Following on Yesterday's post where we noted the odd and pleasing use of "Kludgy," I would like to use today's post to bring attention to another recent Delaware opinion which contains what I can only assume is the only use of the phrase "[y]ou can work with legal but at the end you will have your face burried [sic, obviously] in s***!" in a legal opinion.
The case is Citrix Systems, Inc. v. Workspot, Inc., C.A. No. 18-588, D.I. 411 (D. Del. Sept. 25, 2020), and it is a true ray of light in these dark days.
The opinion describes the years-long saga of the defendant's CTO, and a) his anonymous campaign of flamboyantly creative harassment of the Plaintiffs and their executives (including the charming line above), b) his ridiculously transparent coverup attempt culminating in a deposition where he plead the 5th "approximately 200 times," and c) the resulting litany of sanctions against the defendant.
The Court took care in its opinion to note that it was not actually sanctioning defendant for its CTO's misdeeds. Rather, the issue was that the defendant allowed the CTO to submit a false declaration denying any wrongdoing.
Even worse, once defendant learned that the declaration was false (not least because the CTO informed the board that his internet provider was turning over his records to the plaintiff and that he thus needed to confer with "personal counsel", they failed to "[p]romptly and [v]isibly [w]ithdraw [i]t." Instead, they waited over a month to drop a footnote in a brief saying that they "no longer seek to rely on the [CTO's] Declaration.
To date, this failure, has cost the defendant at least $271,963 in sanctions (with at least that much again ordered and pending only calculation) as well as all of their equitable defenses. Sometimes, it seems, sweeping a problem under the rug only makes it bigger.
If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to receive free e-mail updates about new posts.
