Suit Contends Oracle Destroyed Discovery Docs
A shareholder lawsuit against Oracle Corp. alleges that hundreds of e-mails and financial records have not been turned over to plaintiffs.
Documents in the case recently unsealed at the request of the National Law Journal include a motion for default judgment against the company as a sanction for document destruction, the legal newspaper reports.
The lawsuit contends the company overcharged customers and used the cash to offset bad debt. It is more expansive than previous suits that claimed Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sold more than $1 billion in stock knowing the company was experiencing financial problems.
Although Ellison trafficked in hundreds of e-mails a day, “less than 15 emails, all self-serving, have been produced from Ellison’s files” during the time in question, claims a court filing by lawyer Mark Solomon of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins in San Diego.
The plaintiffs also claim that hundreds of hours of tapes and transcripts of Ellison’s interviews with British writer Matthew Symonds have been lost or destroyed. Information on the claim remains under seal, the NLJ says.
Oracle lawyer Patrick Gibbs responds that the plaintiffs “cannot prove that defendants lost or destroyed a single document.” He also said the plaintiffs had not requested documents relating to Symonds’ book, Softwar.
A California judge will consider motions for summary judgment by both sides in a hearing on Nov. 16.
