Judge blocks Samsung motion on Apple evidence spoilation
updated 09:43 am EDT, Fri August 17, 2012
Court 'has bent intself into a pretzel' to accommodate scheduling
Late on Thursday, a magistrate in the Apple v. Samsung trial, Judge Paul Grewal, turned down a Samsung motion asking that the jury be told Apple may have destroyed email relevant to the case. In his ruling, Grewal cites the timing of Samsung's request as a major issue. "There is nothing at all unfair about denying relief to one party but not the other when the one but not the other springs into action long after any rational person would say it could have done so," the judge writes.
"The court has bent itself into a pretzel accommodating the scheduling challenges of this case," he continues. "But at some point the accommodation must end, lest the hundreds of other parties in civil rights, Social Security, and other cases also presently before the undersigned and presiding judge might reasonably ask: what makes the parties in this patent case so special?"
Samsung actually first filed for the motion in July, attempting to counter a similar Apple request that succeeded. For Apple the issue was Samsung's corporate email system, mySingle, which regularly wipes old emails after two weeks. Because of this, it was argued that Samsung hadn't followed a burden to retain evidence.
Samsung has officially rested its case, but "with reservations," allowing for more witness testimony. Both sides have already presented a number of witnesses, but some 22 people have yet to be called, and there are over 75 pages of objections to them; Judge Lucy Koh, who is overseeing the case, commented yesterday that "unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."
