Remember last year when a technology company received a $115 million judgment against Walmart Inc.?
Well, that case remains pending.
If you recall, following the finding by the jury in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, the Bentonville retailer asked for a new trial in the case against Ecoark Holdings Inc., formerly of Rogers and now of San Antonio, Texas, and its subsidiary, Zest Labs.
Zest Labs brought the suit in 2018 and alleged Walmart took its trade secrets for technologies used to manage the supply chain for fresh produce and meats. In April 2021, the jury found that Walmart’s misappropriation of Zest Labs’ trade secrets was willful and malicious and awarded $65 million in actual damages and $50 million in punitive damages.
Walmart denied the allegations.
Following the jury verdict, the attorneys for Zest Labs asked the judge to award them $46 million in attorneys’ fees and $1.3 million in costs.
Walmart objected, and those motions have been pending since last year.
But in March, U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. said in an order that for administrative purposes, Zest’s motions for attorneys’ fees and costs were terminated pending his ruling on Walmart’s motion for a new trial.
“We believe the jury’s verdict is excessive, not supported by the facts and should be set aside,” Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman, told Arkansas Business in a statement at the time of the verdict.
The plaintiffs were represented by Scott Richardson of the Little Rock firm McDaniel Wolff & Benca and the law firms Williams Simons & Landis of Austin, Texas, Carmel Milazzo & DiChiara of New York and Robins Kaplan LLP of Minneapolis.
Stay tuned.
