All Metals adv. Brenner

October 1, 2003

Pascal Gagnon-Morris of Murchison & Cumming's Los Angeles office successfully defended All Metals Processing of Orange County, Inc. against alleged causes of action, including civil violation of Penal Code Section 502, unauthorized access to computers, computer systems and computer data.

All Metals Processing hired Plaintiffs as an independent computer consultant, responsible for maintaining the company's servers and computer systems. Plaintiffs alleged that they brought servers to All Metals' premises to create a more secure system for the company, which was kept in an office space used by plaintiffs when working on-site at All Metals.

All Metals wanted to replace Plaintiffs with someone in-house who would provide the same services at a lower cost. To make the transition easier, All Metals asked plaintiffs to assist with the training but Plaintiffs were not cooperative.

All Metals brought in another independent consultant to evaluate and map the computer system in order to have a road map for any potential replacement. All Metals asked the new consultant to identify and inspect every piece of hardware and determine the connections and purpose of each machine. In the process, the new consultant accessed one of the servers located in the office used by plaintiffs and created a new password so that All Metals' information was transferred to its main server.

Plaintiffs were upset by the new consultant and indicated that the new consultant could not access All Metals' system without their authorization. All Metals' principals stated that the system was company property and that they had authorized the new consultant to use it. Plaintiffs left All Metals taking the servers and computers located in the office used by them.

Plaintiff attempted to return to All Metals and was prevented from doing so. Plaintiff sued All Metals, alleging that defendant had accessed plaintiffs' server as well as clients' accounts that were not related to All Metals. They further claimed that Denial of Service attacks were launched by the new consultant, resulting in disturbance of their e-mail services and other consulting businesses. Plaintiffs further claimed that fees were still owed by All Metals for services that were rendered prior to leaving.

Plaintiff made a settlement demand of $85,000. An offer of $5,000 was made by All Metals. At trial, plaintiffs demanded $314,553.60 in damages. The court granted $5,990 in damages, $5,000 to one plaintiff and $990 to the other.