Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Applied Computer Sciences, Inc.

741 F. Supp. 992, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8213, 1990 WL 95950
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJuly 2, 1990
DocketCiv. A. 83-1914-Y, 83-2506-Y, 84-0352-Y and 86-3591-Y
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 741 F. Supp. 992 (Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Applied Computer Sciences, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Applied Computer Sciences, Inc., 741 F. Supp. 992, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8213, 1990 WL 95950 (D. Mass. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

YOUNG, District Judge.

I. BACKGROUND

Wang Laboratories, Inc. (“Wang”), a Massachusetts corporation, here moves for summary judgment against Applied Computer Sciences, Inc. (“Applied”), a Washington corporation, to enforce what it claims — and Applied denies — is a fully effective, albeit unsigned, settlement agreement (the “April agreement”) dated April 22, 1988, the day on which it is undisputed these parties reported to the Court that these related cases were “settled.” 1

Both Wang and Applied manufacture and market data processing systems. Since 1983, the two companies have been litigating the validity of certain Wang patents which Wang alleges have been infringed by Applied. Specifically, this initial litigation concerned Wang’s U.S. Patent No. 4,145,739 (“the ’739 patent”), which relates, for present purposes, to Wang’s “WPS,” “OIS,” and “VS” data processing systems. Civil Action Nos. 83-1914-Y, 83-2506-Y, 84-0352-Y. On February 5,1986 the Court entered a Consent Judgment holding the ’739 patent valid and infringed by Applied. In connection with the judgment, Wang granted Applied three licenses (the *994 “License Agreements”) covering the manufacture, sale, and export of a specific number of printers, certain Wang trade secret information relating to the interconnection of peripheral devices — terminals and printers — to its systems, and certain copyrighted Wang software used in its “WPS,” “OIS,” and “VS” systems. In addition, the Court prohibited Applied from further infringing the Wang ’739 patent.

Later that year, Wang became concerned that Applied was violating the terms of the Consent Judgment and License Agreements by manufacturing interface boards and exporting them to an Applied affiliate in Ireland without paying license fees to Wang. Wang therefore filed another complaint for breach of contract and moved that the Court order Applied to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of the Consent Judgment. Civil Action No. 86-3591-Y.

When the Court set Monday, April 25, 1988, as the trial date for the Order to Show Cause, both sides commenced serious settlement discussions. Counsel and representatives of the two parties met for two days, Thursday, April 21, and Friday, April 22, in a final attempt to reach a settlement. In attendance were the President of Applied and co-defendant in these consolidated cases, Roger Noel, Applied’s attorneys Richard Innis, Esq. and Lawrence Witten-berg, Esq. of Hale & Dorr, Wang Chief Patent Counsel Michael Shanahan, Esq., Wang Senior Product Manager James Up-ham, and Wang attorneys Steve Jackman, Esq., Loretta Smith, Esq., and Paul Ware, Esq. of Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar. Working from a previously exchanged draft agreement marked “Master,” the negotiators discussed its provisions at length, inserting handwritten modifications as necessary. Before the close of business on Friday, April 22, 1988, Loretta Smith, in the presence of Richard Innis, telephonically reported the case settled to Katherine Duffy, Esq., Courtroom Deputy Clerk in this session.

On Monday, April 25, 1988, Wittenberg sent to Wang and Applied freshly “word processed” copies of the April agreement, i.e., the “Master” with modifications. Wang and Applied conducted “final” reviews of the document, and both objected to it. Counsel for Wang, for example, in a May 20, 1988 letter, noted that Wang had completed its “final” review and that Wang wanted to make one “substantive” change and several “semi-substantive” changes. The parties conducted further negotiations into September, 1988.

On April 26, 1988, based upon the parties’ representation of April 22, 1988 that the case had been settled, the Court dismissed the case “without prejudice to the right upon good cause shown to reopen the action by May 26, 1988 if settlement is not consummated.” The parties jointly moved to enlarge the time in which to reopen the action, first to June 27, then to August 1, and finally to September 15, 1988. In each instance, the parties reported to the Court that “[sjettlement of these cases has included the negotiation of a lengthy and detailed settlement agreement which due to conflicts in the parties’ schedules is not yet in final form and has not yet been executed.”

Although neither party filed a motion to enlarge the time for reopening the case beyond September 15, 1988, apparently neither party believed that the case had finally settled in all its details by that date. On February 8, 1989, Wang filed a Motion to Vacate Order of Dismissal, asserting that the terms of the settlement had been reduced to a written agreement and that Applied had refused to sign it. On February 21, 1989, Applied responded that the verbal agreement to settle was subject to the resolution of certain technical details and reduction of the agreement to written form acceptable to Wang and Applied, that in the exchange of drafts both Wang and Applied proposed provisions deemed unacceptable by the other, and that the parties were unable to prepare an agreement acceptable to both parties.

II. REOPENING THE CASE

This Court will not reopen this case generally in order to return to square one. Our adversary system places a high value *995 on the private resolution of disputes by responsible litigants without third party ordering. Such resolution best and most precisely protects the autonomy and self determination of individual litigants caught up in court proceedings. The efficient disposition of cases is likewise a goal which the judicial system and the public may properly demand. See Marrese v. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 470 U.S. 373, 390, 105 S.Ct. 1327, 1337, 84 L,Ed.2d 274 (1985) (Burger, C.J., concurring) (“the federal courts have direct interests in ensuring that their resources are used efficiently”). The conduct of the parties here, however, has frustrated achievement of either goal. Consequently, after first preparing the case for trial and then administratively closing it upon the reported settlement, the Court finds before it the same parties still disputing the same issues. It is time these related cases were finally resolved.

This Court holds that, by failing to move to enlarge the time for filing settlement papers beyond September 15, 1988, the parties waived the right to reopen the case granted to them in the Court’s dismissal order. Moreover, even if the parties had made a timely motion to enlarge the time, they would have been unable to show good cause to reopen the case. The Court had already granted the parties a period of approximately five months (April 26, 1988 —September 15, 1988) to iron out what should only have been minor, technical modifications to the April agreement; after all, by reporting the case as settled, the parties had led the Court to believe that there was no longer any dispute concerning the substantive terms of the settlement. This Court has already allowed the parties the freedom to settle of their own accord.

A. Jurisdiction

Indeed, there is respectable authority to the effect that this Court ought now simply wash its hands of the matter.

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741 F. Supp. 992, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8213, 1990 WL 95950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wang-laboratories-inc-v-applied-computer-sciences-inc-mad-1990.