but whether Samsung’s claimed conflict of interest holds water remains to be seen. [Bloomberg]