Week of September 24, 2007

"In 1992 or 1993, to assist in prosecuting its lawsuit, SSI hired an investigator to surreptitiously obtain Disney documents. Other than a purported admonition to obey the law, SSI provided no direction or supervision for the investigator’s activities. Working at least until 1995, the investigator took thousands of pages belonging to Disney, including documents marked privileged and confidential. He obtained the documents by breaking into an uncertain number of Disney office buildings and secure trash receptacles, and by trespassing onto the secure facility of the company with which Disney had contracted to destroy its confidential documents."

Acting Presiding Justice Thomas L. Willhite, Jr.
Stephen Slesinger, Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company (Sept. 25, 2007, B178340)
p. 2

Read my discussion of this case on the California Civil Litigation Blawg.