Samsung Wants $1B Verdict Overturned, Says Jury Foreman Was Biased Due To His Seagate Lawsuit

Samsung has filed a new request for a re-trial demanding that $1.05 billion verdict awarded in favor of Apple should be overturned because the jury foreman Velvin Hogan failed to disclose that 20 years ago he was in litigation with Seagate, for whom Samsung is a major investor, Reuters reports.

According to Samsung, Hogan, who eventually became the foreman, disclosed one lawsuit in which he had been involved, but failed to discuss two others, one of which concerned his former employer, the hard drive maker Seagate. Samsung added that Hogan’s failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore in questioning.

“Samsung has a substantial strategic relationship with Seagate,” the company said in the court filing, “which culminated last year in the publicized sale of a division to Seagate in a deal worth $1.375 billion, making Samsung the single largest direct shareholder of Seagate.”

Hogan did disclose he had worked for Seagate during voir dire. In an interview with Reuters last week, Hogan acknowledged the litigation with Seagate – now twenty years old – and said he had not been asked to list every lawsuit in which he had ever been involved.

A hearing on a range of issues, including the juror allegations, has been set for December.