Jackson Promptly Denies Microsoft's Request to Limit Trial Issues
(September 17, 1998) Microsoft filed a pleading with the U.S. District Court in Washington DC late on Wednesday, September 16, asking the court to exclude from the trial six issues recently raised by the government. Judge Thomas Jackson denied the request at a scheduling conference early on Thursday.
| See, Case Summary: DOJ v. Microsoft, Case Nos. 98-1232, 1233. |
The issue arose when the Department of Justice (DOJ) on August 31 filed a lengthy Opposition to Microsoft's Motion for Summary Judgment which raised a number of new factual allegations not referenced in its original Complaint, filed on May 18. The DOJ also promptly filed two days later a Motion and Memorandum seeking to compel Microsoft to quickly turn over records relevant to these new allegations. Also on September 2, Microsoft filed a pleading entitled Motion To Limit Issues for Trial. Judge Jackson ordered Microsoft to turn over most of the categories of records sought by the DOJ, and refused to limit any issues at trial.
The Statement of Extraneous Issues filed by Microsoft on Wednesday September 16, simply renewed, and stated with more specificity, the arguments which it had previously raised. And again, Judge Jackson refused the request. Microsoft will still have the opportunity to object at to the admission of evidence on the new allegations on the grounds of relevance. Trial is currently scheduled to start on October 15.
Relevant Pleadings DOJ's Complaint, 5/18/98. |
The six issues which Microsoft wanted excluded from the trial are as follows:
Microsoft argues that none of these issues, except the Java matters, were raised in the original Complaint, and are not relevant to any of the claims asserted in the Complaint, and should therefore be excluded from the trial.
With respect to the DR-DOS issues, Microsoft further argues that these allegations were the subject of investigations by both the FTC and DOJ, and were resolved by the 1995 Consent Decree. Microsoft also argues that this matter is not appropriately the subject of this trial, because it is the subject of a separate private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft pending in federal court in Utah.
With respect to the Bristol allegations, Microsoft also argues that these issues are the subject of a private antitrust lawsuit filed against Microsoft on August 18 in federal court in Connecticut. (See, Complaint in Bristol v. Microsoft, Case No. 398-CV-1657.)
ORDER Upon consideration of the motion of defendant Microsoft Corporation to limit the issues for trial and Plaintiff's opposition thereto, and for reasons set forth on the record in open court at the hearing on September 17, 1998, it is, this 17th day of September, 1998, ORDERED, that the motion is denied without prejudice to an appropriate objection at trial on pertinent grounds. |
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