The Daily Journal reported on Larson LLP’s successful appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of Enterprise Services LLC (Enterprise) in KST Data Inc. v. DXC Technology Co. et al., also covered by Law360.
The $5.4 million commercial contract dispute arising from Enterprise’s alleged refusal to complete payments went to the appellate court when U.S. District Judge S. James Otero granted KST Data Inc.’s (“KST”) summary judgment sua sponte (“without prompting”) and said Enterprise waived its affirmative defenses by not filing an answer to the plaintiffs’ amended pleadings.
The article stated that the panel of Ninth Circuit judges said in an opinion published on Nov. 17 that, “Enterprise wasn’t required to respond and reassert its affirmative defenses to KST’s second amended complaint alleging a breach of contract, since there has been no material change in the new pleading. Thus, no affirmative defenses have to be re-alleged by Enterprise . . . [and Judge Otero] erred when he did not give ES a chance to assert its affirmative defenses.”
Partner Stephen G. Larson told the Daily Journal that the firm and Enterprise are “very pleased with the Ninth Circuit’s ruling,” and that “when KST accused Enterprise of breaching the contract by not paying them, . . . [our] clients did not pay up because KST committed fraud when creating the contract.”
The Larson LLP team representing Enterprise Services along with Stephen includes partners Hilary Potashner and Paul A. Rigali and associates Chaitra G. Betageri and Emilie J. Zuccolotto.
Read the full article by Gina Kim of the Daily Journal covering the ruling here.
