Cisco wins reversal of $2.75 bln damages award because judge's wife owned stock
By
The 3-0 decision by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of
Appeals was also a defeat for Centripetal Networks Inc, a
The trial judge, U.S. District Judge
Morgan later put the shares in a blind trust, and told the parties that the shares "did not and could not have influenced" his handling of the case.
But the
The court ordered the case reassigned to another judge, because letting Morgan stay on risked undermining public confidence in the judicial process.
"It is seriously inimical to the credibility of the
judiciary for a judge to preside over a case in which he has a
known financial interest in one of the parties and for courts to
allow those rulings to stand," Circuit Judge
Cisco (CSCO) and its lawyers declined to comment.
Morgan had ruled for Centripetal after a non-jury trial in
May and
Judicial independence attracted renewed attention last year after the Wall Street Journal said 131 federal judges violated federal law by hearing 685 lawsuits since 2010 involving companies where they or their families owned stock.
"The judiciary takes this matter seriously," U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice