Good Enough for Real Docs

Hooked Media Grp. v. Apple Inc., No. H044395 (D6 Sept. 30, 2020) 

The Court of Appeal here affirms a trial court’s summary judgment in a case alleging that a certain computer company poached some engineers from a company it had previously considered acquiring. For anyone who practices in this space, it’s a useful opinion delimiting the typical causes of action. (There’s also a weird concurrence that, so far as I can tell, basically agrees with the Court’s opinion in every essential respect.)

A few things of procedural note, however. First, the Court makes a point on authentication that, in the early days of this blog, I once complained was unaddressed in a published case. (Although I later discussed a case that resolved the issue.) Namely that an attorney declaration attesting that documents were received from the opposing party in discovery is adequate to authenticate those documents when they bear facial indica that they actually came from the producing party. 

Second, the Court affirms the trial court’s refusal to tax almost $100k in e-discovery costs. Although the appellant raised some cogent points as to why the costs were unnecessary, they weren’t enough to overcome the deference given to the trial court on cost issues.

Affirmed.