We are all familiar with the concept of dancing on someone’s grave, and we are all equally familiar with the saying that the “law is an ass” or at least it can be. This has combined itself with the latest ruling regarding the estate of Mike Lynch and a High Court judge ordering the late tech tycoon’s estate to compensate Hewlett Packard over the sale of Autonomy, his software company, 14 years ago. HP complained that it was misled regarding the purchase of the UK company, even though one presumes that copious amounts of cash were spent on due diligence. One would also assume that if the investment had doubled and tripled it remained schtum. One would also imagine that a company with the magnitude and funding of HP would assume that it would normally win any case it was plaintiff in, whether or not it was in the right. However, HP has cried foul for the past decade and more, taking it out on Mike Lynch in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic.
One might of thought that even on a human basis that following the death of Mike Lynch last summer, along with his daughter and just before his business partner Stephen Chamberlain was run over and killed, that HP along with the legal system might have let sleeping/dead dogs lie.
However, it would appear that without Mike Lynch being alive to defend himself the legal process has continued and ruled against him. This was after he managed to achieve a near impossible win in the US courts. Yes, you might’ve thought that someone, somewhere in terms of the legal or corporate teams involved might’ve thought that the events of last summer were tragic enough to allow the late tycoon to rest in peace. However, this was and is clearly not the case and an opportunity to stick the knife in again has been successful, pending any appeal.
If nothing else one wonders how the latest twist in the HP/Autonomy tale would’ve gone if both Lynch and Steven Chamberlain had not died last August. This is over and above how strange the timing and the manner of both deaths were. If this is what legal process does in the wake of such tragedies, it may be worth considering whether legal process needs to be changed. This is even though one presumes there is plenty of money in a case for lawyers even when the defendents are no longer alive.
