[Am-info] Judge orders suing states, DOJ to formally part

[Mitch Stone]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/mc/20020203/tc/judge_orders_suing_states_doj_to_formally_part_1.
html

Monday February 04 12:39 AM EST

Judge orders suing states, DOJ to formally part

By Matt Berger, IDG News Service

The Department of Justice (news - web sites) and nine states who have 
agreed to settle with Microsoft Corp. in the government's landmark 
antitrust case officially parted ways with remaining state plaintiffs who 
are continuing to sue the company in search of stricter penalties.

In a court filing Friday, District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly 
issued an order to "deconsolidate" the federal case headed up by the U.S. 
Department of Justice (news - web sites) (DOJ) and the case that includes 
plaintiffs who are not participating in the settlement. Nine states and 
the District of Columbia have rejected the proposed settlement. Judge 
Kollar-Kotelly noted that the two tracks have drifted too far apart to 
share legal proceedings.

In May 1998, District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson consolidated two 
antitrust lawsuits: one filed by the DOJ and another by 19 state attorneys 
general and the District of Columbia. The order was intended to streamline 
the two cases, which were seeking similar outcomes, by allowing court 
orders and pleadings that pertained to both cases to be entered only once.
  The judge concluded at the time that the two cases were "entirely 
parallel," and the order would avoid duplicating the legal process.

Since then, Jackson ruled that Microsoft illegally used its monopoly power 
in the market for desktop operating systems to hurt competitors in other 
industries, such as the Internet browser market. A Federal Appeals Court 
upheld the lower court ruling in June 2001 but sent the case back to a 
trial judge to come up with a new set of remedies.

Instead of pursuing a new remedy in court, New Mexico's attorney general 
agreed to cut a deal with the Redmond, Washington, software maker. The DOJ 
followed with its own settlement agreement in November, which nine state 
attorneys general have agreed to join. Kollar-Kotelly is expected to 
approve, deny or modify the Federal settlement proposal as early as Feb. 
28.

Meanwhile, nine states -- Iowa, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, West Virginia and Utah, as well as the 
District of Columbia -- are continuing to push for harsher restrictions to 
be imposed on Microsoft. Remedy hearings in that case are scheduled to 
begin on March 11.

In her order Friday Kollar-Kotelly said that the rift between the case now 
pending a settlement and the states pursuing a new remedy has widened to 
the point in which keeping them consolidated "no longer serves the 
interest of economy and convenience." The split was agreed to by all the 
parties involved.

"While certainly the Court does not mean to suggest that the two cases no 
longer involve common questions of law and fact, the divergent nature of 
the two cases" appears to prevent any "advantage arising from 
consolidation," Kollar-Kotelly wrote.