United States Fourth Circuit

In its pretrial order applying the doctrine of "offensive collateral estoppel" to preclude Microsoft from relitigating factual findings, the district court should only have given preclusive effect to factual findings that were "critical and necessary" to the judgment affirmed by the DC circuit, not to factual findings that merely supported the judgment. Reversed and remanded.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/15/2004
• Published 01/15/2004

Judges

• Before WIDENER, NIEMEYER, and GREGORY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:David Bruce Tulchin, Sullivan & Cromwell, L.L.P., New York, New York, for Appellant.  John Bucher Isbister, Tydings & Rosenberg, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellees. ON BRIEF:  Richard C. Pepperman, II, Marc De Leeuw, Sullivan & Cromwell, L.L.P., New York, New York;  Robert A. Rosenfeld, Matthew L. Larrabee, Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, L.L.P., San Francisco, California;  Michael F. Brockmeyer, Jeffrey D. Herschman, Piper Rudnick, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland;  Charles W. Douglas, Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, Chicago, Illinois;  Thomas W. Burt, Richard L. Wallis, Linda K. Norman, Steven J. Aeschbacher, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, for Appellant.  Thomas M. Wilson, III, Tydings & Rosenberg, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland;  Lloyd R. Day, Jr., James R. Batchelder, Robert M. Galvin, Day, Casebeer, Madrid & Batchelder, L.L.P., Cupertino, California;  Michael A. Schlanger, Kirk R. Ruthenberg, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, Washington, D.C.;  Spencer Hosie, Bruce J. Wecker, Hosie, Frost, Large & McArthur, San Francisco, California;  Parker C. Folse, III, Ian B. Crosby, Edgar G. Sargent, Susman Godfrey, L.L.P., Seattle, Washington;  Stephen D. Susman, James T. Southwick, Susman Godfrey, L.L.P., Houston, Texas;  Christopher Lovell, Victor E. Stewart, Jody Krisiloff, Peggy Wedgworth, Lovell, Stewart & Halebian, L.L.P., New York, New York;  Stanley M. Chesley, Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley, Cincinnati, Ohio;  Robert Yorio, Carr & Ferrell, L.L.P., Palo Alto, California;  Michael D. Hausfeld, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellees.