Texas Judge Turns Away 'Fraud' Claim, Affirms $740M Trade Secret Judgment
Susman Godfrey says real estate appraiser Amrock "cannot distract from the fact that it stole HouseCanary's proprietary technology."
January 11, 2019 at 04:32 PM
2 minute read
Susman Godfrey's $740 million trade secret judgment for online real estate appraiser HouseCanary has withstood a post-trial attack from competitor Amrock and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
San Francisco startup HouseCanary persuaded a Bexar County jury last March that Amrock, a Quicken Loans affiliate previously known as Title Source, struck a licensing deal with HouseCanary and then used it as subterfuge to reverse-engineer its own competing valuation model.
Afterward, Amrock claimed to have located former employees and competitors of HouseCanary who would blow the whistle on HouseCanary's trial narrative. Gibson Dunn partner Randy Mastro called the verdict “one of the most egregious frauds that I have ever seen in my 35-year career as a litigator and former federal prosecutor.”
But after hearing from four witnesses over four days of hearings in the last month, Judge David Canales rejected Amrock's new trial motion.
“This was precisely the right decision,” Susman Godfrey partner Kalpana Srinivasan said in a statement. Amrock produced no new information, but rather “used the court's time to parade out so-called 'whistleblowers'” who were trying to advance their own business interests with Amrock and Quicken, she noted.
“Amrock cannot distract from the fact that it stole HouseCanary's proprietary technology,” said Susman Godfrey partner Max Tribble, who tried the case with Srinivasan and Ricardo Cedillo of Davis, Cedillo & Mendoza. “The jury saw all of the facts and rendered a careful verdict after a seven-week trial, and the attempts by Amrock to nullify the jury's decision were entirely dismissed by the Court after another four days of hearings.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAI Tools, Antitrust Risks: The Hidden Dangers of Software Pricing Tools
7 minute readBaker & Hostetler to Open Austin Office With 10-Lawyer Locke Lord Affordable Housing Team
5 minute readHusch, Winstead, Dentons Add Texas Partners as 2024 Hiring Season Winds Down
5 minute readOn a Texas Growth Surge, Paul Hastings Signs New Leases in Houston, Dallas
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Alex Spiro Accuses Prosecutors of 'Unethical' Comments in Adams' Bribery Case
- 2Cannabis Took a Hit on Red Wednesday, but Hope Is On the Way
- 3Ben Brafman Defending Celebrity Rabbi in Lawsuit by Miami Hotel
- 4People in the News—Dec. 23, 2024—Barley Snyder, Marshall Dennehey
- 5How I Made Office Managing Partner: 'Be a Lawyer First, Foremost and Always,' Says Matthew McLaughlin of Venable
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250