Lans v. Gateway 2000, Inc.

• Citation: 110 F.Supp.2d 1
• Decision Date: 13 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A.97-2523 (JGP).,CIV.A.97-2523 (JGP).
• Parties: Hakan LANS, Plaintiff, v. GATEWAY 2000, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

Page 1

110 F.Supp.2d 1

Hakan LANS, Plaintiff, v. GATEWAY 2000, INC., Defendant.

No. CIV.A.97-2523 (JGP).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

April 13, 2000.

Louis S. Mastriani, Steven E. Adkins, Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, L.L.P., Washington, DC, for Hakan Lans, plaintiffs.

David Oliver Bickart, Ross D. Cooper, Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays, Handler, L.L.P., Washington, DC, Robert A. Berger, Robert M. Rader, Winston & Strawn, Washington, DC, Martin L. Lagod, Michele E. Moreland, Gary H. Ritchey, Cooley Godward LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for Gateway 2000, Inc., defendants.

MEMORANDUM

PENN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff's Rule 60(b)(2) Motion Regarding Newly Discovered Material Evidence [# 99]. For the reasons set forth below, plaintiff's Rule 60(b)(2) motion is denied.

BACKGROUND

A. Procedural background

On November 23, 1999, this Court granted summary judgment to defendant and dismissed the above-captioned action for patent infringement, along with seven other related lawsuits.¹ See Memorandum of the Court ("Memorandum")(filed Nov. 23, 1999). The patent infringement action was dismissed because plaintiff conceded that he was not the actual owner of the patent.² As such, the Court concluded that Lans lacked standing to sue for the patent's infringement. Furthermore, since Lans had no standing, his motion to amend the complaint in order to substitute plaintiffs was also denied.³ On December 22, 1999, Lans filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.⁴

On January 24, 2000, Lans filed a motion pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(2) ("Rule 60(b)(2)"), seeking reconsideration of the Court's grant of summary judgment based on newly discovered evidence. On March 2, 2000, the Federal Circuit denied Lans's motion to stay proceedings in that forum pending this Court's resolution of the Rule 60(b)(2) motion. As the Federal Circuit noted, "when both a Rule 60(b) motion and an appeal are pending simultaneously, appellate review may continue uninterrupted. At the same time, the District Court may consider the 60(b) motion and, if the District Court indicates that it will grant relief, the appellant may move the appellate court for a remand in order that relief may be granted." See Hoai v. Vo, 290 U.S.App. D.C. 142, 146, 935 F.2d 308, 312 (1991), cited by Order of the Court (dated March 2, 2000), Lans v. Digital Equipment Corp., et al., (Fed.Cir.2000)(No. 00-1144 et seq.).⁵

B. Nature of the proffered newly discovered evidence

The newly discovered evidence that Lans proffers to the Court consists solely of a document entitled "Clarification-Contract." That document states, in toto:

On the 19th of October 1989 a contract was drawn up between my company Uniboard AB and me (Hakan Lans) personally. It now appears that the transfer can not be carried out at the present time since the patent is being disputed in court. In view of this the following contract is made:

The rights to the U.S. patent 4 303 986 are transferred herewith from me to my company Uniboard for one crown. Patents which are granted as a consequence of this patent are included in the transfer. The transfer means that Uniboard AB has the right to license and receive the proceeds from the patent. Uniboard AB will administer and defray the expenses of everything connected with the patent. Hakan Lans will own the patent but it would be desirable at a later date to transfer the patent to Uniboard AB. The parties will mutually represent each other when it is deemed necessary.

Saltsjobaden October 27, 1989

                  Uniboard AB            Personally
                  (signature)            (signature)
                  Hakan Lans             Hakan Lans
                  Ringvagen 56E          Ringvagen 56E
                  133 00 Saltsjobaden    133 00 Saltsjobaden
                

Clarification-Contract (attached to Plaintiff Hakan Lans' Rule 60(b)(2) Motion Regarding Newly Discovered Evidence ("Lans Rule 60(b)(2) Motion")(filed Jan. 24, 2000)).⁶

DISCUSSION

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), in relevant part, provides that "on motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or a party's legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for ... (2) newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b)[.]" The Court begins with an analysis of the elements which must be satisfied on a Rule 60(b)(2) motion. In order for evidence to meet the requirements of Rule 60(b)(2),

the following criteria must be met: (1) the evidence must have been in existence at the time of trial; (2) the evidence must be such that it was not and could not by the exercise of due diligence have been discovered in time to present it in the original proceeding; (3) the evidence must not be merely cumulative or impeaching; and (4) the evidence must be admissible and credible, and of such a material and controlling nature as will probably change the outcome.

