Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. Plaintiff and HyperLaw, Inc. Plaintiff Intervenor


v.


West Publishing Co.

 

HyperLaw, Inc. was a Plaintiff-Intevenor in the case, having moved to intervene shortly after the case was initiated in February, 1994, by Matthew Bender & Co.

 

The case was initially assigned to Judge Preska, and then was transferred to Judge John S. Martin Jr. after HyperLaw moved to recuse Judge Preska.

 

West sought to dismiss the case against both Matthew Bender and HyperLaw because of a lack of case or controversy. A Bench Trial on this "justiciability" issue as to HyperLaw, and HyperLaw prevailed.

 

Motions were then filed by Matthew Bender and HyperLaw for summary judgment on the citation issue, which motions were granted.

 

HyperLaw alone moved for summary judgment on the issue of West's claims to a copyright in their enhanced versions of the text of court opinions. A trial was held on the text issue, and the District Court issued a ruling in favor of HyperLaw. The two decisions were appealed to the Second Circuit, and West lost both. West brought in Professor Arthur Miller to argue the appeals.

 

Matthew Bender did not participate in the text motion, trial, appeal thereof to the Second Circuit, and petition to the US Supreme Court. Soon thereafter, Matthew Bender was acquired by Reed Elsevier, which also owns Lexis. Reed Elsevier filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit on the text issue, opposing HyperLaw. Interestingly, the United States Department of Justice filed an amicus brief supporting Matthew Bender and HyperLaw on the citation issue, but refused to submit an amicus brief on the text issue.

 

HyperLaw moved for attorneys fees and was awarded more than $800,000 in fees. West appealed (actually twice, the second time after a remand) and won, so, HyperLaw received no attorneys fees.

 

Second Circuit Text Decision: Matthew Bender v. West, 158 F. 3d 674 (2nd Cir. 1998), aff'g, No. 94 Civ. 0589, 1997 WL 266972 (S.D.N.Y. May 19, 1997), cert. denied sub. nom. West v. Hyperlaw, 526 U.S. 1154 (1999).

Second Circuit Citation Opinion: Matthew Bender v. West Publishing Co., 158 F.3d 693 (2d Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1154 (1999), The Second Circuit affirmed a summary order dated March 12, 1997 re a bench opinion granting summary judgment on citation issues to Matthew Bender and HyperLaw dated November 22, 1996.

 

There is an excellent discussion of this case at the web site of Carl Hartmann, lead attorney for HyperLaw.

Following are selected pleadings, decisions, and transcripts related to the case.

 

 

Selected Pleadings updated May 2, 2008

 

Date Filing Court Type Issue
         
Mar 9, 1994 HyperLaw Complaint With Exhibits SDNY
94-589
Complaint  
Mar 9, 1994 HyperLaw Complaint Without Exhibits SDNY
94-589
Complaint  
Feb 2, 1995 Note Re West and Matthew Bender Ending Settlement Discussions Announced at Court Hearing SDNY
94-589
   
Mar 16, 1995 Preska Memorandum and Order Recusal
1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3280
SDNY
94 Civ. 0589
Opinion Recusal

May 1, 1996

Judge Martin Opinion re Justiciability of Bender and Hyperlaw Claim

SDNY
94-589

Decision

Justiciability

May 13, 1996

West Motion to Reconsider re Justiciability

SDNY
94-589

Brief

Justiciability

May 25, 1996

Bender Opposition to West Motion for Reconsideration

SDNY
94-589

Brief

Justiciability

Aug 5, 1996

Bender Motion For Summary Judgment

SDNY
94-589

Brief

Citation

Aug 5, 1996

Judge Martin Opinion Denying Motion  to Dismiss HyperLaw

SDNY
94-589

Opinion

Justiciability

May 1, 1996 Judge Martin Opinion Re Justiciability I SDNY
94-589
Opinion Justiciability
Sep 24, 1996 Sugarman Affidavit in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment re Text SDNY
94-589
Affidavit Motion Text
Sep 24, 1996

HyperLaw's Motion for Summary Judgment re Text

SDNY
94-589
Brief Text
Nov 4, 1996 Sugarman Reply Affidavit Re Text SDNY
94-589
Affidavit Motion Text

