Did the jury foreman in the $1 billion Apple vs. Samsung court case withhold information that would have brought his neutrality into question? That's exactly what Samsung claims in a new request to dismiss the case based on Velvin Hogan's alleged misconduct.
Samsung claims that Hogan failed to disclose a 1993 bankruptcy as well as the fact that Seagate, Hogan's former employer, took him to court as part of the fallout. Samsung maintains a close working relationship with Seagate.
"Mr. Hogan’s failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore," the Korean company claimed in its filing.
For his part, Hogan tells Bloomberg that the jury selection questions asked specifically about litigation that occurred in the previous decade, while his bankruptcy and Seagate issues occurred nearly 20 years ago. Hogan claims he wasn't trying to hide information, only answering the questions truthfully as they were posed.
The jury foreman finds it hard to believe that Samsung didn't know his history, and mused aloud whether Samsung "let me in the jury just to have an excuse for a new trial if it didn’t go in their favor."
Hogan spent nearly 40 years working as an electrical engineer, with 35 of those spent at hard drive companies. Post-trial, he's been very open to discussing the case and explaining the jury's decision-making process.
The allegations are part of a larger legislative blitz Samsung recently launched against Apple. Yesterday, the company filed a motion to add the iPhone 5 to an upcoming patent trial and convinced Judge Lucy Koh to lift the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
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