Google Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc.
Filing
243
Attachment 18
Declaration of Ajay S. Krishnan in Support of
238 MOTION for Sanctions
Notice of Motion and Motion for Terminating, Evidentiary, and Monetary Sanctions Against ABWF for Spoliation of Evidence filed byGoogle Inc., Google Inc.. (Attachments: #
1 Exhibit A#
2 Exhibit B#
3 Exhibit C#
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19 Exhibit S (part 1)#
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24 Exhibit W#
25 Exhibit X)(Related document(s)
238) (Krishnan, Ajay) (Filed on 12/26/2006)
Google Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc.
Doc. 243 Att. 18
Case 5:03-cv-05340-JF
Document 243-19
Filed 12/26/2006
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EXHIBIT R .
Dockets.Justia.com
Case 5:03-cv-05340-JF
Document 243-19
Filed 12/26/2006
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Case 2:06-cv-13576-AC-SDP Document 6 Filed 08/10/2006 Page 1 of 4
UNTIED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION
AMERICAN BLINDS AND WALLPAPER FACTORY, INC.,
Plaintiff,
Case No: 06-cv-13576
v.
Hon. Avern Cohn
STEVE KATZMAN,
Defendant.
/
SCOTT A. MACGRIFF (P55864) DICKINSON WRIGHT PLLC Attorneys for Plaintiff 500 Woodward Avenue, Suite 4000
THOMAS G. KIENBAUM (P15945)
ROBERT BRUCE BROWN (P51378)
KIENBAUM OPPERWALL HARDY & PELTON, PLC 280 North Old Woodward Avenue, Suite
Detroit, Ml 48226 (313) 223-3477
400
Birmingham, Michigan 48009
(248) 645-0000
I
DECLARATION OF STEVEN B. KATZMAN
State of Michigan )
County of Oakland)
In accordance with 28 U.S.C. §1746, Steven B. Katzman declares the following:
1. I am over the age of eighteen years and make this Declaration based
upon personal knowledge of the facts stated herein. This declaration is made on behalf
of myself, and addresses certain of the allegations made in the Complaint and the
Affidavit of Joel Levine filed in this matter.
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2. From approximately 1993 until May 18, 2006 I was employed as President
and Chief Executive Officer of American Blinds and Wallpaper Factory, Inc. ("American
Blinds"). Prior to becoming President and CEO of American Blinds, I assisted in the
creation of that business by working with my father, Paul Katzman, who founded the
Company. I resigned my employment and position with American Blinds on May 18,
2006 because the Company had been sold.
3. Upon my resignation, the many hard copy files that had been maintained
in the executive suite (outside of my office) remained there. The only Company
information that I continued to have access to was stored on a personal portable hard
drive, a home desktop computer, and a laptop computer, all
of which I used for both
personal and Company business and which remained in my possession.
4. The day following my resignation, I received correspondence from Susan
Greenspon of the Kelley Drye law firm, counsel to American Blinds. She demanded on
behalf of the Corporation that I return unspecified non-personal information or property
belonging to American Blinds that was allegedly missing from my office. I responded to
Ms. Greenspon informing her that during my employment with American Blinds it had
been my practice to archive corporate records on my home computer for security
reasons, and that I would download all such information in my possession onto compact
disks that I would forward to her before deleting the information from my personal hard
drives. I further advised her, however, that this would take some time as it would
require me to sift through thousands of emails and other computer files to separate the
Company information from my personal information and property, but that, in the
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Case 2:06-cv-13576-AC-SDP Document 6 Filed 08/10/2006 Page 3 of 4
meantime, if there was any particular information that she could specify, I would deliver
it immediately - she identified no such information.
5. After sending over 40,000 corporate emails and documents to Ms.
Greenspon in two installments, on June 5 and June 14, 2006, Ms. Greenspon
requested on June 21, 2006 that the laptop be returned as it was owned by American
Blinds. I asked if I could purchase the laptop, was told I could not, and then returned it.
6. After the transmittal of the corporate information by agreement to Ms.
Greenspon, I retained no information that could even conceiyably be considered
proprietary or confidentiaL. I did have a copy of an Employee Handbook, which I knew
to be widely disseminated, that contained no "secret" information, and which was not
treated as confidentiaL. This was not considered proprietary or confidential by American
Blinds, and during my tenure, it was never designated as such, nor was any care taken
to protect it from third parties.
7. In early July of this year, my father, Paul Katzman, advised that Irma Kline
had spoken to him, and that he had employed her. Sometime thereafter I asked Ms.
Kline to visit competitors' websites and put together information, such as competitors'
hours of operation, their return and cancellation policies. I have reviewed Mr. Levine's
affidavit in which he claims that the "competitive matrix" he attaches to his affdavit is
American Blinds' property which it had owned and protected for some time. This is
absolutely false. The matrix he attaches involves information which Ms. Kline obtained,
as she informed me, by accessing public websites and calling competitors after
becoming an employee at PS Ventures, LLC. This information is obviously readily
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obtainable to anyone but, to my knowledge, had not been previously collected in this
format by American Blinds.
8. On July 25, 2006, I gave a deposition on behalf of American Blinds in a
lawsuit between American Blinds and Google, which 1 understand to be a very important
piece of litigation betwean those
two companies. It is my understanding that my
testimony was important to American Blinds, and American Blinds retained counsel on
my behalf to prepare me for and represent me at the deposition, Thomas G. Kieribaum.
9. In connection with that deposition I was shown, and testified about
numerous documents involving American Blinds' business. These became deposition
exhibits which were provided to my attorney, Mr. Kienbaum. No concern was ever
expressed by anyone about my access to, and review of this information which was
being provided by the attorneys representing the two companies in the litigation. This
information, which now remains in the possession of Mr. Kienbaum, has not been the
subject of any apparent concern, and is the only confidential information involving
American Blinds to which I had access after my resignation.
10. I recall trying to access American Blinds' VPN on a few occasions
because I believed I had left some pictures on the Company computer network (these
were photos of my then fiancé whom
I had introduced to my fellow employees at the
COlTpany's annual holiday party). However, I was not able to access American Blinds'
network.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
~ ß._ IG
Steven B. Katzman
97629.doc
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