Nov 4, 1996

HyperLaw Reply Brief In Support of Motion for SJ

SDNY
94-589

Brief

Text and Citation

Nov 22, 1996 Judge Martin Bench Opinion Denying HyperLaw Motion for SJ Because of Disputed Issues of Fact and Setting Trial SDNY
94-589
Opinion Citation and Text

Nov 22, 1996

Complete Transcript Bench Opinion Awarding Summary Judgment re Citation Issues to Matthew Bender and HyperLaw

SDNY
94-589

Transcript

Citation and Text

Nov 29, 1996

Docket 94-CV-589

SDNY
94-589

Docket

 

Jan 27-28 1997

Transcript of Trial of HyperLaw Challenge to Text - Judge Martin
pdf file

SDNY
94-589

Transcript

Text

Mar 4, 1997

HyperLaw Post Trial  Brief on Text Issues

SDNY
94-589

Brief

Text

Mar 12, 1997 Memorandum Order Granting Summary Judgment to Matthew Bender and HyperLaw on the Issue of Citations.
1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2710
SDNY
94-589
Opinion  

May 19, 1997

District Court, Martin, J. - HyperLaw Text Claims
1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6915; 42 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1930; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P27,638; 25 Media L. Rep. 1856 (S.D.N.Y. 1997).

SDNY
94-589

Opinion

Text

Sep 29, 1997

West Brief on Appeal Text

2nd Cir.
97-7910

Brief

Text Appeal

Sep 29, 1997

Reed Elsevier Amicus Brief on Appeal in support of West claims re text

2nd Cir.
97-7910.

Brief

Text Appeal

Oct 3, 1997

DOJ Amicus Brief re Citation DOJ web site
html

2nd Cir.
97-7430

Brief

Citation

Jan 30, 1998

Brief For Amicus Curiae American Association Of Legal Publishers -- Second Circuit Text Appeal - Ray Paterson

2nd Cir.
97-7910

Brief

Text Appeal

Feb.3, 1998

West Reply Brief Second Circuit

2nd Cir.
97-7910

Brief

Text

Nov 3, 1998 Second Circuit Text Opinion 158 F.3d 674 (2d Cir. 1998) 2nd Cir.
97-7910
Opinion Text
Nov 3, 1998 Second Circuit Citation Opinion 158 F.3d 693 (2d Cir. 1998) 2nd Cir.
97-7430

Opinion

Citation
Dec 16, 1999 Martin, J., Opinion Awarding Attorneys Fees to HyperLaw I SDNY
94-589
Opinion Attorneys Fees
Apr 20, 2000 District Court Docket Sheet as of April 20, 2000 SDNY
94-589
Docket  
Jan 23, 2001 Second Circuit Attorneys Fees I Opinion 2nd Cir.
00-7029
00-7070
Opinion Attorneys Fees
Jul 2, 2001 Martin, J., Opinion On Remand Awarding Attorneys Fees to HyperLaw III SDNY
94 Civ. 589
Opinion Attorneys Fees
Jul 17, 2002 Summary Order En Banc Second Circuit 2nd Cir. Opinion Attorneys Fees
Jul 29, 2002 Petition for Rehearing En Banc 2nd Cir. Brief  

 


 

Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. Plaintiff

and

HyperLaw, Inc.

Plaintiff Intervenor
v.
West Publishing Co.

 

Summary and Selected Pleadings

See Below

 

Why is there confusion as to the existence of two, not one decisions in the Matthew Bender case.

David Nimmer, a copyright law expert, who was one of the attorneys for Matthew Bender, discusses the Second Circuit cases in:

"Copyright In The Dead Sea Scrolls - Authorship and Originality, 38 Houston Law Review 1 at page 44 -49 and 97-115.

Mr. Nimmer, who was one of the counsel for Matthew Bender, conflates the two decisions and Matthew Bender's role. The discussion in the Dead Sea article is primarily about the text case.

Matthew Bender intentionally did not pursue the text claims.

In 1996, Reed Elsevier (which owned Lexis) and Matthew Bender were in acquisistion discussion The acquistion that formally took place in April 1998.

Reed Elsevier actually opposed the HyperLaw text claim and filed a amicus brief opposing HyperLaw..