 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Beck v. Atlantic Coast PLC2/11/2005
Date Submitted: December 8, 2004
I regret having to write this opinion. But the plaintiffs' lawyers have given me no choice, having failed to acknowledge their own responsibility for wasting the time of this court and of a defendant in this purported class action by filing false pleadings and failing to produce documents clearly within the scope of a valid request for production. By their conduct, the plaintiff and his lawyers have made this litigation unduly expensive for the defendant, unnecessarily expended the limited resources of this court, and put this court in a position to potentially certify a class representative who was unfit to serve in that capacity.
In summary, this lawsuit was filed as a class action. The proposed plaintiff, Heinrich Beck, was, the complaint suggests, an unsophisticated computer user duped into buying a software product that he thought would improve the operational efficiency of his computer, but which, in reality, did not. Although Beck did not reside in Delaware, suit was filed here and the certification of a nationwide class of similarly situated consumers was sought.
After costly proceedings in the Superior Court, this case was transferred to this court. Beck filed a proposed amended complaint soon thereafter, dropping many of the original defendants, but continuing to assert claims against one particular defendant, Atlantic Coast, whose counsel had spent many hours demonstrating to Beck's counsel why Atlantic Coast was the least culpable of the parties originally named as defendants. In the proposed amended complaint, as well as in the original complaint, Beck was specifically alleged to have purchased the product in question.
Defendant Atlantic Coast then moved to dismiss the complaint and sought an award of attorneys fees on the grounds that Beck's prosecution of the action had been in bad faith and frivolous. Extensive briefing on these motions ensued.
In the course of discovery and briefing, it became clear that, contrary to representations in the original and proposed amended complaints, Beck had not been deceived and had never purchased the product in question, "Window Power Tools." In actuality, Beck observed an Internet popup ad for the product, believed the product did not work, and initiated a lengthy series of e-mail communications with the software developer in which he made numerous misrepresentations in order to elicit responses on, among other premises, the false basis that he could influence a school district's bulk purchase of the product. Beck waxed eloquent on his personal Internet web page about his triumph in duping the developer.
During this process, Beck learned of attorney Darrell W. Scott and his law firm Lukins & Annis because of their participation in a class action lawsuit against another software company. Beck eventually contacted Scott and discussed filing a lawsuit of his own against DMI. Eric J. Roth, another Lukins & Annis attorney who worked with Scott on this case, purchased a copy of Window Power Tools to test whether or not it worked. Beck himself never obtained the software and never reimbursed the law firm for its purchase, which was undertaken solely for purposes of filing this lawsuit.
The full course of this conduct was not voluntarily disclosed by Beck or by his counsel. Beck's counsel received discovery requests from the defendants that clearly required them to produce the content of Beck's Internet web page in its entirety. Instead of producing that material, counsel consciously chose to withhold much of it from production. Absent a diligent Internet search by Atlantic Coast's counsel, the full content of Beck's web page - whi
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Delaware Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|