In re Korean Air Lines Disaster of September 1, 1983, 156 F.R.D. 18, 22 (D.D.C. 1994). See also Raymond v. Raymond Corp., 938 F.2d 1518, 1527 (1st Cir.1991); Kettenbach v. Demoulas, 901 F.Supp. 486, 493 (D.Mass.1995).

Moreover, the Court notes that

[r]egardless of the particular reasons for providing [relief under Rule 60(b)], the trial judge must strike a "delicate balance between the sanctity of final judgments ... and the incessant command of a court's conscience that justice be done in light of all the facts."

Consequently, the district judge, who is in the best position to discern and assess all the facts, is vested with a large measure of discretion is deciding whether to grant a Rule 60(b) motion, and the district court's grant or denial of relief under Rule 60(b), unless rooted in an error of law, may be reversed only for an abuse of discretion.

Twelve John Does v. District of Columbia, 268 U.S.App. D.C. 308, 313, 841 F.2d 1133, 1138 (1988) (citations omitted).

A. Newly discovered evidence which was in existence at the time of trial

The first element in the Korean Air Lines test is that there be newly discovered evidence which was in existence at the time of trial. Courts and commentators have concluded that "the only evidence that qualifies as `newly-discovered' evidence within the meaning of the rule justifying setting the judgment aside is evidence of facts that were in existence at the time of the original trial or that relate directly to the facts that were tried." 12 James Wm. Moore, et al., Moore's Federal Practice § 60.42[3] (3d ed. 1999)("Moore's"). However, the District of Columbia Circuit has noted that the focus of the court's inquiry is not necessarily when the evidence was created, but rather whether the newly discovered evidence "pertain[s] to facts in existence at the time of the trial, and not to facts that have occurred subsequently." Nat'l Anti-Hunger Coalition v. Executive Comm. of the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, 229 U.S.App. D.C. 143, 147, 711 F.2d 1071, 1075 (1983)(footnote 3). Using this standard, it would appear that the Clarification-Contract is newly discovered evidence, both because it appears, on its face, to have been in existence at the time of judgment, and because it relates to facts that were in existence at the time of the judgment, namely the ownership of the '986 patent.

However, there are two ancillary caveats which the Court must consider when evaluating whether the Clarification-Contract is indeed newly discovered evidence within the context of Rule 60(b)(2). First, it has been held that evidence cannot be newly discovered if it was known to the party at the time of trial. See, e.g., Parrilla-Lopez v. U.S., 841 F.2d 16, 19 (1st Cir.1988)(evidence known to party at time of trial is not "discovered" after trial simply because party thought that it was not worth time and expense to track down until receiving unfavorable result at trial). In the present case, it is quite evident that Lans knew about the existence of the Clarification-Contract, especially since Lans executed the instrument for both himself and Uniboard. Lans even admits that he had knowledge of the Clarification-Contract prior to the Court's grant of summary judgment to Gateway. See Declaration of Hakan Lans Regarding Newly Discovered Evidence ("Lans Decl.")(dated Jan. 21, 2000) at ¶ 4-6 ("Even then, I remembered writing some type of document, but I could not remember precisely what was written in the document or what had happened to it."). Assuming Lans's declaration to be true, the Court cannot conceive of why Lans failed to notify the Court of the potential existence of the Clarification-Contract and request more time to search for it. Instead, Lans chose to concede Uniboard's ownership of the patent in support of his motion to substitute parties rather than request additional time to seek the evidence he now presents to the Court. Rule 60(b)(2) was not designed to afford parties the opportunity to revisit choices made in the thick of litigation. Since Lans knew of the Clarification-Contract's existence, he cannot now claim that it is newly discovered evidence.

Second, this Court has previously held that evidence "in the possession of the party before the judgment was rendered ... is not newly discovered evidence that affords relief." American Cetacean Soc'y v. Smart, 673 F.Supp. 1102, 1106 (D.D.C.1987)(Richey, J.). See Coastal Transfer Co. v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., 833 F.2d 208, 211-12 (9th Cir.1987)(evidence that is somehow in possession of party at time of trial may not be "discovered"); see also Longden v. Sunderman, 979 F.2d 1095, 1103 (5th Cir.1992)(misplaced evidence is not newly discovered evidence); Taylor v. Texgas Corp., 831 F.2d 255, 259 (11th Cir.1987)(party may not "discover" after trial evidence that was within knowledge of employees at time of trial). The Court concludes that the Clarification-Contract was in Lans's possession, even if he...